GamerNode: News - M$ says "no plans" for Blu-ray on Xbox 360. Right..

M$ says "no plans" for Blu-ray on Xbox 360. Right..

Category: Xbox 360, Posted: 03/06/2008 at 09:07PM EST by Frank Ling, Content Contributor

blu ray discs Since the departure of HD DVD to that "big electronics store in the sky," speculation has it that Microsoft is working on plans to develop a Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360.

The rumors started to really heat up when Sony Electronics president of US operations, Stan Glasgow, reportedly told people at a media dinner event that Microsoft and Sony were discussing plans for a Blu-Ray machine for the Xbox 360.

Perhaps Glasgow had a few to many glasses of wine during the gala event. We'll never know because Microsoft has responded by saying that they aren't working on such a project and that it will "remain focused on the games" and not on a playback device for movies.

A Sony rep told Next-Gen, "There are no plans to introduce Blu-ray. In response to Stan Glasgow's statement that Blu-ray is a possibility for Xbox 360, we have made no such announcement. Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available."

Of course if history is any indication of how much we can believe Microsoft, it also said that it had no plans for an HD DVD player for the 360 two years ago...just a month before they released it. So odds are we'll probably see a Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360 in the not too distant future.

[via next-gen]

Posted by Kester on 03/07/2008 at 07:02AM

I see no reason why Microsoft would have to ditch their HD-DVD's in their next xbox.

Technically you can't use xbox games on other players anyhow. So why couldn't they stick with their dead, but their own, format?

Posted by Raven on 03/07/2008 at 05:02PM

Microsoft doesn't used HD DVD in their 360 systems. It was only an add-on attachment for people who wanted to watch HD DVD movies. Now that ever major film studio has made the decision to be Blu-ray exclusive, Microsoft has no reason to continue supporting their dead format. Blu-ray will be like DVD's are today in a few years, so MS wants to include that capability in their system and will most likely have a built in BD drive in the 360's successor.

Posted by dooganking on 03/08/2008 at 12:04AM

it might be an interesting way to cut down on piracy to use hd-dvd discs now though...

other than that though wouldn't microsoft push their downloadable movies before spending money on a NEW blu-ray add on or whathaveyou... (especially, if the rumors are to be believed, that if a blu-ray add on is coming that they will have to pay a royalty to sony...)

Posted by rtanger on 03/08/2008 at 03:07PM

"it might be an interesting way to cut down on piracy to use hd-dvd discs now though..."

That makes a lot of sense, actually. What better way to limit piracy than to have a more-or-less proprietary storage format that isn't generally available for sale (soon, anyway) and won't be available commercially?

Or are there still markets for HD-DVD out there for other uses?

Posted by dooganking on 03/09/2008 at 12:36AM

"Or are there still markets for HD-DVD out there for other uses?"

apparently hd-dvd drives for computers have had some alright business, toshiba and whoever else is in on it said they were going to look at how that side of things is going and how it may continue in the future... though it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to continue this sort of thing unless the specific goal in mind is to limit piracy...