More Blu-ray Xbox 360 rumors — and more denials
Mon May 5, 2008 1:15PM EDT
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Rumors of a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 simply refuse to die, and fresh reports that a manufacturer won a contract to build Blu-ray-packing 360s have thrown gas on the fire. Meanwhile, Microsoft issues another denial.
The story hit the Web on Friday and quickly caught fire; by Monday, Microsoft told gaming site GamePro (again) that it has "no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360."
"Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available," Microsoft reps wrote in an e-mail to GamePro.
Rumors of a Blu-ray-equipped Xbox 360—or an external Blu-ray drive, a la the now-defunct HD DVD add-on drive—have been popping up ever since Toshiba killed off the HD DVD format in February, and Microsoft's carefully worded denials have done little to dampen the story.
After all, I'm sure Microsoft would love to give gamers another reason to pick the 360 over the Blu-ray-equipped PlayStation 3. Meanwhile, the steady hum of the Blu-ray-on-360 rumor mill leads me to believe that there's a plenty of Xbox fans who'd be eager to play Blu-ray movies on their consoles (even if the roar of the 360's noisy cooling fan drowns out the movie).
So, gamers, I ask you again: Would you consider snapping up a 360 console with a built-in Blu-ray drive? Or how about a Blu-ray add-on? Or are you simply waiting for stand-alone Blu-ray deck prices to drop?
Related:
Pegatron lands OEM orders for Blu-ray Xbox 360 consoles, says paper [Digitimes]
Microsoft has "no plans" for Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive [GamePro.com]
Comments on More Blu-ray Xbox 360 rumors — and more denials
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Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
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2 Posted by ryanobo66 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:57PM EDT Report Abuse
They should offer both the add-on for people that already have a 360 and built in for people that buy new ones
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3 Posted by saviressej on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:06PM EDT Report Abuse
i want one!
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4 Posted by maori_yelir on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:05PM EDT Report Abuse
I wouldn't pay more for it. I bought my 360 for games. Blu-ray movies are such a small upgrade in quality that for the price of them they aren't worth buying. DVDs are cheaper and still look fine, especailly considering my computer is what I normally will watch movies on. My only issue would be in future games were on blu-ray disks and then I would have to buy the attachment or a new Xbox in order to play them. I would go buy a PS3 out of spite and I HATE Sony.
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5 Posted by carrman217 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:19PM EDT Report Abuse
I hope that they offer a choice. I already own 2 360s and really don't want to buy a third for the blu-ray. I would just get a PS3. I (like a lot of other people) am waiting to see what happens.
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6 Posted by stewmeny10 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:43PM EDT Report Abuse
If they don't I am buying a PS3 as a blue ray player....plain and simple
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7 Posted by abejuela_sweetcriean on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:44PM EDT Report Abuse
According to rumors, Microsoft may be releasing a Blu-ray-based Xbox 360 soon. We don't know if the rumor is real, although it seems reasonable to expect it. The only real question is when. Their Microsoft insiders are saying May.How true is this? CRIEAN Great printer toner and ink cartridge deals, discounts and coupons. Also, check out the latest printer reviews and technology news. http://blog.concordsupplies.com
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8 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
The Xbox 360 accepts all USB 2.0 devices plugged into it. Just take a generic BD drive, put it in an enclosure that have USB 2.0, and plug it into the XBox 360. Odds are it may work. The XBox 360 is nothing but a specialized windows box anyways. I have the HD DVD drive. I have HD DVD movies. I see no difference between viewing a good DVD and a HD DVD movie. Most HD DVD movies are not encoded in HD anyways. Same with BluRay movies. So, when Microsoft produces an external BD drive for the XBox 360 and sells it at the same $50 price that I got the HD drive for, I will buy it. In the meantime, the newest BD player to come out was $2500 - forget it - until the prices come down both on the BD players and discs, I will not buy one. Under $100 for a player would be fine. And the discs priced similar to DVD prices. When they actually put HD quality recordings on the BD DVDs I may consider paying a premium for some of them, IF the difference is viewable on my HD equipment.
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9 Posted by mwbudd on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:31PM EDT Report Abuse
Has everyone forgot about the Red Ring Of Death? Or the 30% failure rate of the Xbox 360s? Why would someone even consider purchasing something that fails at such an alarming rate? Can Microsoft make something that does fail so frequently?
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10 Posted by bigernorernie on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:07PM EDT Report Abuse
Judging by comments from Balmer at MIX, I am guessing Microsoft is in the boat of many people that the disc delivery model has a limited life, and the cost of bluray is too much to support that short time span. Movies in 1080p streaming through Xbox Live Marketplace would require only a pushed through update for the right codecs. With the CEO of Netflix on the board at MS, I would expect a partnership between the two to offer a Netflix subsription based model with downloaded rentals to be rolled out pretty soon, putting pressure on Blockbuster, Amazon, PS3, and Apple TV in one fell swoop.
1 Posted by heath.ruder on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Give me either I don't care, I have my 360 hooked up to my home HD network and it's useless now that no movies are coming out in HD. GET WITH THE TIMES GATES!