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Xbox 360 could one day support Blu-ray Disc via an add-on

The current way for Xbox 360 to watch HD DVD
Microsoft hedging its bets on HD DVD, ponders switch to Blu-ray

When comparing the latest consoles, Sony constantly makes reference to its decision to include a Blu-ray Disc player with every PlayStation 3, while pointing out that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 utilizes the comparatively less spacious DVD9 format.

Sony is so confident in its Blu-ray-enabled console that the company has stated that putting Blu-ray in PS3 will be the smartest decision made for the games machine. Microsoft Europe’s Senior Regional Director, Neil Thompson doesn’t think so, saying that Blu-ray does not give Sony’s console any advantage over the Xbox 360.

“Do I want to make people pay £200 extra for a machine with discs that have storage space I don’t need? My answer’s no, I don’t need to do that today,” Thompson said to GamesIndustry.biz. “And I don’t think I’m going to need to do that for quite a while.”

Microsoft is on the other side of the high-def fence as an exclusive supporter of HD DVD, and some consumers were expecting the recently announced Xbox 360 Elite to include the high-definition format drive as built-in hardware. The Xbox 360 Elite will ship with the original DVD9 specification, and Microsoft will continue to offer HD DVD movie functionality through the $199 add-on accessory.

“I’m not sure the market has moved to high definition [movies] yet,” Thompson said. “And if and when it does, then the way that we’ve constructed the offering we’ve made means we’ll be able to go whichever way we want.”

Thompson’s comment alludes to the possibility that the Xbox 360 may support Blu-ray Disc media should the format become unquestionably victorious. Speaking to the BBC, Thompson said, “Whatever format wins it is highly likely we will offer a solution. The only debate is if you want to watch Blu-ray movies and pay the extra money for that feature. We prefer to offer the consumer choice.”

An analysts quoted by the Financial Times believes that the decision not to include HD DVD with the Xbox 360 Elite is a blow to Toshiba, who is oddly given sole credit for the HD DVD format. “I think, if nothing else, this is an acknowledgement that Blu-ray is going to win [the standards war],” said Michael Pachter, video games analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “It would have been a costly mistake to build it into the hardware if HD-DVD loses and I think Microsoft sees this as an unacceptable gamble.”

Thompson concludes in speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, “This is about the architecture of the hardware. With the PS3 you’ve got a big, heavy truck that requires a big, heavy engine. With Xbox you’ve got a much more nimble box that uses software in the architecture of the box in a much more nimble way … That’s the difference between us and PlayStation – we didn’t have a need to develop a really complicated engine to get Blu-ray players into the market. We wanted to deliver HD gaming. Judge us on what we’ve done.”

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MS was right in thier decision
By sapiens74 on 3/29/2007 8:22:33 PM , Rating: 5
To not include HD on the Elite and offer it as an addon. They can just as easily add a blue ray player and not get involved in the format war.

Which technically speaking, maybe at some point you could have the 360 with both BluRay and HD hooked up to the same box




RE: MS was right in thier decision
By Avalon on 3/29/2007 8:34:22 PM , Rating: 5
I agree in that it was a smart move not to include an HD-DVD player built into the Elite model...however, I feel it was a stupid move to price the unit at $479. That's too close to Sony's base PS3 model.

Their best move would have been to eliminate the $300 core model, make the premium model $300, and price the elite at $400.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 3/29/2007 8:41:08 PM , Rating: 1
That would be almost TOO easy and would certainly guarantee a Microsoft victory this round against Sony. That coupled with an external HD DVD or Blu-ray drive would make the console a formidable weapon.

But I don't think that Microsoft is quite at that point yet.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By mendocinosummit on 3/29/2007 8:52:22 PM , Rating: 1
Could Sony prevent MS from producing or using Bluray on the Xbox so it could not compete with the PS3 by not granting them rights? Or would they be happy to win the format war?


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By daftrok on 3/29/07, Rating: -1
RE: MS was right in thier decision
By sxr7171 on 3/29/2007 11:06:16 PM , Rating: 2
Are you saying that the EE performs the upscaling to 1080p?


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By melgross on 3/30/2007 12:53:55 AM , Rating: 4
Sony is a $70 billion a year company. While the games division may contribute over half of their profits, in a good year for it, sales are a fraction of Sony's yearly sales.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By Tyler 86 on 4/1/2007 6:06:05 AM , Rating: 2
Why'd this guy get rated down?

He is correct in saying the PS3 *can* upscale to 1080p, heck it can scale up or down anything without a designated hardware scaler with little overhead.

He's saying the EE chip on current PS3s won't have to perform upscaling for itself to 1080p should it be desired, as the Cell & RSX could do that work for it...

I don't know much about consoles, I don't own either, but as a hardware and programming enthusiast, I don't see what he said that got him rated down...

His statement that the PS3 is 1/2 of Sony's business could be simply pointing at the high price Sony paid to put the PS3 through development...


By mindless1 on 4/3/2007 1:54:13 PM , Rating: 2
Comments are rated down for many less altruistic reasons like fanboi disagreement or those with special interests. I'm more interested in what the highest AND lowest rated posts have to say more than most inbetween.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By OxBow on 3/30/2007 9:24:08 AM , Rating: 4
I don't think that Sony can prevent MS from creating a BR add-on drive. While Sony is a principal in the BR consortium, they are not the only member of that consortium. Also, BR is a public standard, so if MS wants to, they can buy into this.

I find it interesting that IBM, Sony and Toshiba are in partnership to develop the Cell, while Sony and Toshiba are at the same time locking horns over HD-DVD and BR. Strange bedfellows any way you look at it.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By sxr7171 on 3/29/2007 9:08:49 PM , Rating: 2
It's so obvious that a nice price cut would basically clinch the victory for MS that it seems that they aren't doing it just to challenge themselves for it would be too easy a victory. I can't see any other rational reason why they wouldn't just cut prices on the 360 when they lost billions on the original Xbox and said that was to get a foothold in the market, when they could today lose just peanuts on each console to unquestionably dominate the console market.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By cochy on 3/29/2007 11:21:20 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
just to challenge themselves for it would be too easy a victory


Right. Sounds like very rational corporate thinking. Let's challenge ourselves. Does that sound like something shareholders will want? Because it is actually illegal for a publicly owned company to not put shareholder's profit above all else in their decision making process. They obviously have good reasons for not cutting prices.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By sxr7171 on 3/30/2007 12:21:20 AM , Rating: 3
Yeah and what? The cost to make a premium console is around $330 these days. They lost billions on the original, and they could own the console market for mere millions. They could saturate the market at a $300 price for the premium. The installed base would grow like no other console before it and developers will want to tap that base. They could profit like bandits.


By bplewis24 on 3/30/2007 12:37:24 AM , Rating: 3
You're forgetting that the console leader in terms of current sales month-by-month is the Nintendo Wii. And even if the Premium 360 was $300 ($350 is a more realistic figure), the Wii would still have a price advantage over it. And keep in mind the Wii can drop it's price at any time because they are already profiting off of every console sold.

Brandon


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By Zelvek on 3/30/2007 2:36:37 AM , Rating: 2
More than likely MS will make a price cut soon but one right now would not likely make a big difference for them. The big console sales are during the holidays so thats when a price cut will make the most impact for them. For now they are probably just trying to make as much money as they can off of each sale.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By bldckstark on 3/30/07, Rating: -1
By Seemonkeyscanfly on 3/30/2007 3:49:57 PM , Rating: 5
And with that thought you will never make middle management. First you must understand the stock holders are the business. No investors, no money to run the business, no business. The executives really do not make any decision that pops the value of a stock. Long terms plans they carry out will and may affect the value, but not short terms. Board members can have a little bit of a “pop” affect, example when Bill Gates makes a public speech the value can change from his direct actions, however he needs to notify NASDAQ at least 30 days in advanced of the sale(or buy) of any stock. He also has limits on the percentage he can buy/sell at one time and has to give reason for his sale of the stock. The guys you are bad mouthing live under a much tougher set of rules then the average Joe; they can not just leave a company. So the last thing they want to do is something that is going to purposely in the long term bring down the value of the company…Why because it makes them look bad (example: the guy who tried to replace Mike Dell), and brings down their personal value, money out of their wallet – since they can not just sell their stock when it’s at a high point. They are making decision on what will keep the business open, not will make the entry level guy happy…though they’d like to see him happy, you get more work out of a happy employee.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By Rampage on 3/29/2007 11:09:12 PM , Rating: 1
Why would they elminate the core model??? That makes no sense to me.

Microsofts advantage is that they have a very low cost/price SKU with the core with no blue-laser and no HDD, no wireless.. just a gaming box that they can cut the HECK out of price-wise when the 360 goes 65nm.

PS3 will NEVER be able to match this core 360 at price.. or really, gaming performance.. from what we've seen so far.

A core 360 can run Gears of War, which is better than anything I've experienced on the pricey PS3.. ?

Now, KEEPING the core and dropping the price to $199 would be the true punishment.. Sony wont be able to hang with future 360 price drops without subsidizing the loss so much they'll wish they never used PS3 as a vehicle for BluRay.

This console war is decided, anyone with any sense can see the 360 won.
The HD standard war is decided, BluRay won.
Thats pretty much how the dice have fallen.


RE: MS was right in thier decision
By cochy on 3/29/2007 11:37:04 PM