Xbox 360 with Blu-ray: talks under way

Posted on March 7, 2008 
Filed Under Xbox 360

xbox 360 imageThe synergistic successes of Sony’s PS3 game console and the Blu-ray format have convinced Microsoft that it’s time to play ball.

Microsoft and Sony are now in talks about adding a Blu-ray drive to the Xbox 360, the Financial Times reported. Sony needs to make a move: The Xbox 360 console currently offers an outboard HD DVD player, a cheap plastic thing dedicated to a last-gasp format. (They’re going for about $50 now via Amazon vendors.)

Incorporating Blu-ray functionality into the Xbox 360 Elite would be a great move, strengthening the XBox’s superior video offerings. The Xbox Marketplace already has a robust download service for movies and TV shows, some in HD.

Here’s hoping the Blu-ray drive goes internal, eliminating the pain-in-the-ass aspects of plugging and unplugging an add-on unit, and finding a spot for yet another hdmi wire. Microsoft had no comment, the FT reported.

Sony Electronics U.S. president Stan Glasgow told a media dinner that he did not agree with widespread crystal-balling that has the Blu-ray format being quickly run off by video downloading. Consumers want their shiny discs, he said.

“Downloading will build over time, but this will be over a period of years,” he said.

Apple, which has focused on downloads via its iTunes store and Apple TV, also is in talks regarding Blu-ray, Glasgow said.


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Comments

One Response to “Xbox 360 with Blu-ray: talks under way”

  1. funnyvideo! on March 11th, 2008 8:03 am

    cool!

    since hd-dvd have lost the dvd ‘war’ i’m looking forward to have the one and only format on the market blu-ray!

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