Chris Lanier

I don't think that MS would lose any money on an external Blu-ray Disc drive for $150. At least in Europe you can already buy an internal BD-ROM for about 80 EUR + taxes (approx $125). Prices will certainly go down in the next few months, so why should they need to sell it at a loss?

As an American XBox owner Blu-Ray makes no sense and in fact I'd be a little pissed as I'd rather they bundle something like a quieter drive or wireless N adapter or larger HD or even a tuner card, pretty much anything other than a Blu-Ray drive.  I could care less about Blu-Ray, and while HD-DVD was the better format I'm not that bummed about its loss because I wasn't that interested in it either.

I'm just not ready to repurchase my entire movie collection on yet another format or deal with players that require firmware updates. I'm more than happy to continue to purchase HD movies via the Marketplace or just watch DVDs while I wait for the future of non-DRM HD online streaming titles, even if it takes the next 5 years.  I'm perfectly content to wait out this media phase for the next one, especially considering how little HD movies really give you over current DVD movies.

On the flip side I can see why the Euro consumer would care a lot more about this.  Given how expensive consumer goods are over there the idea of a multi-purpose device like a game console + DVD player isn't just a neat marketing gimmick it's a serious purchasing decision.  

Of course I still question the actual real need for Blu-Ray/HD-DVD as I also really question the people that *demand* a Blu-Ray drive with the 360, since the only reason you would need one is if you have a decent HD setup and if you have the dosh to afford that then you wouldn't even think of hoooking a lukewarm player like one bundled in a console up to your top-end HD setup.

The sad fact is the sites that keep reporting this "news" don't care about the truth.  They just want a catchy headline to draw hits.  Sad, but true.

I think if their was more time then it would be a bigger chance, but as of right now the console is more than halfway through the average life span.  It just doesn't make sense in that regard.  Maybe in the next version though.

But you did say

"A larger percent of the 300,000 people who purchase the external HD DVD drive still have a bad taste in their mouth."

I'm not sure if I agree with that.  Everybody I know who bought the hddvd drive did with the 11 free movie thing, which pretty much paid for itself.  Now you can get hddvd movies for next to nothing too.  Also the fact that both amazon and bestbuy gave $50 credits just made me even more happy.  Everybody I know (5) who bought one doesn't have a bad taste in their mouth and are satisfied with the purchase.

Why wouldn't future versions of the 360 have a BR drive?  It seems pretty clear that BR is going to replace DVD, just as CD-ROM drives were replaced with DVD-ROM drives.  The price for BR drives is now down to around $150 retail (for LG and LiteOn) and should keep falling.  Therefore when MS comes out with the 360 Super-Duper Elite a year from now why not throw a BR drive in the unit?

Presumably the successor to the XBOX360 will have to have a BR drive, will it not?

I think you're wrong in assuming that the Xbox 360 has the horsepower to render Blu-Ray.  The graphics chips available when they designed the 360 cannot handle Blu-ray.

If MS offered a smaller, quieter Xbox 360 I'd buy it again and ebay my current model. An Xbox 360 with built-in Blu-ray drive, but same noise & heat doesn't move me. I'm not a fan of external accessories, so I don't think an external drive would move me either.

I want the 360 more for its extender capabilities which the PS3 does not have. You seemed to have totally skipped that feature. But until the 360 comes with an internal blu-ray player I'll be staying away. I don't want to have to add two components that don't stack well in an entertainment center and require two power connections to get blu-ray and MCEx functionality. Perhaps Dlink has something in development.

I am currently an owner of none of the latest gen consoles, but I am likely to buy a ps3 within the next 2 months.  The only reason I am considering the PS3 over the Xbox 360 is purely Blu-ray.  If the Xbox had Blu-ray I would likely buy that over the PS3, because it is a much better option as a media extender.

I think your analysis is fairly sound, I just wanted to point out that there are consumers (at least 1 - me) that have Blu-ray as a major deciding factor for their console.  Given the fact that Microsoft and Sony don't make money off the hardware, but off the software licensing (games), I would think Microsoft would want to get their hardware in as many homes as possible.  That being said, Microsoft has at least one living room that the Xbox 360 will not be in because of it's lack of Blu-ray.  I would consider owning both consoles, but only in a few years after prices drop dramatically.

I'm surprised by that comment Chris... considering you just completed a week of posting on media center stuff.

The combo of Blu-ray drive, media center extender and one of the only decent HD download options makes the 360 a much smarter choice IMHO.

...advanced audio codecs, HDMI 1.3, profile 2.0... there is a very limited and geeky set of folks who care about those small items as compared to the larger functionality available on the 360 platform.

You can buy MS's way of selling the fact that the 360 doesn't have blu-ray ("It's the games"), but that is just spin until they get the BR version out.  There is a reason they had the HD-DVD drive.

Market forces require that the 360 have BR... yes it's still first and foremost a game console, but as the games per platform reach parity the 360 will loose sales without the additional future-focused functionality of a blu-ray drive.

I'm well aware of the fact that the MC extender functionality targets a very small market, but the HD downloads and Blu-ray do hit a large market.  The two together make it a viable competitor to the PS3 even if games do reach parity.

The VMC extender functionality is just icing on the cake for the few folks who understand and use it.