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[Xbox-Scene]

Ballmer: 'We'll support Blu-ray' Posted by XanTium | March 7 23:23 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Yesterday we got Sony saying they were talking with Microsoft to bring Blu-ray to the Xbox360 followed Microsoft's quickly denying there are plans to introduce a Blu-ray player for the 360. Today Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer admitted that the company is working on ways to support Blu-ray, altho he didn't specify the 360 just yet: "We've already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on," said Ballmer at the Mix08 conference. "Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense," he said. Full Story: gamesindustry.biz

[Tiuk]

Anyone else hearing a resounding "no shit"? Obviously Windows is going to have to have Blu-ray drivers (I have no idea, but I assumed it already did), not having them would be suicide for MS.

[mole1012000]

Suicides abit far. They could not support blu-ray and still make tonnes of cash. Why? Because there biggest markets are not entertainment or personal. Its the corporate sectors. IE business in general. They wont care for blu-ray or most entertainment technologys in general.

Sure maybe at somepoint it will become like the CD or DVD where data transportation is also a massive part but for now it wouldn`t make a massive dent.

[sirsmacketh]

as far as i know, the blu ray drive does read DVDs as well... as far as data dvd's... I'm not sure. I would imagine it would be easier for MS to throw a bluray player into an enclosure like the HDDVD addon.

It does make business sense... although the whole format war still stings.

[Replex]

Microsoft isn't dumb, they don't dominate certain markets by sitting around. If you didn't think for one second, that when Toshiba discontinued HD-DVD that they were considering it, you are dead wrong. I can bet you that they (the people at MS who decide) had a meeting within hours of when they were told on how to approach Blu Ray.

A Blu-Ray addon will come to Xbox 360 this year I am betting, yes, they will have to pay some royalties to Sony for it, but either way, it will be all profit from there on out.

This post has been edited by Replex: Mar 8 2008, 05:14 PM

[echto]

Interesting... windows drivers.  I wonder if that could suggest an external USB Blu-ray device thats capable of being interchangeable between a 360 and a windoz box?  I never messed around with the external HDDVD drive.  Was that device interchangeable?

[chrislynch]

QUOTE(echto @ Mar 8 2008, 08:48 AM)

Interesting... windows drivers.  I wonder if that could suggest an external USB Blu-ray device thats capable of being interchangeable between a 360 and a windoz box?  I never messed around with the external HDDVD drive.  Was that device interchangeable?

If you are running Windows Vista, yes you could connect the external Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive to your PC.

[metalcoat]

A simple Google search will reveal that it also works in XP. [Google.com]

[ProAm500]

QUOTE(Tiuk @ Mar 8 2008, 06:37 AM)

Anyone else hearing a resounding "no shit"? Obviously Windows is going to have to have Blu-ray drivers (I have no idea, but I assumed it already did), not having them would be suicide for MS.

I think he met native support for Blu-Ray in Windows, like in VMC for example...

[fhsasbvp]

Here is to hoping for a built in blu ray 360 (plus one of my add-ons) for a dual format/gaming experience controlled by one harmony remote (damn the ps3 for not having built in infared)

[spamenigma]

All this pissing around is getting boring... ms considering blu-ray...MS say no they arent...MS in talks with Sony...bloke from MS says no they arent..Sony say they are...MS say they are...

aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

whats more annoying is MS used to promote the xbox360 as an entertainment system...no just about games... movies music etc... now its not apparently, its a games machine.

Two faced lying wankers!! is all I can say...

[NoFace]

I keep seeing this as MS constantly getting caught with their pants down. They deny things until it is almost certain that they are lying.

[Mr Invader]

Rumors have popped up that the Blu-ray drive will be internal. I hope that's not true; even an included external drive in the SKU would be better than that.

Even though an interal one would encourage sales alot more....

[88 Ecko Unltd 88]

NO duhh thats y microsoft had it as an external player in the first place.. no need for them denying it

[steveju]

If the drive would be internal, the price of the 360 would go up. I see no point in making a new SKU either, unless there is a huge demand for it. Most people would rather buy an external Blu-Ray drive that would work on both, Xbox 360 and their PC rather than having the drive built-in a Xbox 360. Part of the rumor was started by Sony saying that they hope that Xbox 360 would have Blu-Ray built-in and part, because some features that are mandatory for Blu-Ray players aren't available on the current Xbox 360 systems (linear PCM for example), though I'm sure they can work around that.

QUOTE(NoFace @ Mar 9 2008, 05:58 AM)

I keep seeing this as MS constantly getting caught with their pants down. They deny things until it is almost certain that they are lying.

If you follow the news every three to six months and read maybe two or three news articles, then sure