Xbox 360 HD-DVD to remain as add-on, Sony triumphs with PS3s Blu-Ray
Rumors were floating around for several weeks before CES that Microsoft would introduce a Xbox 360 with an integrated HD-DVD drive. This is not going to be the case and the company says there are no plans to include the drive in the future.
Corporate vice president of global marketing for interactive entertainment at Microsoft, Jeff Bell, was asked if an integrated HD-DVD drive was in the works for the Xbox 360, his response to PCWorld was, “absolutely not.”
Microsoft is one of the largest supporters of HD-DVD and has been pushing that format over Blu-Ray but as the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray wars come to a close, it’s almost assured at this point that Blu-Ray is going to win. With 70% of the market and Paramount deciding whether or not use its “escape clause” to go exclusive to Blu-Ray, I can already hear the nails in HD-DVDs coffin being hammered.
Bell continued by saying it’s up to the market, not vendors as to which technology will prevail.
Even so, the Xbox 360 generated $3.5 billion at retail which is $1 billion more than the Wii and $2 billion more than the PS3 but that can probably be attributed to Microsoft’s Xbox Live service.
It’s not clear how Microsoft will handle things when HD-DVD is determined the loser of the format wars, it may not have a choice but to launch a Blu-Ray add-on for the Xbox 360 or even integrate the drive into the units.
It looks like that Sony knew what it was doing by including Blu-Ray on its PS3, sure, it may have been expensive, some may still say it is expensive but over the long haul it appears as though Sony is going to win its Blu-Ray war and in that respect, the PS3 will also win being one of the cheapest Blu-Ray players that also happens to be a gaming console.
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14 Responses to “Xbox 360 HD-DVD to remain as add-on, Sony triumphs with PS3s Blu-Ray”
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January 8th, 2008
Why would Microsoft have to include a Blu-Ray drive in the Xbox 360? That makes no sense. The Xbox 360 has a DVD drive built into it, which for the vast majority of people is the only disk format they’re concerned about.
Sony may have made the right decision for its Blu-Ray interest by integrating it into the console, but it hasn’t help them sell PS3s. The high manufacturing costs has hurt them, and despite all their talk most multi-platform games look better on the 360.
January 8th, 2008
More likely Microsoft will be looking to bypass the format wars altogether and push HD movies directly to the xbox. Downloadable content will be the true winner of the format wars in the long run.
January 8th, 2008
zeph your right in one part but your saying as if its a bad decision. Blu- ray was and is the best format. PS3 also plays DVD’s and even upscals it. but I think xbox can do it too. Blu- ray is winning because of it space and flexibility. If xbox goes blu- ray it has fail and the console will be a complete copy of other consoles combine in one and they didnt even do a good job at it. The xbox is now no where close to the PS3 at being the multimedia player. PS3 will also win the console war because its the cheapest blu- ray player and it also happends to be a gaming console. thnx to the blu- ray disc sony used for it games, it will allow develop games that are huge and have great grapics, framerate , bigger games and bigger levels worlds and even more game modes. It will make PS3 have the best games and PS3 will start to sell very fast thnx to games that cant even be attempted on the other console. And sony exclusive mean sony exclusive with means you wont fined it on the PC unlike xbox 360. EX Halo 1,2,3 even downloadable, bioshock, gears of war, fable and possibly fable 2 and other games also. PS3 can even run PC based sofeware and u can play halo 3 and gears of war on PS3. PS3 will dominate and blu- ray will take over DVD once HD tv Become very common and even be standard.
January 8th, 2008
o ya, downloadable content will not be put in affect has a major thing untill they can make at least 10 Tyrabite hardrives. Movies can mabey take a maxium 50gb and that may happen in the future when movies are that detaialed and fill with content and videos will be like a maxium of 200g in the future, I mean in the future when the can make movies and games long and good looking and perfect.
January 8th, 2008
“It will make PS3 have the best games and PS3 will start to sell very fast thnx to games that cant even be attempted on the other console. And sony exclusive mean sony exclusive with means you wont fined it on the PC unlike xbox 360. EX Halo 1,2,3 even downloadable, bioshock, gears of war, fable and possibly fable 2 and other games also. PS3 can even run PC based sofeware and u can play halo 3 and gears of war on PS3.”
What the hell are you on about? Most of the PS3 games barely fill half-of the disc, and size doesn’t necessarily mean better games. The Wii has been outselling them both, and it still uses the standard DVD.
January 8th, 2008
Sorry, but Blu-ray has regional restrictions, unlike the HD-DVD. It is also harder and more expensive to manufacture, and lacks the HDi content system found on HD-DVDs, responsible for the lack of interactive features.
January 9th, 2008
@Davidx: so you are saying the Wii’s games are better than the PS3s then? roflmao
@Richardx: obviously very few people give a flying fuck about HDDVD’s interactive crap, they want the best quality video (and sound, sorry HDDVD) and the greatest potential for the future, i.e capacity.
January 9th, 2008
What I don’t quite understand is why Microsoft doesn’t realize the market potential for the Xbox as a HD-DVD player. The PS3’s ability to play Blu-Ray cinema for as much or less than a standard set-top Blu-Ray player is a HUGE selling point. I see the cost of a set-top Blu-Ray player, and the price of a PS3 and think, “why would I want to settle for a mere player when I can get a whole gaming platform for nearly the same price?” If the Xbox had only integrated HD-DVD, even at a reasonable price difference from set-top players, they would not only have that advantage, but also lend support to the format that consumers would ultimately benefit the most from. They’d sell like crazy.
January 9th, 2008
With Blu-Ray, it’s the consumer who will loose the very most. There just aren’t any significant advantages over HD-DVD and way too many disadvantages, and no to mention we’re all going to pay for the overpriced production costs vs HD-DVD Don’t expect to be able to back up your over-priced movies either, or find affordabld writable blu-ray technology for storage media anytime soon. But I’m sure that’s exactly what the industry wants.
As far as sound and video quality, they use the same technology, and the capacity difference vs quality and cost is wholly insignificant.
January 10th, 2008
Blue Ray is better. Larger capacity. Now that movie production studios have to make a choice I’m sure by 2009 HD DVD will be eating Blue ray dust. You guys and your blabing about gaming. It’s not that big of an impact on the video industry. I’ve got X-Box 360 and this weekend, I am buying a Blue Ray player. Then by 2010 we all look like idiots because their will be a new format, and were back here leaving comments and getting upset with each other like the jerks we all are. Peace
January 12th, 2008
Well, no format (blu-ray or HD-DVD) will last forever. I mean, look at VHS. The only place I see VHS cassettes are together with dust in a dark and lonely place. HD-DVD or blu-ray, entertainment is entertainment. Still, it will be pretty cool to have Transformers on blu-ray. God, it looks and sounds great upscaled on my PS3, it would even look and sound even better on blu-ray. Dang! Paramount, bust-a-move to blu-ray, man. Anyways, 360 is a great console, the Wii, somehow, is great too (or even better). The PS3 is awesome. I mean, Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted(one AND TWO coming soon…I hope), Resistance(one and TWO coming soon), Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII, Heavenly Sword (short but sweet), Warhawk (crazy), Unreal Tournament 3, Haze(it looks good), Lost Planet (with some more stuff, nice), Divx, wmv format (great for downloads), PC-PS3 connectivity, PS3-PSP connectivity, web browser, music, videos, pics, chat (the voice changer is awesome), friend list, PS EYE (Eye of Judgement is awesome and Eye create is fun), Folding at Home (well, great cooperation), PSN(games for the PS3 AND PSP,dang), BLU-RAY (Pirates of the Caribbean 1,2,3, 300, and Die Hard collection….priceless), ability to put a bigger hard disc(I think playstation.blog gave some hints of how to do it. Nice, though), AAAND, the best part, FREE ONLINE PLAY. I just wanted wanted to say that for 400 or 500 dollars is not that bad to have all that. Sorry, ADD…BIG time. Blu-ray is a awesome format. I hope it keeps dominating for a lots of years…..60. Gottat love it, gotta go blu. PEACE!!!!
January 12th, 2008
Oh, by the way, you can download videos from other sites on the PS3 like in gametrailers.com. Also, aaaaallllll I wrote before,….I did it on my PS3. Nice, huh? Sorry, again, gotta go play beyond. PEACE….again!!!!!!
April 28th, 2008
http://themirmont.com/showthread.php?t=7410
June 18th, 2008
http://online.lasc.edu/user/view.php?id=4325&course=1