Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Austin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:55:16 GMT

blu-ray?What in the world.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:55:53 GMT

How in the world do you make $$$ on a drive that loses you $$$ per unit sold? Your post makes no sense.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

jose — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:54:02 GMT

360 will support BD.. its commen sense at the end of the day its all about the $$$ and hey MS doesnt want Sony to have all the $$$ right.. i think MS knew ahead of time that HD dvd was gonna tank and i m sure when they did know they have been working on a external BD for the 360 and i am sure it will come sometime this year.. remember that this yr 360 will have a external BD!!!!! no matter what.. Its all about making that $$$ and i am sure MS have learn from there past screw ups that the majority always wins so get ready tp pay a little more for that external BD..

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:05:20 GMT

HD DVD is dead. Toshiba isn't manufacturing players anymore. The two remaining studios will stop disc production within months. The Xbox 360 HD DVD drive has also been discontinued.

As for Blu-ray for Xbox 360, that's kind of the point of the post. I don't see it happening. You can read more at msmvps.com/.../1521136.aspx.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Henry — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:10:46 GMT

So whats going to happen to HD-Dvd?

Would Xbox make a separate blue ray drive?

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:39:17 GMT

P: I'm positive they will not use "blue-ray" in the near future because there is no such thing. ;)

If you are talking about Blu-ray, maybe you can back that up with some reasons why, or maybe you don't have any??

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:35:24 GMT

Sorry Chris, you just don't seem to get it pal. Microsoft will use blue-ray in the near future.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

boulder — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:02:15 GMT

Microsoft WILL support Blu-Ray just like they had to support the Internet.

Remember how when Windows '95 launched, they said they would create their own network, and what a big failure that became ?

After a short while, they had to swallow their pride.

MS doesn't like Java ?

MS doesn't like Bluray ?

Too bad, because the world has just chosen to endorse that format.

And if MS doesn't like it, too bad, their OS will surely survive, but it will suffer.

And if Mediacenter does not support it that will suffer too.

Mind you, I did not really care which format won, but I sure as hell was not going to buy any player or writer before this war was decided.

Now Microsoft can sulk all they want, but life goes on, if necessary even without Microsoft...

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Chriscic — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:11:29 GMT

Chris L,

I just saw your Jan 25th blog which included an explanation of the technical issues with BD+. That does sound like it will not happen anytime soon. However, MS seems to have a long-term vision for Mediacenter/convergence, and it's going to be hard to push this vision without support for the dominant (eventually) physical video format.

I'm pretty sure we'll never see a Blu-Ray drive built into the 360, or even an add-on drive, but one would hope they'd support it natively in Mediacenter one day and allow streaming.

Cheers

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Warren — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:36:37 GMT

no, I don't think the lower price point has anything to do with it considering the 40gb version was introduced nov2. And the 360 was way ahead of the ps3 during nov and dec.

www.us.playstation.com/.../429

NPD data for all of 2007.

www.shacknews.com/.../image-o-matic.x

I think it might have something to do with the shortages of 360's though like microsoft has claimed.

That being said if you look at the software sales from the NPD for January

shacknews.com/.../51336

you'll notice that there is no ps3 games on the top 10. It kind of makes you think that maybe more people are using the ps3 as a bluray player and less as a console. Also considering there is no cheap bluray player like there was for hddvd, the ps3 has a lot going for it, and microsoft has to notice this.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

EZRyder — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:21:51 GMT

Being from the UK, one of the big +ve's of HD-DVD was that it was region free, something that rarely causes the US a problem, but is a nightmare for the rest of the world. A reason that Blu-Ray won, could be that the PS3 sold because of brand loyalty, but with no games of merit the software attachment came in the form of films rather than games. The Xbox 360, I gather, has a game attachment rate of about 6:1, better than either the PS3 or the Wii. The sales in January could be down to Xbox's not being available or the fact that outside the holiday periods the Xbox is going to plateau, as its the most mature next gen console out of the three.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Mark — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:10:33 GMT

Eventually the xbox will need to support a larger format just to handle developers larger games... but yes, probably in the next version of the xbox.

I agree with the DRM issue for the reason the stuidos jumped onboard with blu-ray.

Ditto on the engadget comment Chris! I've been reading that site faithfully for the last 6 months. More often than not stories regarding MS are negative. I was suprised when they said something negative about the macbook air.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:41:55 GMT

The PS3 getting more sales could have nothing to do with the significantly lower price point it is now at? Blu-ray has had the sales lead over HD DVD for months and months, way before all the recent events.

I'm not disagreeing that Microsoft shouldn't do something. Frankly, Blu-ray is the format. HD DVD is no more. I want to be able to play Blu-ray discs as much as the next guy.

I'm simply taking things from a different point of view. Microsoft opposed much of thing technology in Blu-ray from the start, hence why they supported HD DVD.

I really don't think the Xbox 360 and Blu-ray needs to happen. AFAIK, no one really knows that consumers want Blu-ray as a part of the Xbox 360. The majority of PS3 owners just like the concept of it having Blu-ray, despite the fact the vast majority have never purchased a BD title.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Warren — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:33:00 GMT

Chrisl: Have you not seen the latest NPD data? After it was obvious that Bluray won, the ps3 sells have finally surpassed the 360. People have been waiting to decide which way to go for hd and its obvious. You will see hd movies now selling more, and you will continue to see PS3 to continue to outsell the 360. Microsoft has to do something to combat this.

shacknews.com/.../51334

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Jeffrey Peterson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:54:26 GMT

To be honest, I don't really think blu-ray support for the XBOX 360 is that important. HD downloads are becoming more popular. The cost of a play-only BLU-RAY device will plummet with consumer demand and more vendors. So, who cares about BLU-RAY support for the XBOX for the most part. They reason to offer a device is basically to match Sony feature for feature which I don't think is necessary.It probably is not that big of deal anyways.

What I care about is BLU-RAY support for MCE and playback in MCE extenders. I was hoping the HD-DVD managed copy thing was going to work out. I believe this is where the real issue is. I would like to think Fiji will have this, but I have some doubts...I want native BLU-RAY playback in MCE. I want to be able to stream content from a central location containing my blu-ray discs I purchase.

As I said, I have my doubts...We will see what MS comes up with.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:43:12 GMT

Xander Mol: I get what you are saying, but look at how long the Xbox 360 is at this point. It launched in late 2005, it's now 2008. If BD is to come to a Microsoft console, I'd just make it the Xbox 720.

Games don't benefit at all, because developers can't limit playback to Xbox's with BD drives. You cut out people over 17 million units. Games devs will not do it and Microsoft will not allow them too.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Xander Mol — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:44:51 GMT

Well, its official, Toshiba pulled the plug from HD-DVD.

So, for Microsoft this means: either support Bluray in the XBox and Windows MCE or skip the HD optical media altogether and give the market to Sony until HD downloads pick up (which will be at least another two years).

And to the comments that the XBOX is only a gaming console:

- that is not the way MS markets it. It is marketed to be competative on every level with the PS3 (as XBOX 360, PS3 and WII owner, I can say it is not IMHO, but that's beside the point). If it is ONLY a game console, it is very expensive at it's present price point against the Wii and the PS3;

- Also games will benefit from BluRay capacity;

- And even if this argument would be true, what is than the argument for Windows Mediacenter? A Mediacenter with no native HD support will never gain huge momentum. I love Mediacenter, but than I might consider switching to alternative software like MythTV.

But my guess: we will hear a MS BluRay announcements within two months now.

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Ankur Mittal — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:43:20 GMT

But it would be really nice if Microsoft do add Blue Ray to the Xbox :)

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:01:17 GMT

Doug: Toshiba made the HD DVD drive, Microsoft simply made the software (the biggest issue here).

re: Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

Doug — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:42:48 GMT

I think Xander is correct on this issue. MS HAS to support BD and give consumers the option of an external drive. If they don't the PS3 will blow past them in sales and put the XBox back in 3rd place.

To Chris's point about the XBox being a game console only, why did they ever make a HD DVD drive in the first place? MS heavily promotes the media capabilities of the 360 and without BD support it will be irrelevant. Come on MS, please do the right thing and quickly add BD support.