While not an official invitation, Don Eklund, executive vice president of advanced technologies, and Rich Marty, vice president of new business development for Sony, have made it clear what they would love to have happen with Toshiba and Microsoft when it comes to the Blu-ray.
"We would love to have Toshiba and Microsoft on board."
This response did not pertain to gaming consoles though, but was a position Sony made clear after it was announced Acer would begin to include Blu-ray drives within their PCs. Eklund and Marty also pointed out that while Toshiba is still in the HD DVD camp, they can’t keep lowering prices of units in order to win the format war.
"Eklund and Marty questioned Toshiba’s pricing strategy; "Tosh can’t keep dropping prices much more", said Eklund. "It may be a strategy for fighting a format war, but for us it has to be profitable."
Those waiting to see if Microsoft will adopt the Blu-ray format are going to be disappointed. There won’t be a Blu-ray Xbox 360 sitting on store shelves anytime soon or ever. Microsoft has made it clear where their loyalties lie, and with mountains of money coming in from Microsoft’s software sales it is unlikely they will switch unless there is clear advantage or business opportunity they can’t pass up.
For the moment, people are going to have to live with a dual format world still. Ultimately, one format is going to win out. Like the game industry though only time will tell who will ultimately be the winner.
[Via Pocket-Lint]
