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[GeToChKn]

I agree with the above post, I think if MS had forced the HD on ppl like Sony did, they would have had a bigger install base and would have had a way bigger fight on their hands.  More studio's would have adopted dual disc's or released on both formats.  Everyone can bitch about how much the PS3 was at first but they still sold, there are almost 10million PS3's sold and 17million 360's, so the added cost of the blu-ray player didn't hurt sony too much and they are a year late behind MS.  That would have given a huge HD base and made the studio's consider a lot more about dropping HD when there are that many out there.  Thats how Sony wooed all the studio's.  They said, look there are 10million Blu-ray players out there, just sitting there waiting for your movies.

[Seina]

They wouldn't have to have "talks" with Sony. If Microsoft wants Blu-Ray all they have to do is buy a license from Blu-Ray. ft.com and Chris Nuttall, obvious troll is obvious.

[xlx Methos xlx]

I have a suspission that the reason the 360 has such a shortage in the rescent months was the possibility for a 360 with an HD-DVD drive internal.  It lines up great with CES, as the Microsoft key note was quite lacking.  I think that MS was going to announce a 360 with HD-DVD, was dwindling the stock in the stores for the 360 that didn't have hd-dvd, then when everything went to crap at CES, Microsoft had to drop the idea.  But that's just my idea.

Yes putting the HD-dvd player in the 360 would have giving that a boost, but if it would have been included would xbox sold 17mil?  probably not, it would have been another 6 months to a year before the 360 would have hit the market, then there wouldn't be as much of a lead.

I am concerned about the whole "we are focused on games" bit that Microsoft has said, it makes me feel that we will never see a blu-ray drive with the 360.  I would happily buy a blu-ray add-on if it's released, and probably fairly quickly after they were released since blu-ray is now the winner, but if they don't release it then I will have to add yet another thing to my entertainment system, and i actually like having only 1 item hooked up to my tv to do everything.

here is one idea of why blu-ray might not hit 360, but i could be mistaken.  i know that hd-dvd didn't require hdmi to play, i wonder if blu-ray does require hdmi?  if that's the case then it's possible that microsoft would think that it wouldn't be fair that 5-8 million consoles wouldn't be able to use the add-on.

[DAvidl919]

I hate these he said, she said games, first news is released that Ms Is in talks With Sony For blu-ray support and it comes from a reliable source Ft.com with a name linked to the story Sony Us president Stan Glasgow. Then you have Next gen Rebutal that a Ms Rep said that it is not true... Who is the rep for all we know the.... The loyalty followed for Ms is incredible.... Let's not forget how they denied an HDMI port and then they denied 65 nm was coming at first....Message to Next Gen tell that Ms rep That there was an accident on the third floor bathroom and his assitance will be needed. Thank You

[controller-guy]

this would be dumb on MS's part to feed thier own compatition.

they should have made thir own media and done it on launch like ps3 did.

toshiba=HD dvd
sony=blue-ray
microsoft=huh?

they never got in the race so why bother now let alone partner with their enemy lol if that is the case their getting desperate now  

and I totally agree with other above get off the hd blue ray things it is not why they were bought in the first place.

instead:

make XBL better
fix different problems with XBL
make more games
make more game previews
do more giveaway's

do anything but get off this new media crap and wasting time and money for whatever media when it should be going to the players that buy and play the games.
  that it was meant for in the first place for somebody that has a player in their living room or on their pc could care less what xbox is doing with this media stuff its not why they bought the console there intrested in the gaming they bought the console for not watching a damn movie on whatever format.



has anyone bought a new xbox 360 and hd player just so you could watch movies but you never had any intension of playing a game for it?

common now.

[kilroy2]

MS should build in a BD player to a new 360 model (call it the 365 or the ultimate - that doesn't matter). Charge more money - people would be willing to pay it.

If MS does not release an internal BD player for the 360, then what do you think consumers that want a game console and a hi-def movie box will buy? Consumers that have the money to spend on game consoles are the same consumers that want hi-def players.

Do you think they will buy a 360 ($350) AND a stand-alone BD player ($400)? Forget about the fact that the two separate components would cost more than a single PS3.... who wants extra equipment in their already overcrowded equipment shelves?

I own three 360's in my home, and I would like to purchase a BD player. I have been holding off waiting for the prices to come down on the movie titles.

Now when title prices get reasonable and the selection of titles is adequate, I will start to replace the 800+ standard-def titles in my collection with BD.

So I am committed to purchase multiple BD players in the future....

Now which BD player will I buy?

From what I read, all the stand-alone players are currently not software upgradable, which means there will always be limitations to future "profiles," but I've heard the PS3 can handle future profile definitions.

From a standpoint of which BD player would I purchase... purely because of upgradability -- it's a PS3.

If others do what I do, that will mean more PS3 sales and that will put Sony's console numbers way up. Hey Microsoft - you should be expecting this. If you're not, get your collective heads out of the sand.

On the other hand, if MS were to release an Xbox 365 with internal BD player (and larger hard drive), I'd buy three of them and gift my older Xbox 360s to my nephews.

To clarify, MS should release an add-on external BD player for everyone that wants BD and already has a 360, AND they should release a new console version with BD built-in.

Lastly, here's my last reality-check: MS says it was format neutral, and instead said that the future they wanted was in download-able content. But wait a second -- the 360 only has a 20Gb hard drive in it. If my math is correct, that means I'd only be able to download and watch a single hi-def movie at any given time. Not interested! I'd rather have the movie on a disc that I can let friends and co-workers borrow when I am done with it.

-Kilroy

PS. How could HD-DVD have have crushed BD? Hind sight is 20/20, but here's the recipe I told everyone from the beginning:

a) require all movie titles to be dual-format (HD & SD) discs, allowing people that didn't yet have a HD player to purchase movies today and still guarantee compatibility tomorrow.

B) sell the dual-format titles for within $5 of the SD-only titles.

c) inexpensive stand-alone players from the beginning.

d) 360's should have had HD-DVD players internal from the beginning.

[Zod5000]

QUOTE(prplehz @ Mar 6 2008, 11:42 PM)

If Ms had just put the damn hddvd drive in the 360 in the first place.  The user hddvd base would have been much larger and there would have been more hddvd disks sold I think.  Then they wouldn't be in the situation they are now.  They shot themselves in the foot and are now going to have to pay Sony to use bluray, ha ha ha...  Sucks for us though. How about a dual format drive, even though hddvd is dead atleast we could still use our hddvd disks.

HD DVd players weren't really out yet when the 360 came out.  So if they had opted to put one in the original 360, its release would more then likely of been delayed, and the cost would been higher.  And those were its two most competitive points against the ps3 release.

I think for console sales, it really gave them a leg up not trying to get it in there.

[dokworm]

I have had a couple of 360s now, but if MS doesn't bring out a bluray model or an external bluray drive I will be buying a PS3.

I am sick of the ton of components in my rack.

What I really want is a game console with a Bluray drive and an integrated HD tuner and Tivo functionality.

*that* I would pay big bucks for and throw out all my other stuff.

but seriously, the people who are looking at buying a standalone bluray player are similar to the market that MS says they want to go after next. the slightly more casual gamer.

What would they buy? the PS3 is looking so much better to that market now. sure the hardcore gamer would still look at the 360, but the *much larger* market for the less hardcore gamer (but not say the super casual gamers that the wii has targetted) will be owned by the PS3 unless MS does something to make the thing quieter and be able to play Bluray discs.


Oh yeah, and I want to be able to put my own frickin' hard drive in it and not be limited to 120GB that costs as much as a 500GB drive.

[SynPanda]

Uh oh!!!
As PRO360 as I am, if thats true then it could mean the beginning to the end.
For those too young to recall, the DEATH of the most AWESOME Dreamcast, was due to movies...
I loved that system, still have it, but it died VERY quickly and while there was speculation of why, it was in fact due to the PS2 that came out having DVD capabilities.... Sega didnt and was QUICKLY aged out, the PS2 drowned the Dreamcast...
If MS doesn't open its doors to the new format, then we could have history repeat itself.
Another casuality fold under due to the SONY giant (which I hate)...

[AdamWest]

An internal blu ray would be a bad idea replacement parts would be a nightmare.

A PS3 replacement laser costs around 50 bucks where the current 360 laser is from 5 to 15 bucks.

An external blu ray would be a better idea so that you can play games on the internal DVD drive and play your movies on the external blu ray drive.

Poor Dreamcast I remember them. I think Sega should have quit when the Saturn and Sega CD went under personally. They always were 2 steps behind on the technology.

[jdsony]

Without Peter Moore information out of Microsoft seems to be coming from everywhere. On top of that didn't Microsoft say they made the drive external so they wouldn't be stuck with one format??? Stop saying "NO NOT GONNA HAPPEN" and then have everything completely change a couple months down the road. Either don't comment or leave it open. I think they are just trying to protect themselves so no one holds off buying their stuff.

[MaulerX]

Did anyone else see the sensationalist headline Game-Pro gave this news?

They wrote: "Microsoft begging Sony for Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive"

Those guys just make me vomit.

[Nexjin]

i seriously doubt this would happend. if so then MS and Sony would have to be merged  because thats a sony product/format. but if it did happend it would sure be a shocker !! the smart thing for MS to do right now is to have the HD content on live to be at least upgradeable to like 1080p and for the acutual movies with an option to purchase. One day rental expires are kinda just unrealistic. MS needs those options and not blu ray. does anyone agree with me ? im a MS fanboy so i would rather see MS pull this off alone. IPTV does sound great as well.

[TVDave]

Was considering whether to buy another Xbox 360 with HDMI to hook up to my new TV.  My old Xbox 360 doesn't have HDMI.  I could use the old one with my projector and setup LAN games when friends come over.

Now that Blu-Ray has won, I picked up the last 40GB PS3 Spiderman Bundle that my Best Buy had.  I don't intend to by PS3 games, but I'm sure down the line they will steal more than just a few sales from my X360.

If MS put HD-DVD in the Xbox 360, yes they could have won both the HD format war and console war.  Their arrogance is costing them, and now, if they don't want to lose the console war too, they need to put Blu-Ray into the Xbox 360, even if is only for movies.

Too bad they they're following standard policy and issuing denials.  If instead they were to say, "Xbox 360 with Blu-Ray integrated next month!" I wouldn't have bought the PS3 and would have waited for that Xbox 360 to keep playing all my games with a controller at actually provides rumble feedback.  (yes, I know PS3 will have rumble, but not in the US for a few more months)  Their denail (if true or not) is not protecting existing product.  It's hurting existing and all future product by making people jump on the PS3 bandwagon NOW!

[chronno]

Let's look at this hypothetically.  Microsoft was prepared to release the Xbox360 with an HD-DVD drive for $400-$500 when it was in first development.  Sony was prepared to release the PS3 with a BluRay drive for $500-$600.  According to expert estimations Microsoft would lose $100-$200 per console sold and Sony was set to lose $300-$400 per.  Microsoft already had the release games when it actually did come out so even if they would have delayed the release they would have even more release titles.  As stated before, How many people got the 360+HD-DVD addon just for the movies?  Many, many people got the PS3 because it was the cheapest BluRay player.  The Xbox is upgradeable, the PS3 is not.  Xbox has gamer points and the PS3 douse not.

I submit that with all this information, not only would Microsoft be in a better position now if it had released the Xbox360 with the HD-DVD like they originally planed, but HD-DVD would have won out over BluRay long ago.  More people would have purchased the Xbox360 to get a cheap HD player putting the HD-DVD in a better position.  The same number of people would have purchased the Xbox360 that did for the games.

Of course this is all hypothetical and actually don't mean anything since that isn't the way it went.

Microsoft would be making a similar mistake if the don't release a BluRay player for the Xbox.