Boy, this can only end badly. Either DigiTimes is bullshitting big time, or Lite-On needs the publicity and states these false facts, or Microsoft is a big fat liar.

Internet? Ready, CHOOSE!

Notice they didn't deny the idea of Xbox 360 Blu-ray drives, just that Lite-On was not the one manufacturing them....

"As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available."

Yeah, but, I'm pretty sure being a Blu-Ray player hasn't hurt the PS3's sales. Microsoft is being rather stubborn about this.

Ooh that photoshopped 360 would be pretty snazzy if it were real.

Do you really think that a company would spoil it´s sales of another product by releasing it´s development news before the new one is already ready to sale?

So, no Lite-On is not manufacturing the drive, but someone else might be! "THIS JUST IN, SOMEONE OTHER THAN LITE-ON TO MANUFACTURE BLU-RAY DRIVES FOR NEW XBOX360!"

Not for the X360... but for the X720 yay!

Microsoft is already contradicting themselves. There was a ton of comments made by them that said they were all for consumer choice (hence the core/arcade/pro/elite/halo3 sku mess, wireless optional, etc), and this included HD content. I'm sure there are statements either by Major Nelson, or someone else on his podcast a while back stating they would make a Blu-Ray external drive if there was consumer demand for it.

I guess that statement should have been "Well, HD-DVD is on top now, so sure, we can say something pie in the sky like we will support Blu-Ray if it wins. But we mean that as a joke anyhow. When we tuck our tails between our legs after HD-DVD dies, we are going to act like we never said the 360 was about anything more then just games."

*sigh*

"..we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available."

Only ONE game?

And the paragraph is spin...since they may be making something OTHER than a 360 (future rename). And likely, I can see the external BluRay being more profitable (as a MSRP $199 USB addon) rather than integrated until they get better volume pricing.

Sony bluray supply channel constraint FTW!

Screw Blue-Ray...DVD2 all the way.

The New York Times makes it sound like it's bigger than sliced bread.

Best way to hurt Blu-ray? Stick it in the Xbox 360 and they all RRoD.

However, there are so many idiots out there that would buy their 10th Xbox 360, after the first nine RRoDed. The 10th time, this person would blame Blu-ray.

That leads to another question.

When will my 360 crap out on me? If it does, can I opt for that Blu-ray drive?

MS would never reveal that a BR SKU was in the works. Because anyone who is considering buying a 360, will wait. And all of that existing inventory would be a huge loss to swallow.

I bought a PS3 for the BR. Haven't even played a game on it yet. I'm sure there are lots of people doing the exact same thing. That's not good news for MS.

A blue Xbox 360 shell like that would actually be really sweet. That looks great.

@Losbullitt: put it on the floor. place a sleeping bag on top of it. leave it turned on. it will be dead by morning.

Well considering this year the PS3 will dominate game content wise this is another HUGE blow towards the 360.

I don't think Blu-Ray is necessary this gen for the 360. However, if the format gets bigger with huge support ala dvd, then the next xbox should have it.

MGS4 NOT on 360 CONFIRMED.

I just can't see how this would make sense. A Blu-Ray peripheral might work, but we're talking about a rather massive design shift if, as the DigiTimes article seems to indicate, there will be a 360 SKU with the Blu-Ray drive built into it. Not only does that present conceptual and design problem (I presume- wouldn't it be quite tricky to "port" a game designed to run on the old 360 over to a "Blu-Ray 360"?).

More to the point, I fail to see the economic advantage to Microsoft. Despite the fact that Blu-Ray has significantly aided PS3 console sales I still can't fathom the notion that a significant percentage of the people who owns a 360 would by a PS3 _just for the Blu-Ray drive_. If this is some sort of super-aggressive move on MS's part to stymie the PS3's share in the Blu-Ray player market, then I would be shocked. It's certainly not in the interest of the consumer: the 360 still has a considerable failure rate and the console itself doesn't have the projected longevity of the PS3 (that is, we will see a 720 before we see a PS4); more to the point, they would be throwing money away in an effort to hurt a rival's share in a, frankly, relativly niche market.

@peAr_nectAr: orly? I think I'd have a PS3 now if it wasn't $599 at launch

A few possibilities(in order of likelihood):

- Blu-Ray add on drive ala HD-DVD
- "Super Elite" model with Blu-Ray for movies, wifi
- "360-1.5" freshens model line with Blu-Ray drives for movie playback and built in wi-fi on Pro and Elite
- "Xbox 720" announcement
- Blu-Ray drive added for movie and game content added across line

man, people just cant let go of this rumor

@tictoctom: "I bought a PS3 for the BR. Haven't even played a game on it yet. I'm sure there are lots of people doing the exact same thing. That's not good news for MS."

That would not be good news for Sony either! Since they lose money on each PS3 sold and expect to make it up on game sales. That is, unless you buy a shit ton of (sony studio) blue discs.

It's funny that in the Digitimes article, dated 4/2/08, it says, at the bottom, that Microsoft told them that they "..does not comment on market rumors."

Why wouldn't MS just tell them that the story is totally false? Interesting...

@Necroscope:

yup. good point.

@PearceShea: It wouldn't support games. Just movies.

"As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available."

This guy sounds like Hitler. The more you keep saying something, the more people will believe it. They need to 'unconvince' themselves now.

@illmatic291: i must not have heard about the same games as you have that are supposed to come out for the PS3...far as i remember there are only like 3 big exclusives planned for the PS3 this year. And if thats the case they will certainly not dominate in "content", also considering that one of the likely big sellers for the PS3 isnt going to have as much content as the 360 version(if you cant guess the game then your retarded) i would be willing to wager that Microsoft will still sell more "Content" this year...PS3's might sell more hardware but i doubt they will outsell the 360's games.

"As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available."

Yes, but as those games grow in size and scope, you'll need a storage medium larger than conventional DVDs, and, IMHO, this is the factor that will hand the victory trophy to Sony. If they had bundled the HD-DVD drive in the 360, instead of that ridiculous add-on, this wouldn't even be an issue right now.

If I want a Blu-Ray player, I'll buy a PS3, something about purchasing hardware for my 3rd refurbished 360, doesn't sit well with me.

I still maintain that since a Blu Ray drive would never be used for games on the 360 it renders the idea basically useless. Blu Ray movies on PS3 are great. HD rocks, but the huge storage space for games is what makes it all worth while. MGS4 will prove that in spades. 50GB worth of space for games is awesome. Game devs are not limited for space in any way. On the 360 it would only be ever used for movies.

@Sasquatch: GTA4 fits on one DVD, I'd say that's pretty big in size and scope. DVD storage capacity is not a factor, much less what will hand Sony a 'victory trophy'.

Space Limitation is not an issue I see in this generation of games, the only games that are really going to need to top over a standard dvd game, are games with way too many pre rendered videos

I personally do not believe there is a large demand for a BR add-on. There wasn't for the HD-DVD add-on, why would there be for BR? Besides, why should MS parrot Sony? Why don't they put a firm stake in the multimedia center war by seriously pushing digital downloads.

Well, maybe to do that they would need to offer terabyte drives for $50.

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: "..we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available."

'Only ONE game?'

Freudian slip. He means Halo. Just kidding!

@Necroscope: Sony is not in the red anymore for PS3. They cut prices in half weeks ago.

@Madeira: @Iceking5: Blue Dragon? Metal Gear Solid 4? Gran Turismo 5?

@Blah-Blah-Blah: "the huge storage space for games is what makes it all worth while. MGS4 will prove that in spades."

We'll see. MGS4 will be great, but is all of that space is being used to make the game that much bigger in size and scope- or is it used as an almost limitless ceiling for uncompressed game assets and audio? I mean, MGS4 doesn't look that much better than other games, and barely a few of us have the gear to take advantage of the uncompressed audio.

I haven't seen anything that proves to me that BD storage capacity is that big of a deal. Yet.

@Necroscope: They'll probably make more on winning the HD format war than they have from the PlayStation line combined. From the standpoint of having one more Blu-Ray player out there, his PS3 purchase is a big win

That's silly, the blu-ray drive, unless the person is a home entertainment aficionado, would make the 360 the 2nd tier choice for a player, if not the deciding factor to choose it over the PS3. Then again, the 360's hardware woes would make the PS3 my premier choice for a blu-ray player. Not to mention that my PS3 has a hardware problem too, but it's not as prevalent as my 360's, which I'm still waiting to return from Microsoft.

A while ago they were committed to giving consumers the 'choice' of how to watch movies. Not so anymore?

MGS4 and Final Fantasy need blu-ray so they can output those huge FMVs at 1080p resolution. Other then that the storage of the blu-ray isn't needed if you're just going to have ingame cinimatics and don't mind listening to 5.1 surround sound (who has a 7.1 system anyways?).

In fact that Blu-ray vs DVD issue is more an issue depending on what style of game you want to make. Western games tend to milk the storyline through in game cinimatics which take less time to make and cost less (while taking up less disc space). Japanese games tend to have alot of extra eye candy with less repeating assets in a level and alot move FMVs and in a world of HD, FMVs take up alot of space.

Honestly though if Microsoft really wanted to counter the Blu-Ray size advantage they should just have manual installs for games (which they won't due to that horrible arcade unit... damn you arcade unit). See Lost Oddyssy(sp) could just be 2 disc, a data(install disc) and a cinimatic disc(play disc) but instead of going that route they went with 4 DVDs which the only reason I can see that the game is 4 disc is due to all those FMV moments.

So the big advantage the PS3 has isn't the Blu-ray drive(in fact it's more of a weakness for gaming due to it's slow streaming speed which is why most PS3 games require that install now, I'm almost 100% sure GTA4 will require some type of install unless they did what the oblivion guys did and copy the game twice on the disc). The fact that all units have a hard-drive and Microsoft/developers refuse to make a game on the 360 that requires a harddrive. In many ways this hurts PS3 owners as well since crossplatform games aren't going to require a harddrive either which means the only way you can use the PS3's advantages is through first party (same can be said about all consoles really).

@Candlejack: Can I choose a little of everything?

"games are what are driving consumers"

Enough said. It doesn't matter if this is just a PR blabbering or not - it's simply the truth. A console can have wonderful mutlimedia fucntions but in the end it's the GAMES that make a good console.

What I just need is a wide range of GAMES. Bluray has close to nothing to do with the quality of games.

Also if Sega has taught us anything, drive add-ons are always a failure. Developers are complaining about the fact that they have 3 consoles to make games for, this would make it 4 and if developers aren't even using the harddrives for thier crossplatform games, I doubt they will spend extra time filling up the blu-ray with meaninful content.

So it's clear that a blu-ray addon doesn't do anything for the 360 game wise, it'll probablly just be a movie player like the HD-addon (nothing to do with games).

With a denial that weak the rumors must be true.

Microsoft didn't say they werent making a bluray drive in that statement, they just said Lite-On isnt making it...

Interesting...

Let's not forget:
[kotaku.com]
[multiplayerblog.mtv.com]

I hate to disagree with Microsoft, but as an owner of both consoles, two of my friends have bought PS3's over 360 simply because of Blu-Ray. Period.

The casual gamer wants a free Blu-Ray player included which with Sony's pricepoint, is now the case.

Come on Microsoft, put aside your pride and get a Blu in there!

@LordNova:

There isn't one game I have that really outputs on the PS3 at 1080p. They're all uprezzed. If you look at the back of the PS3 game box you often see 720p