Report: Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360
Microsoft has denied that it plans to integrate Blu-ray high-definition DVD drives into its Xbox 360 game console.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
Rumors have circulated recently that Microsoft was considering a Blu-ray replacement for the Xbox's now-discontinued external HD DVD drive.
Last week, the Financial Times, citing an unnamed senior executive, reported that Sony and Microsoft were in talks to integrate Blu-ray into the game system.
Not so, says a Microsoft executive. "Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, reports indicate that Toshiba will likely take a nearly $1 billion loss this year, stemming from its decision to abandon the HD DVD format.
Mike Ricciuti joined CNET in 1996. He is now CNET News' Boston-based executive editor and east coast bureau chief, serving as department editor for business technology and software covered by CNET News, Reviews, and Download.com. E-mail Mike. 
distribution format.
So there ;).
/P
He said experience. Not device. Having an external drive is an integration into the experience. No one ever expected them to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox device itself.
you covered w/ Live Marketplace for HD, but if you want, here's
an option for you 'extreme HD disc-loving people'." Integrated
means, this is the foundation technology for HD deliverable,
add-on means, it's ancillary.
And yes, I understand the 'cost issues'...which were the same
arguments used when it was HD-DVD and there was a format
war going on. Now that that's settled and the drive costs are
way down, those arguments don't hold as much water.
live is really pretty good. Many of the top titles are also avalible in
HD formats (720p) and look really good. I have recently been
watching more and for the couple bucks it costs it seems like a
better deal than some other services. I might not need an HD drive
if they contiune with this. So far all the movies I have wanted to
see but not pay for in theatres have been released on xbox live and
HD so they are already way a head of sony in that field.
Xbox needs blue ray to do that unless they are making a bet that movie downloads will make Blue Ray obsolete before it gets going.
And there are already games that require more than one DVD. That will only get worse over the next couple of years. Microsoft made a strategic decision to get in early without hi-def, and it meant a lot of upfront sales that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten. But it's definitely going to hurt their momentum over the next two years.
The xbox is the only one of the Big Three that is stagnant, while the others are gorwing by huge margins (little wonder MSFT slashed prices on them, which seems to have little effect on the pounding that it's taking when compared to the other two...)
The PS3 has the higest price, but it also has HD and Blu-Ray, as well as solid graphics gear. The Wii gets its mojo from a low price, a unique controller, and an all-around fun stable of games. The xbox has... well... there's Halo 3 I guess.
w/o HD playback, and w/o the lowest price, and w/o any real differentiation in exclusive games outside of Halo-warmed-over, xbox is losing, and the sales are beginning to show it.
/P
* see past two weeks of figures here: http://vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons%5B%5D=Wii&cons%5B%5D=PS3&cons%5B%5D=X360®%5B%5D=Total&start=39509&end=39516
The best thing Microsoft could do to undermine the PS3 right now is fund someone to come out with a $150 Blu-ray player and remove folks incentive to buy a PS3 to watch movies on.
Walmart has tried twice now to sell systems with Linux on them. Both times the public simply didn't want it.
It's hard to sell something the public doesn't want. There is this thing called supply and demand that is in effect here.
Now by Penguinisto's logic as presented here, that means Linux is a complete and utter failure. I don't happen to believe that, but when you make such claims as he has... well, you can spin the truth any which way you want.
Then there's reality.
Somehow I don't see Xbox units in any danger of going away soon- not when they are constantly selling out with a demand from the consumer market for more. That says a lot more about the reality of the situation than blog postings.
Pretty much whatever you can imagine makes sense for a company to do, Microsoft does the opposite ... and they just throw money at the problem to try and fix it.
That's why Apple is rising in popularity, while M$ is falling.
features the ps3 has and to a certain extent you have a point. As
for exclusive games, MGS 4 is the only real good exclusive
coming out this year. Most people who wanted the "next gen"
gaming system bought a 360 when it was released 1 year before
ps3. With its mediocre build and lackluster components it has
done pretty well. I dont get how on one side of the fence you've
got a blu ray player with 50 gigs per disc, yet games on both
systems look the same. Sales of the xbox are coming down you
say... but games on both systems really show where people are
playing. Not too long ago Cod4 mentioned something like 1.5
million on 360 and 0.5 million (500,000) on ps3. Isnt GTA4
expected to sell 9 million with an estimated 6 million due to 360.
The ps3 might be selling more systems (cuz everyone already
has a 360) but game sales make the systems...
Unfortunately it's an old argument and one that has been busted many, many times in the past and present.
It doesn't matter how many times you stick your fingers in your ears and shout 'Lalalalalalala', your unsubstantiated dreams of Microsoft going out of business and the Xbox going down simply doesn't match with reality.
Wake up.
As for MS tech in HD-DVD, it was codecs (WM9), that was MS's contribution. The scripting was done with ECMA Script which is a far more open standard than Java.
Many like to own hardcopies of their favorite movies and not worry if their hard drive crashes. Companies like Disney make massive profits from selling their movies to buyers in the DVD world today. I can't see that stopping anytime soon and would not suprise me that Xbox jumps at the blu-ray somehow soon.
We are some way, probably a couple of years, from the time when direct download will replace physical media. In the meantime, BluRay faces a big obstacle in the shape of upscaling DVD players. Somebody used the example of their dad who lives out in the sticks. Do you think he's more likely to go out and drop a chunk of cash on a BluRay player and start rebuilding his library? Or is he more likely to buy a cheaper player that will take all the DVDs he already has and make them look better on his HDTV?
Expect to see Toshiba (amongst others) pushing their upscaling DVD players by Q4 2008.
Second mistake M$ made is not embracing Blu-ray. The PS3 will continue to outsell the 360 this year, due not only to it's superior hardware specs and games, but because it is the best Blu-ray player available.
If M$ wanted to wise up they'd embrace the format that the consumers have already chosen, and M$ would stop being so stubborn about trying to make downloadable movies happen before the bandwidth exists to do so.
There are so many various reasons why they wont and I will only give a few for you. First, you cant just force 17 million people to buy an addon to play some new games because people arnt going to fall for that kind of **** honestly, and neither will gaming developers. Nobody is going to make a game for blu-ray on xbox 360 for 900 thousand people without HUGE payoffs by Microsoft. Another reason is if you really want to get gaming capability for the drive, the price is going to skyrocket because of the connectivity needed. Loading times would be horrible on external also, just like the hd-dvd add on took forever.
I can see why Microsoft would want a blu-ray drive for games. Memory is the main thing holding the 360 back from being truely next gen. Why was the halo 3 gameplay so short, and the graphics just ok? memory. Why are games starting to ship with multiple disks? memory. Games like Metal Gear Solid 4 have already taken up all the space of the 50gb disk for ps3. Now the online multi-player will have to be on a different disk for that game. This problem shouldnt exist in a year considering blu-ray is expandable to 200gb(firmware update required). This is just an example of how far ahead the gaming industry is over the 360. Some people dont mind switching disks but the majority of people hate it and most programming companies will refuse to for many reasons. (people hate it, extra costs, harder to program, requires more space for files that usually just share between parts of the game ect.)
So my solution? Wait for the xbox 720 or whatever you want to call it. It really isnt that far ahead and is sure to have blu-ray.
It may be simply too much of a bother for a format that people may or may not want.
Do you watch DVD's now on your game box or use a real DVD player? I have both a 360 and a normal DVD player. Guess which one I use.
I think that is a pretty good reason right there alone.
That way I get a High Definition DVD player too. Xbox doesn't give you that, so it is less competitive.
It's interesting that he's so quick to point out that Microsoft have been channel stuffing, but less keen to highlight that the allegation he's referring to stems from only one blog post by an out of work analyst who was in all likelihood trying to raise his profile and find himself a new job.
Since December the PS3 has been outselling the 360 by around 15% each month and that's taking into account the 360's supply problems in January and the surge following BluRay's 'victory'. Averaged out over a full year, that equates to an extra 1.4 million PS3s sold than Xbox 360s. The 360 currently has a 6.7 million console lead over the PS3, so at that rate the PS3 will overtake the 360 some time in 2012.
Penguinisto, if you're going to start throwing numbers around then you should probably look at the market at the whole. Monthly console sales themselves only mean so much, the install base is more important. This is especially true of games consoles, where units are either sold at a marginal profit or even as a loss leader. Games sales are where the money is made and with a 6.7 million and a stronger game catalogue, the 360 is still a major player and will be for some time to come.
You may have come here to try and wind up the MS fanboys, but you're just proving to everyone that you don't know what you're talking about.
i read this some where online
MSFT says no Blu-ray for the 360...they DIDN'T say anything about the NEXT-generation replacement for the 360 not having Blu-ray.
It's one of the scenarios other analysts have already painted...the NEXT next-gen console from Redmond.
The PS3 sales are absolutely smashing Xbox 360 sales and are expected to continue for the next 9 months. Nintendo Wii sales are slowly going down as more and more people are getting slightly bored of it.
Right here are the facts:
Microsoft don't want blu-ray as they feel that downloading movies is the way forward that would probably be correct however most people's internet speeds just ain't ready for HD Movie downloads and would you like to know your movie is on a hard drive that could corrupt or crash at any moment. Unless you live in Japan USA and UK internet speeds just ain't fast enough for example USA has around 20 million internet customers on dial-up or slow broadband it would take ages to download HD movies. If Microsoft really wanted to push movie downloads they need to help Cisco out laying down new fibre cables so that we can have internet connection speeds of 100mbps just like the whole of japan if this was true for the UK and USA i wouldn't be saying this.
Other facts:
PS3 has 60GB of hard drive space not great but you can always buy a bigger one and plug it in. Cell processor, USB ports, upgradable blu-ray, upto 1080p HD. Wireless motion sensor controllers not the most comfy controllers but this is a problem Sony are working on and have a better design coming soon which will also be included in the PS4 in 2014. 256mb of RAM for graphics and another 256mb of RAM for the machine. Memory stick drives and loads more stuff. I will admit that Xbox does have some of this but i feel that they are miles behind and Microsoft need to do something about this. I feel the only thing keeping Xbox going is the price. Which isn't going to keep it going for ever especially as more and more people are beginning to see that the PS3 is actually better. So before buying a console or replying or emailing me saying the Xbox is better read through all the features that the PS3 has and then tell me that - remember you can play online and download HD 1080p movie content from the internet on the PS3. Just if your interested 2180p Sony LCD TV coming out in a couple of years. Blimey technology is moving fast.
Couple that with the death of HD DVD and the fact that the ps3 is the only recommend blu-ray player. Just because people are buying ps3's to watch movies isn't really good for sony. When you see data like this
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/859/859518p1.html
In which only 2 ps3 makes the top 10 for Feb. 2008 sales, both titles were also on 360 and were ranked 1 and 3. You see that the xbox is not in trouble and makes up 45% of the third party market in software sales.
Consoles don't make anyone money. The software and accessories do. As MS has noted numerous times the xbox also has some of the highest accessory purchase rates of any console, ever. And its software sales lead consistently. Its clear when games that were once ps3 exclusive are now being released at the same time as ps3 versions, GTA:4 coming later. Developers aren't just going to abandon the xbox when it makes them money and now most people aren't playing games on their ps3's so it doesn't help them.
its a shame you spent so much time writing nonsense. get your facts right.
Plus I'm pretty sure there isn't 20 million using dial up anymore. Given that 768down/256up is like $9.99 in the northeast. Netzero stopped offering their dial up services and only advertises their DSL service. They actually leased those old lines from verizon that aren't used anymore by them. Time Warner removed AOL from their name because AOL is now losing money and has less then 2mil subscribers.
In General Dial up is dead and is no longer viable. Unless, you live in an area which doesn?t offer cable service or telephone service.
But your facts are woefully incomplete. Your post is a little misleading by making it sound like the 360's hardware is underpowered when in fact it is at the same level as the PS3. the cell processor, though powerful, doesn't completely beat the 360's processor. it has a slight edge in raw horsepower (which is good for things like physics) but the 360's processor has the edge in things like AI because it can perform more operations per clock cycle (can handle more threads per core). There are more differences than this but the cell processor is much more complicated and requires an entire page of explaination itself. I would also like to point out that the graphics cards are comparable (the xbox's having a custom made GPU and the PS3's being a modded geforce 7950). And the RAM is virtually the same The 360 just has one shared pool of 512 MB instead of 2 separate pools of 256 (this again is due to architectural differences in the CPU and GPU and how they interact). And the current iteration of the 360 is also capable of 1080p.
PS3 sales will have to soar for it to overtake the 360 in units sold before 2010, and I'll be expecting MS to be making their next move in 2011. Also don't forget the actual money in the console 'war' is made on the software sales and 360 owners are spending much more on software than both PS3 and Wii owners.
These greedy companies have knocked us down around #20 in the world in regards to broadband and it isn't improving.
Sure private networks like Cable will be able to provide it easier and faster. But connect to some random server on the internet and be able to watch a HD movie? Not in 3-5 years, or even 10.
LOL MS shills would be funny if they weren't so scary retarded.
Blu-Ray might not even catch on. It is not like hi-def is the most common household television yet. By the time that happens, perhaps a better storage solution will emerge, or two or three Blu-Ray versions will lock it up. Who knows, but only an idiot thinks that downloading hi-def is in the near future.
Unless everyone everywhere suddenly gained access to 100 Mbit fibre broadband (which in effect lets you download 10 megabyte/sec. so that a 25 GB Blu-ray worth of content will take "only" 43 minutes).
Oh, and then you want to take it with you when you go on a vacation... too bad.
- Report: Downloadable content is the future
- by Fil0403 March 25, 2008 12:24 PM PDT
- Who needs HD-DVD or Blu-ray when you can download anything you want HD in the comfort of your home with all the known advantages it has over physical media (like compatibility)? No one, I say.
- Reply to this comment
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(128 Comments)Want it or not, downloadable content is the future and only Xbox 360 trully offers it.