Remember back when we reported that Microsoft said it wouldn’t be implementing Blu-ray in the Xbox360 and we laughed? It looks like we were right and they’ve been fibbing.
You would think that Blu-ray technology, with its obvious success over the format war, would be a wise consideration for Microsoft to implement in their popular Xbox 360 gaming console.
According to industry sources over at digitimes.com, Lite-On IT is developing built-in Blu-ray Disc ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console.
"It is reported that Microsoft plans to offer a new Xbox 360 hardware revision equipped with a BD-ROM drive to compete with Sony’s PlayStation 3. Taiwan-based Lite-On IT is said to have been invited to participate in designing the drive. Lite-On’s shipments of the BD ROMs to Microsoft will start in the second half of 2008, the sources added. Lite-On is currently one of the suppliers of Xbox 360-use internal DVD-ROM drives."
Microsoft has decided to switch to BD for its Xbox 360 game consoles after Toshiba announced to discontinue HD DVD, the sources said. The BD-ROM drives that Lite-On is developing for Microsoft are for the next-generation Xbox 360 game consoles.
On top of this news, the next-generation Xbox 360 console will have a reduced power supply to lower production costs.
"Power supply makers also revealed that while the present Xbox 360 uses a 210-watt power supply, the next-generation game console will use a 170-watt power supply in order to reduce production cost and the size of the device," according to the sources.
But is Microsoft losing money by including the BD-ROM drive in their nex-generation Xbox 360 consoles? The current DVD-ROM drives that are implemented into today’s Xbox 360s are quoted at $18-$20 USD, while the new BD-ROM drives are quoted at $95-$100 USD.
Industry analysts say "The increase in retail price of the new consoles is unlikely to cover the whole of the OEM price gap, the sources analyzed, meaning Microsoft would be selling the consoles at a loss."
Huge news indeed. With the added space that Blu-ray offers, if developers finally produce games on this format for the Xbox 360, they won’t be limited to code space, design and infrastructure that would restrict them on the DVD format.
Microsoft responded saying it does not comment on market rumors.
