Even with the apparent shift in power with Warner Bros.
going Blu-ray Disc exclusive this June, Microsoft, one of the founding
supporters of HD DVD, reiterated its faith in the high-definition optical
format.
Speaking to 1up during CES 2008,
Microsoft corporate VP Jeff Bell said regarding the Warner announcement, “We
were disappointed with the announcement. It has a consequence. I will tell you
that we are committed to HD-DVD and still have some great partners --
Universal, Paramount, DreamWorks -- these are great participants in the format.
We have sold very well the HD-DVD accessory.”
While Microsoft has been very forthcoming with Xbox 360
console sales figures, the company rarely mentions the sales of its HD DVD
add-on accessory. According to NPD Group’s report released in November 2007, the
Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive accessory has sold a collective
269,000 units in the U.S., making for a 3.4 percent attach rate with the
console.
“We did make a specific choice; we did not impose technology
upon our consumers. We would like choice to be our guiding principle, and it
has worked for us. We're not demanding that people choose a format, but rather,
we're with DVD in the Xbox 360. Satisfaction with DVDs, by the way, is like
96%, at least in the States,” added Bell. “So, we continue to give the
alternative in HD-DVD, we have downloadable movies and television shows on Xbox
Live Marketplace, Media Center Extender is available and as we just announced,
IPTV will be brought onto the Xbox 360, first with British Telecomm in 2008 for
consumers. So, there's more than one choice to watch movies and TV shows.”
One other alternative for high-definition movies is Blu-ray
Disc – an option that is not available on Xbox 360 users, though not an avenue
that Microsoft has avoided.
“You know, interestingly, we have a long history of
partnership with Sony. Obviously, they run our software on their personal
computers and other devices, so we have a 'coopetition' -- a word I learned at
Microsoft when I joined,” Bell said, before mentioning Microsoft’s contact with
Blu-ray Disc. “We've been talking to Blu-ray all along because we have the best
piece of software in the business, called HDi. It is the backbone that powers
interactivity in HD-DVD and we have that available to potentially partner with
others.”
Blu-ray Disc currently utilizes BD Java as its backbone for
interactive features, whereas HDi is the foundation for HD DVD. Despite its
hopes that Blu-ray Disc would incorporate HDi, Microsoft doesn’t appear to have
any plans to bring in Blu-ray Disc just yet.
“You never say never,” said Bell. “I think we'd like to see
how things evolve. Our commitment, however, to HD-DVD is profound and
consistent, and we have done very, very well in term of our accessory sales. We
have 400 HD-DVD movies from great studios available. It's a long time between
now and June.”