Next-gen Xbox 360 may get Blu-Ray drive and start price war with PS3
By Jonathan Schlaffer
The rumors regarding Blu-Ray drives for the Xbox 360 will never end; even if Microsoft continues to deny such plans. April’s Fools day gives many sites reason to post "fake" stories and this could well fall in that category, I won’t say it does and I won’t say it doesn’t; decide for yourself.
If you are to believe DigiTimes, Lite-ON is developing Blu-Ray (BD-ROM) drives for the Xbox 360. The BD-ROM drive would replace the existing DVD-ROM in the next iteration of the Xbox 360. Lite-ON currently supplies some of the DVD-ROM drives for the Xbox 360.
Additional information points to a more efficient 170-watt power supply to replace the existing 210-watt unit which would reduce the size and production cost of the Xbox 360.
Then there is some concern over the price. OEM prices for the BD-ROM drive are $95 to $100 whereas the price for the DVD-ROM is around $20.
Some think that Microsoft would have to sell the Blu-Ray Xbox 360 at a loss to start with to compete with the PS3. Those losses would be made up with Xbox Live subscriptions and game sales. Sony may decide to start a war of its own by either reducing the price of the PS3 or simply shortening the supply of crucial Blu-Ray drive components.
Neither company was willing to "comment on market rumors." Rumor or April’s fools joke; until the Blu-Ray Xbox 360 actually hits production status then it really doesn’t matter. One of the problems pointed out time and again is that the Xbox 360 Blu-Ray drive would be for movies only, not games because they would not play on DVD-only Xbox 360s.
I suppose the games could be clearly labeled, "Attention: Blu-Ray drive required to play this game;" the same game would need 10 to 15 DVDs, no thanks. If it happens, just suck it up and buy the Xbox 360 with a Blu-Ray drive, like any decent person who calls themselves a "gamer" would do.
Whatever form the next Xbox 360 takes, even if it doesn’t have Blu-Ray, it had better have integrated WiFi; that’s all I have to say about that.
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Tips N4G
April 2nd, 2008
Rumor or not, its only a matter of time before XBox decides to put a BD-ROM external drive on the market. They said it themselves back in the HD Wars that if blu-ray won that they wouldn’t have a problem putting a player out there for the XBox 360.
Integrated WiFi would be nice
Hope it doesn’t jack up the price too much though. Those little adapters are $100 each, according to XBox.com.
April 2nd, 2008
anything MS does at this point is a loss for them.
either the price of the new rumored sku with integrated BD-ROM will be uncompetetive when compared to the PS3 and no one will buy it (if its just an addon then they are only targeting existing customers and not new ones); or
they will need to sell them at a loss at a lower competitive price point - back in the red they go and shareholders will most certainly be fed up with that.
either way, MS made their bed and now they have to lie in it.
April 2nd, 2008
This would be great…seriously. If Sony took the licensing money that they’d get from MS in this deal, and then applied that money to their losses in the PS3 division, they could drop the price on the PS3, however much they’re paid per unit by MS. Thus bringing the PS3 into almost direct pricing competition w/ the Wii.
Morne
April 2nd, 2008
You guys are forgetting that Bluray Drives read DVD’s too. If the Bluray was implemented it would be for movies only and the games would still be produced on DVD. I think it will be both a add on Bluray player and an intergrated bluray player. That only makes sense as 18 Million people would need the add on because I don’t see them replacing their consol to get one intergrated unless your that serious about it.
April 2nd, 2008
it’s false…MS has already debunked it
just another april fool’s stunt
April 3rd, 2008
I still don’t think storage capacity is even remotely a consideration yet. Unless you are using lame rendered cut scenes, there is just no need for 50GB of storage.
Just doing a quick google search:
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 = 5.46 GB
Bioshock = 6.1 GB
GTA San Sandreas = 3.96 GB
Gears of War = 7.35 GB
As far as THIS generation goes, it’s completely unnecessary. Certainly in the next generation they’ll crack 9GB for a game but it just isn’t a factor right now.
I fail to see why I would spend an extra $200 for a drive that I don’t need and won’t use. All of my HD movies stream from my media server just fine thank you. I don’t need a bunch of disks sitting around my living room to clutter things up.
April 7th, 2008
Morn - in a perfect world sony would do that, but the reality is AAAAALLLLL of those companies that sony liked to tout as being “behind bluray/in the bluray camp” all have their hands in the jar. not much money to go around, certainly not as much as dvd w/o the competition from online retailers at launch. If you truly think sony is generous enough to drop the ps3 price before they HAVE to, you need to check to see what they did to bluray player prices right after HD DVD bowed out. Sony actually RAISED the prices… nice way to say thanks to the consumers. sony needs ms to move to bluray more than ms needs to bluray. could they move that way? anything’s possible, but i wouldn’t look for it this gen.
June 18th, 2008
[...]so if I bought an old PS3 80gig will it still play the 2.0 blu ray? will it accept the firmware upgrade even if it is discontinued?[...]