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.

[shanewalker]

Because we're for downloading HD content...

And were never really serious about supporting either HD-on-disc <br />distribution format.<br /><br />So there ;).

[Penguinisto]

What you mean "we"?

I'd rather have the discs. They don't come with the ungodly DRM (and expiration dates) that WMP-centric downloads have, and I don't have to waste HDD space or bandwidth to use them.<br /><br />/P

[System48w]

Read what he said!

He said "integrate", he means an integrated drive, which won't happen. An add-on drive would not be integrated into the xbox experience it would be an add-on.

[nmcphers]

You read what he said

"integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience"<br /><br />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.

[shanewalker]

I have the add-on, I understand the 'add-on'...

and by NOT building it in--Its a subtle way of inferring..."we got <br />you covered w/ Live Marketplace for HD, but if you want, here's <br />an option for you 'extreme HD disc-loving people'." Integrated <br />means, this is the foundation technology for HD deliverable, <br />add-on means, it's ancillary.<br /><br />And yes, I understand the 'cost issues'...which were the same <br />arguments used when it was HD-DVD and there was a format <br />war going on. Now that that's settled and the drive costs are <br />way down, those arguments don't hold as much water.

[biffhenerson]

What he didnt say.

He did say "..not in talks with Sony.." He didnt say that they were not in talks with Toshiba. Toshiba can also provide the drives.

[sting7k]

Do they really need blu-ray?

I wasn't so excited about it at first but the movie service on xbox <br />live is really pretty good. Many of the top titles are also avalible in <br />HD formats (720p) and look really good. I have recently been <br />watching more and for the couple bucks it costs it seems like a <br />better deal than some other services. I might not need an HD drive <br />if they contiune with this. So far all the movies I have wanted to <br />see but not pay for in theatres have been released on xbox live and <br />HD so they are already way a head of sony in that field.

[Renegade Knight]

Yes They Need Blue Ray

Gaming Consoles are also media centers that play DVD's, download movies and the like. They are one stop shopping for people who want to Keep it simple. <br /><br />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.

[samkass]

Probably.

The online services, as adequate as they are, are about 5x worse quality than Blu-Ray, especially in action and complicated scenes. You just can't compress a 30-40GB movie down to 4-5GB without losing something.<br /><br />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.

[vrette]

XBox needs Blu-Ray

I'm know I'm in the minority because I bought my XBox first as an extender/media center player, and second (and it is a far second) for gaming. I use it exclusively for DVD playback with my HT. Now that the HD format war is over, I eventually want to purchase a Blu-Ray player (waiting for 2.0). My current choice is to add another box, or sell my XBox and buy a PS3. Unless Microsoft comes out with an add-on Blu-Ray player for the XBox, I am leaning heavily toward ditching it for a PS3. So yes, if Microsoft wants to keep customer's like me, they need to add a Blu-Ray player.

[will2348]

Not True!!!

I have a PS3 and from Sony you can download the lastest titles at a reasonably cheap price and most of them in 1080p + PS3 has the built in blu-ray player which is one of the only upgradable ones to blu-ray 2.0 and almost all titles on blu-ray are 1080p so i feel that Sony are miles ahead of Microsoft and if Microsoft don't do something soon the Xbox won't be around for much longer as PS3 sales have almost trippled and leading by a massive gap as PS3 sales are now beating the Xbox and are expected to for the next 9 months (at least). + Sony PS3 has built in graphic card 1080p capable, blu-ray drive, motion sensor controller - however i will admit that the Xbox 360 controllers are probably more comfy however this problem has been fixed in the PS4 which is coming out at some point in 2014. PS3 has USB 3.0 slots and memory card slots and the list goes on. So i think Microsoft are going to have to do something as sales are going down and more and more people are turning to Nintendo Wii and PS3. ***Also you say you can download HD movies from Xbox Live i have broadband and a high speed internet connection but still HD movie downloads do take a good 10-20 minutes and you must take into account most of the world still have reasonably slow internet access excluding Japan. For example USA has over 20 million internet customers still on dial-up access or very slow broadband. So for most people HD movie downloads are a big no no and still along way down the line.***

[Penguinisto]

The xbox is going down.

I can say that now... because as the Wii and PS3 continue to out-pace xbox (PS3 recently broke away and is out-selling the xbox by some rather respectable margins now*).<br /><br />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...)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />/P<br /><br /><br />* see past two weeks of figures here: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons%5B%5D=Wii&#38;cons%5B%5D=PS3&#38;cons%5B%5D=X360&#38;reg%5B%5D=Total&#38;start=39509&#38;end=39516" target="_newWindow">http://vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons%5B%5D=Wii&#38;cons%5B%5D=PS3&#38;cons%5B%5D=X360&#38;reg%5B%5D=Total&#38;start=39509&#38;end=39516</a>

[nmatera1]

Ur wrong

I am amazed by your ignorance. Ps3 is worldwide way behind both wii and xbox its a little under 7 million units behind xbox and about 12 million units behind the wii. No way Ps3 going to catch up in 2 or 3 years thats a lot of ground to make up. So your respectable margins are totally wrong. Dont feel to bad though. Ps3 is a great unit i have one but just for the blueray player not for games. Get ur facts straight next time ur try to speak out. <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.vgchartz.com/" target="_newWindow">http://www.vgchartz.com/</a> look at the website and you will see im not liein big guy.

[Stoutimous]

Thanks

for the info Sony fanboy. lol If I was you I would leave the predicting alone. Have fun with your PS3. I know I am, but mostly 360 over PS3 and Wii.

[samkass]

XBox and momentum

The XBox 360 has definitely lost its momentum this year, and this announcement isn't going to help. The PS3 got a huge shot in the arm when Blu-Ray won and people realized it's the best (and most future-proof) Blu-Ray player out there. It'll probably outsell the XBox 360 for the rest of the current generation console war. That's not to say Microsoft lost-- they got a huge sell-through in the first year and got their games division up to virtually break-even (so they don't keep having to leverage their Windows and Office monopolies to "compete").<br /><br />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.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Along with Linux, according to Penguinisto's logic

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVyPFIJPx8NKAzElk21Isx-zQxvgD8VAQTSG0" target="_newWindow">http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVyPFIJPx8NKAzElk21Isx-zQxvgD8VAQTSG0</a><br /><br />Walmart has tried twice now to sell systems with Linux on them. Both times the public simply didn't want it.<br /><br />It's hard to sell something the public doesn't want. There is this thing called supply and demand that is in effect here.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Then there's reality. <br /><br />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.

[bubblebathgirl]

You're right

But it's really no surprise. M$ has a horrible track record with it's products. From the original XBOX, to the 360 with it's RROD (33% failure rate), to it's wanna be IPOD (Zune), and of course Vista .. which has been a complete disaster.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />That's why Apple is rising in popularity, while M$ is falling.

[leosfrank82]

wtf

I dont understand your real reasoning, you point out the "Best" <br />features the ps3 has and to a certain extent you have a point. As <br />for exclusive games, MGS 4 is the only real good exclusive <br />coming out this year. Most people who wanted the "next gen" <br />gaming system bought a 360 when it was released 1 year before <br />ps3. With its mediocre build and lackluster components it has <br />done pretty well. I dont get how on one side of the fence you've <br />got a blu ray player with 50 gigs per disc, yet games on both <br />systems look the same. Sales of the xbox are coming down you <br />say... but games on both systems really show where people are <br />playing. Not too long ago Cod4 mentioned something like 1.5 <br />million on 360 and 0.5 million (500,000) on ps3. Isnt GTA4 <br />expected to sell 9 million with an estimated 6 million due to 360. <br />The ps3 might be selling more systems (cuz everyone already <br />has a 360) but game sales make the systems...

[Vegaman_Dan]

Classic example of trolling.

This is an excellent job of spreading misinformation with the intent to deceive people into believing falsehoods.<br /><br />Unfortunately it's an old argument and one that has been busted many, many times in the past and present. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />Wake up.

[silent.griffin]

You wish.

&lt;nt&gt;

[XboxBoi]

Xbox

Ps3...i cant say its as good as a xbox..360 preferably. would not buy a ps3

[EmbSysPro]

What no Blu-ray?

Doesn't Blu-ray technology involve using Java for UI processing? Also, I believe that HD-DVD used a Microsoft based technology for a similar function. Is it my guess that Microsoft executives are trying to come up with a way to suppliant the JVM with CLR.

[plbyrd]

Techie answers are good

Yes, the real reason is that not only would MS have to get licenses for the Blue-Ray itself, but also for the JVM. Right now MS is not allowed to license and distribute/sell a JVM, which sure puts a damper on a BR for X360 option. <br /><br />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.

[gluchow75]

Why do people think downloading is the new way?

Are people under the impression that our cable system in North America can handle gigabytes of HD information consistantly? How long would it take to download a movie to watch? How many, both young and old will know how to do so?<br />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.

[amigabill]

say NO to download-only HD

My dad lives out in the sticks. Broadband is not even an option there. There's no way in heck I'm going to download HD movies over his dialup. No F-ing way. Plenty of people live in the sticks, but maybe MS doesn't give a rat's behind about us rednecks. Now that one of the disk formats has won, Bluray is the only logical choice for a large number of people that simply cannot get broadband.

[brandonh33]

Exactly

We dont have enough bandwidth and will not for years. It doesnt help that the faster(not fast enough) internet companies like comcast are limiting your downloads. 1-2 movies blu-ray quality over the internet and you are done for the month as far as downloading goes.

[Drezen]

Ways and means

I'm of the opinion that even with HD-DVD out of the way, BluRay is destined to fail in the long-term. Direct download offers all the quality of BluRay with more convenience and less cost. Yes, broadband infrastructure isn't what it could be right now but it's only going to get better and most of the problems with bandwidth at peak times can be solved with software that can download your video when you're at work or asleep.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />Expect to see Toshiba (amongst others) pushing their upscaling DVD players by Q4 2008.

[bubblebathgirl]

Typical M$

First mistake M$ made was backing HD DVD. And if they were going to back it they should have included it in their 360 device, replacing the DVD player. M$ failed with all things HD DVD related.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[plbyrd]

Learn about the products before you bash

I can pretty much guarantee you that you can thank the US Justice Department for MS not supporting Blue-Ray. Simply put, they are not allowed to because of Blue-Ray's dependence on Java, which MS is not allowed to distribute as part of the Anti-Trust remedies. Sony obviously picked Java for its scripting engine for this exact purpose.

[r13k1]

bubblebathgirl

Is that cuz ya fart in the tub???? You are right though about the ps3 being the best Bluray player, cuz it sucks for playing games on, all 20 they offer!

[brandonh33]

Not much reason for it on 360

If Microsoft does get blu-ray, built in or an add on, it WILL NOT play video games.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.)<br /><br />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.

[Vegaman_Dan]

More than hardware issues

I had thought it would be a simple thing to release a Blu-Ray version by just swapping out the physical drive, but there's a lot of software aspects as well that have to be addressed for DRM and access control that is being forced out on the Blu-Ray format. <br /><br />It may be simply too much of a bother for a format that people may or may not want. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />I think that is a pretty good reason right there alone.

[aerosky1229]

Memory is not really that important...

I am not an owner of any new generation console system out there in the market right now, but the type of memory storage device is not the main factor for the game developers. You argue that the larger scale game like Metal Gear Solid requires a significant amount of memory to be stored within the portable storage device, but a majority of developers can make just as decent game with using only about less than 50% of what the Blueray offers. Of course, as the graphic industry figures out a way to pump out the improved graphic engine demanding faster process speed and higher resolution for the game or the movie, best games with considerably high ended graphic quality probably need a significant amount of memory spaces. But the main difficulty for the game developers whenever they need to make a game is the game system itself, not the memory. In fact, the programming for the Sony's Playstation 3 is supposed to be tougher than the programming for the XBox 360 due to the PS3's unique cell processor architecture and the system configuration. I understand your argument that some game developers ship out their games on the multiple disks, but I do not think neither game developer nor gamer has a big problem that way. As I mentioned, comprising for the memory is not the main challenge right now -- programming for a console is.

[awk91]

If not Blu-ray give me a 200GB hard drive

Of course Microsoft dosent need Blu-ray, they've got online video downloading for that. I heard that MS is working with Netflixs and their onlive movie rentals to incorperate into the zune and xbox 360. If this does happen people will need a much larger hard drive like a 200 or 250GB, for all the HD content and regular DVDs that we still buy.

[brandonh33]

ps3

I have a 300GB hdd in my ps3... just sayin. And the downloads for the 360 lose a lot of quality, I mean its only 5 GBs per movie, that should tell you something.

[t8]

If I was to buy a console

it would be a PS3.<br /><br />That way I get a High Definition DVD player too. Xbox doesn't give you that, so it is less competitive.

[anton.vanwamelen]

dum dum dum

by standing still (no hardware change) the XBOX is doomed to be thrown in the basement, where all the old stuff is put in boxes with 'out of date' on it..

[Drezen]

You don't know what you're talking about

Penguinisto appears to have only a very limited understanding of this market, relying purely on numbers.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[brandonh33]

You dont know what you are talking about

Pengunisto seems to have more understanding of the market then you. The gap between ps3 and 360 sales is only getting larger every week. Also the whole thing about the 360 not being able to keep in stock has not seemed to affect sales at all considering that you can get whatever console you want any time you want and sales have not increased the slightest bit for the 360. Sorry for the crude comment I am about to state, but you must just be stupid to think that the ps3 is going to just stay at an oversell rate of 15%, because if you look at the last few weeks it is well above that. Go check it out at vgchartz.com

[basraw]

downloaded HD != HD DVD or BLURAY quality

isn't it drastically lesser quality?<br /><br />i read this some where online

[make_or_break]

So when's the XBOX 720 coming out???

Just sayin'...<br /><br />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.<br /><br />It's one of the scenarios other analysts have already painted...the NEXT next-gen console from Redmond.

[brandonh33]

well duh

Nobody is questioning that, a high capacity format is NEEDED for the 720. Well its needed for the 360 but thats not going to work out.

[will2348]

R.I.P Xbox 360 Will Be Discontinued Before 2009. Unless...

Well unless Microsoft do something - Der!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Right here are the facts:<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Other facts:<br /><br />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.

[sting7k]

Software leader will not fade away.

If anyone would check into some things they would find that microsoft has had supply problems since January. Many stores do not have any to sell, I know my local best buy had zero for almost 2 full weeks, and people did ask for them. <br /><br />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<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/859/859518p1.html" target="_newWindow">http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/859/859518p1.html</a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Interesting points

I don't agree with the points you've made, but I can see where you are coming from. They have merit and are worth thinking about.

[nickj1088]

dude...

fanboy fanboy fanboy fanboy.<br />its a shame you spent so much time writing nonsense. get your facts right.

[outpostprime]

Don't need to run more fiber

There are trillions of fiber lines that aren't being used. This is how Verizon replaced their entire network from copper to fiber without seeing trucks running lines all over the place. All they did was light up the nodes and connect the lines to their new switch boxes. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.

[jmhal]

I agree, mostly

If microsoft just ignores blu-ray then they are going to run into some trouble, PS3 sales are picking up and leaving the 360 in the dust. And for a 360 owner like myself than isn't good. I definitely believe that if the xbox 360 doesn't get an internal blu-ray drive it will lose to the ps3 hands down.<br /><br />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.

[Drezen]

Massive overstatement

The PS3 sold 300,000 units more than the 360's 800,000 units last month. That's a good haul for Sony no doubt and it shows that the PS3 is finding its feet (no doubt bouyed by BluRay's 'victory'). However, you have to factor in the Xbox's 7,000,000 unit install base advantage. The PS3 is going to be eating into that a little more with each passing month, but the 360 is going to remain viable for some time to come.<br /><br />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.

[WJeansonne]

NetFlix is the next HD Player for XBOX

Get over it folks. Blu-ray and HD-DVD both lost the war by fighting over it too long. Downloads or on Demand is the wave of the future. MS, XBOX and NetFlix will see to that! Can't wait!!

[brandonh33]

pay attention

Read the other posts before you comment... even if there are over a hundred of them. Things things that are holding downloading hd back for many years. Hours of downloading time and can you say... Huge loss of quality?

[The_Decider]

Your beloved corporations

are the reason that in the US, HD VOD over the internet is at least a decade away and likely 50 years from mass availability. MS will be nothing in 2050. <br /><br />These greedy companies have knocked us down around #20 in the world in regards to broadband and it isn't improving.<br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br />LOL MS shills would be funny if they weren't so scary retarded.<br /><br />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.

[JadedGamer]

Oh you will wait...

... for a couple of hours at least to download the content. <br /><br />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).<br /><br />Oh, and then you want to take it with you when you go on a vacation... too bad.

[plbyrd]

Know your facts

JScript was renamed ECMA Script when MS submitted it to ECMA for standardization. Microsoft now has the same amount of control over JScript as we do.

[Fil0403]

Many people don't

I'm sure that leaves a considerable amount of (biased) people unhappy and frustrated, LOL.

[JamiLeeD]

Keeping in mind

No Blu-Ray for the Xbox 360? Hmmm... just like they said the 360 wouldn't need or have HDMI. And they eventually put that in the system.

[Fil0403]

Keeping in mind...

...that Cnet likes to take sudden ignorant biased conclusions from politically correct statements, like giving the idea the the Xbox 360 won't ever have Blu-ray just because a Microsoft employee stated they were not in talk with Sony or the Blu-ray association.

[Fil0403]

Report: Downloadable content is the future

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. <br />Want it or not, downloadable content is the future and only Xbox 360 trully offers it.