Rumor: Blu-Ray For 360?
With HD-DVD as good as dead and buried, it would seem that Sony's Blu-ray technology has won the high-def format war. So what does that mean for Microsoft's Xbox 360? Well, rumors are flying over the interwebs that Microsoft has already developed a standalone Blu-ray player that can hook into the 360 and could be available in as soon as three months.
Not so sure how true this rumor might be, but it seems reasonable. With the PlayStation3 the only current console that can play high-def movies, Microsoft would either have to position the 360 as a "games only" machine, taking the stance that people don't use their consoles to watch movies, or simply create a Blu-ray add-on as they did with their HD-DVD add-on.
Since they'd never want to release games on Blu-ray (not wanting to alienate the portion of their audience that didn't buy the add-on), it would be strictly used for watching movies. Would that be worth it? I might be tempted, simply because it would be cheaper than buying a separate Blu-ray player, but what about you?
Microsoft's Xbox Blu-ray Player For May? [SPOnG.com]
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 18 February 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: add-on, blu-ray, hd-dvd, microsoft, playstation 3, sony, xbox 360
It'd be tempting if I didn't also own a PS3 already, that's for sure.
Actually, separate BR versions of games that are multiple discs on regular DVD would be nice, too (I'm looking at you, Lost Odyssey). I'm not sure they'd be willing to do that, but the option would be nice.
It would seal the deal for me on which system to get. I've been trying to decide, as I really want to be able to play the HD remix of Street Fighter on their online networks, and Virtua Fighter 5 on both systems looks brilliant. It was a toss-up - blue ray on ps3, or online VF5 on xbox.... now it makes it easier, if xbox gets a blu-ray add on
They're just going to push HD movie downloads in whatever the current flavor of Microsoft DRM is anyway, but if they don't do well and the PS3 keeps getting mileage out of being able to play movies bought at Wal-mart rather than online, I could see them putting out a BD drive in a year or two.
Remember, the PS2 only got about a year or two of sales out of its DVD playback abilities, and after that people were actually buying it for the huge variety of games available for it. Microsoft's almost there already, but I would bet not too many people even bought a 360 plus HD-DVD drive to watch Serenity. The world's changed a lot since 2000.
I would buy the addon. And if they did do it I can't help but feel that updating the Elite SKU to include the addon would be a good idea.
Either way it seems clear which format the Xbox 720 will support.