Comments on: Does the Xbox 720 need Blu-ray to succeed?

If the Xbox 720 comes out in the next few years, it'll be interesting to see what's packed into it. One prediction: no Blu-ray.

[Azzuro10]

I tell you what Microsoft SHOULD do....either exit the gaming industry or join forces with Sony. Game machines is a TERRIBLE business. The only player that does well is Nintendo (even before the Wii) because they refuse to lose money on the hardware. The reality is these days, if you want to compete at the "hard-core" end of the spectrum, you need to invest a LOT of money on R&D, lose money on the hardware, and it would take several years before you start making money. However, the interesting thing is that Sony bit the bullit with Blu Ray and lost heaps of money. Xbox, could easily incorporate a blu ray player into its next gen machine and it will probably cost the same as using a DVD drive in a few years time.

If you ONLY want to sell games on-line, then you are limiting your audience - that makes no sense. Microsoft will use a BD player because by the time they do, it will be cheap. In fact, the next console will probably not represent a HUGE leap in processing performance but focus more on user interface. Connectivity and downloads over the internet has already been incorporated into the 360 anyway.

[rollingstone99]

This whole article is so biased. The bottom line is, if microsoft does not want to use blu-ray, they have to come up with another high definition dvd format.... all the streaming download idea is useless... people like hold what they buy.... and give it away or sell it when they do not need it anymore.... do you really want to download a game that only runs in one machine? stop defending the companies just because you like them, the companies are not paying you anything....

[rollingstone99]

This whole article is so biased. The bottom line is, if microsoft does not want to use blu-ray, they have to come up with another high definition dvd format.... all the streaming download idea is useless... people like hold what they buy.... and give it away or sell it when they do not need it anymore.... do you really want to download a game that only runs in one machine? stop defending the companies just because you like them, the companies are not paying you anything....

[helllo75]

by bubblebathgirl December 9, 2008 2:37 PM PST
"It's quite clear that there are a lot of angry XBOTS here who would have been singing quite a different tune had HD DVD not flopped horribly.

Blu-ray won and now the 360 Red Ring of Death owners are all upset and willing to rely on old (way dated) technology like DVD.

A little advice: don't be angry. If higher quality experiences are something you're not interested in, then sure, stick with Microsoft and the 360. If you want games with 5-10 times more potential, then go with Sony and Blu-ray, it's just that simple.

It's downright ignorant, and quite transparent, to say that one technology is the end or beginning of everything. Sure digital downloads are great, but so is "hold it in your hand" media, and that won't go away for a very very long time.

So please, leave your sour grapes at home. Companies like Toshiba and Microsoft are copy-cat minded wannabees who come out with inferior products that simply don't work well. Whereas companies like Apple and Sony are pioneering their respective fields and bringing quality and imagination to the consumer. This is why Apple and Sony are rising high even in these difficult times, when companies like Microsoft and Toshiba are trying desperate marketing campaigns as they find their market share plummeting.

The smart bet is on Apple and Sony for the coming years, watch for them to bring us stuff that inspires, and just works well."

I love being inspired by sony i mean come on every body wants their company to lose money and to cut over 5,000 jobs.

[leadguitarist05]

Apple is Overpriced and no better than PC, I've had both, I hated my mac, did almost nothing I needed and froze up every time I used it, my aunts does the same thing, but perception is everything and she swears up and down that it works flawlessly and never crashes... she's as full of it as you, every time I've ever used her mac it has locked up and I've had to hold the power button til it shuts off, my pc isn't perfect, but it works a hell of a lot better than my mac did, I finally got rid of my mac laptop and got another pc laptop... speaking of desperate campaigns, Apple is the company that started PC bashing campaigns... and Sony has been designing inferior products throughout their history... you're forgetting beta, and the mini disc... they were due to get one right with blue ray, but who knows if blue ray will have staying power... not to mention the PS3 has definitely had it's share of bugs and problems, but Xbox bashing is the new black, and apparently you're wearing it...

ps, this whole article was opinion based, Microsoft has not commented on what technologies they will or will not use... personally I like the Xbox 360, it has a lot more of what I like than the PS3 does... if only Gran Tourismo was available on Xbox...

[leadguitarist05]

actually... it's 1,024, not 1,054, I'm sure that's what you meant...

[leadguitarist05]

I'm sure netflix isn't as good of quality as bluray, but I stream netflix through my xbox onto my 55" HDTV all the time and it looks great, not bluray great, but it definitely doesn't look like crap... and I don't think the next Xbox needs bluray... I expect it will use flash media... bluray has terrible loading times, the more capacity a game needs on a disc, the longer games will take to load, I expect Xbox will pioneer game consoles into the flash world of no loading times!

[nerdman148]

The future of video games is Jump Drives (Flash drives, thumb drives, etc). They are easily portable. New technology has allowed a single jump drive to hold up to 2 TB and easily load media to a computer. Everyone has USB on their computers these days, so making something to read these games wouldn't be a big problem, especially since they already put USB ports on their systems. The idea would also be more cost effective, because the disk drives would no longer be needed, or the disks to play in them. I got an 8 GB drive for $18, so after calculating the cost of manufacturing the drives versus Blu-Ray and disk drives, Microsoft would be saving about $50 a console. The only problem with this is load times on the games. Flash media isn't exactly running at 5400 rpm. I think if we spent enough money to research ways to improve jump drives' performance, then we could own small physical games without the ********* download times, while avoiding high cost for the company and consumers. Give me one reason why this won't work besides "Microsoft stinks" or "Blu-Ray is just better because I said so."

[SimeyC]

With streaming HD DVD coming, I don't think the consoles of the future will even have DVD players. Also with Project Natal, the console also could begin to disappear. Project Natal brings back the good old PC back into the living room and perhaps it's going to relight the old war between the PC for games and the console - the old downfall of the PC was the lack of a decent controller...now you won't need one