Blu-ray equipped XBOX 360 confirmed, Q3 2008, Your comments?

After months of rumors and denials, the XBOX 360 with a Blu-ray disc drive is due to be manufactured soon and shipped in Q3 of 2008. Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, is reported to have received the winning order from Microsoft for a Blu-ray equipped XBOX 360.

Earlier reports cited Lite-On as the company with the privilege of building the new console for Microsoft. Lite-On is also currently one of the suppliers of the internal DVD drive fro the XBOX 360.

One of the strong points for Sony's Playstation 3 has been the integrated Blu-ray player. The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had admitted that Microsoft had been working on support for Blu-ray under Windows during this year's Mix08 conference. Rumors began to swirl and many began to expect Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the XBOX 360.

However, Microsoft came out and denied all rumors, stating that they were not exploring any kind of Blu-ray add-on or in talks with Sony about integrating Blu-ray into the XBOX experience. The software giant stated they would continue to invest in its XBOX Live online service as the means of high-definition content delivery. Toshiba received a crushing blow earlier this year at CES that Warner Brothers would be Blu-ray exclusive. This eventually led to Toshiba withdrawing from the HD format war and the demise of the XBOX 360's HD-DVD add-on. It is interesting to note that sales of the XBOX 360 lagged behind Sony's PS3 in the month of February, the same month Toshiba withdrew.

Many expected the death of HD-DVD would trigger a growth in Blu-ray hardware sales. However, to the dismay of the industry, acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray has been dismal.

The PS3 is one of the cheapest (relatively speaking) Blu-ray players available — and you get the console thrown in for good measure.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/xbox-blu-ray-360,5272.ht.ml(remove the "." between ht and ml)

I alrdy own a elite, ill see if there's a need.. then get a add-on if there is ;-)

You guys?

Where is confirmed?

Oh, on a site I've never heard of before.

No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. Hunter_1410

Blu-ray is primarily own by Sony, but not Sony alone, besides have you seen a Sony Laptop VAIO? what OS their running? its all business

[QUOTE="Hunter_1410"]No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. aniMAXXX

Blu-ray is primarily own by Sony, but not Sonly alone, besides have you seen a Sony Laptop VAIO? what OS their running? its all business

Very True, its all business. But if they were to merge, they would lose loyal customers, becaause of "Fan Boyism" but its a really good idea that they do merge, it would benefit all

Where is confirmed?

Oh, on a site I've never heard of before.

FearTheRain

You've never heard of TomsHardware.com? LOL - yeah it's one of the largest and most popular industry tech sites on the net. TomsHardware is as legit as they come.

But yeah - I still don't see any confirmation - though MS has said for months and months that they were exploring the BluRay option - we'll see. :)

No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. Hunter_1410

well for one ps3 and 360 is not merging if it true it just taking there dvd drive thats all and puting into there use and when the next xbox comes out xbox whatever its called will be king of every thing agaist the ps3/ps4. because only thing ps got over a xbox atm is blue ray and little better shading thats all i see ps3 fanboys be saying they got nothi over all the games we got king of online gaming so on

and btw its bussiness get use to it if you want good job when you get older other companys make stuff others take to make better thing just with these systems companys made the chips to run in them and sony/microsoft took them. i would see something about the wii chips but it still has gamecube chipc inside

It will happen eventually, although i dont think it will come built into the system except maybe for some special edition console like the Halo 3 one.

But for now, this thread gets my vote for president of fail.

MY I ASK WHATS THE POINT OF DOING THIS? SO POEOPLE CAN WATCH BLUE RAY MOVIES? BECAUSE YOU KNOW MICROSOFT IS NOIT GONNA ALLOW ANY COMPNAY TO MAKE A GAME THATS ONLY ON A BLUE RAY DISC. better yet whatsx the pooint in blue ray in gamming world right now? i really dont see one game going over a dvd yet ya in the futer but not atm

sorry for caps above keyboard being stupid

k2theswiss

ur rite they will never make a game that is on a bluray disc bcuz then us ppl who bought the 360 b4 bluray wouldnt b able to play the game unless they sell an addon but then they r goin to force to buy an addon which will never happen bcuz they would lose to many ppl

[QUOTE="k2theswiss"]

MY I ASK WHATS THE POINT OF DOING THIS? SO POEOPLE CAN WATCH BLUE RAY MOVIES? BECAUSE YOU KNOW MICROSOFT IS NOIT GONNA ALLOW ANY COMPNAY TO MAKE A GAME THATS ONLY ON A BLUE RAY DISC. better yet whatsx the pooint in blue ray in gamming world right now? i really dont see one game going over a dvd yet ya in the futer but not atm

sorry for caps above keyboard being stupid

bssauter13

ur rite they will never make a game that is on a bluray disc bcuz then us ppl who bought the 360 b4 bluray wouldnt b able to play the game unless they sell an addon but then they r goin to force to buy an addon which will never happen bcuz they would lose to many ppl

Ya but nowing micro, they will come up with a solution.

No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. Hunter_1410

BUSINESS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, GOODNIGHT.

No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. Hunter_1410

Wow you really don't understand the tech industry at all do you?!?!

Here...

Case and point: According to your arguement no Sony computer can possibly be running Microsoft Windows right? ;)

LOL

Where is confirmed?

Oh, on a site I've never heard of before.

FearTheRain

Not confirmed. Technically, this thread should be locked due to the factually wrong thread title, but I'm not the reporting type ...

My opinion is that this story is pretty ridiculous. There is no benefit to MS having an internal Blu Ray drive in the 360. Since it couldn't be used for games AND would be quite a bit more expensive than the regular SKU, it would look particularly bad in comparison to the PS3. It makes no sense and MS has denied this repeatedly, just like they did with the built in HD-DVD player.

My two cents...

LOL @ Microsoft.

:)

[QUOTE="FearTheRain"]

Where is confirmed?

Oh, on a site I've never heard of before.

DataDream

You've never heard of TomsHardware.com? LOL - yeah it's one of the largest and most popular industry tech sites on the net. TomsHardware is as legit as they come.

I'm also surprised to see a comment like this about Toms Hardware. It's one of the most popular tech sites on the internet, easily as big as a site such as GameSpot (if not bigger).

Sony makes computers, right? If Vaio computers come pre-installed with Windows on them, then M$ can make an Xbox with Blu-Ray. If it's a wise business decision that's all the companies care about.headninjadog

Sony doesn't own the blu-ray format, in case you're wondering.

this might sound like a dumb question but if you have a 360 that has built in blu ray wont it have to play its games on blu ray disks or can it have two different sets of laser readersltfan15

Blu-ray players can read DVD's, and 360 games are imprinted on DvDs.

I doubt that people will buy it. Id rather buy a ps3 instead to be honest.killerfist

Smart very smart.

No way this can be true, reasoning being Microsoft and sony have always been rivals. Imagine if they were to merge, ist just impossible, they have been at war for YEARS. Although the idea seems rather possible, imagine sony and microsoft craeted a new console system, well it would lead to no more Console Wars, high sales and economic benefits for sony as well as microsoft. BUt its a long shot chance. Hunter_1410

What are you talking about? Of course sooner or later MS will have to have BR this or next gen it is inevitable. Bluray won the format war with HD DVD it is the next standard replacing DVD. If MS wants to stay competitive they will have to get blue ray either they like it or not.

For you to see what i am saying i will give you an example. What if the format was DVD instead of being Blue ray would MS have used CD??? or may be floppy disks??

[QUOTE="k2theswiss"]

MY I ASK WHATS THE POINT OF DOING THIS? SO POEOPLE CAN WATCH BLUE RAY MOVIES? BECAUSE YOU KNOW MICROSOFT IS NOIT GONNA ALLOW ANY COMPNAY TO MAKE A GAME THATS ONLY ON A BLUE RAY DISC. better yet whatsx the pooint in blue ray in gamming world right now? i really dont see one game going over a dvd yet ya in the futer but not atm

sorry for caps above keyboard being stupid

bssauter13

ur rite they will never make a game that is on a bluray disc bcuz then us ppl who bought the 360 b4 bluray wouldnt b able to play the game unless they sell an addon but then they r goin to force to buy an addon which will never happen bcuz they would lose to many ppl

The article was about a Blu-Ray add on for the 360. Learn to read for christ's sake.
And they would allow it if the storage limitations become a problem. If developers start making games that only Blu-Ray can handle, then they would be losing money by not having support for that format. I'm just interesting in seeing how much this drive will actually cost.

Where is confirmed?

Oh, on a site I've never heard of before.

FearTheRain

This would kill Xbox360 totaly, because everyone will have to throw away old xboxes and new ones. I wouldn't do thatCarnikoid85

Why would everone have to throw away their xbox's and get this one? It won't .. that is WILL NOT run any games on blu ray discs. It will be only for movies, and mS has stated that if they ever go for BD and HDDVD addons they would only be used for media.