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Moore: Blu-ray Xbox 360 add-on possible

  • By Staff, GameSpot
  • Posted Jan 10, 2006 11:32 am PT

Xbox marketing chief says Microsoft could release peripheral for the Sony-backed disc if HD-DVD loses format war.

At Microsoft's big CES keynote address last week, Bill Gates announced that the company will release an add-on peripheral to read HD-DVD discs on the Xbox 360. Considering that console rival Sony is a primary backer of the competing Blu-ray format of high-capacity discs, it came as little surprise that Microsoft would side with Toshiba's HD-DVD standard. The company's support for the HD-DVD camp has been apparently strong, with reports from late last year suggesting the company is offering cash incentives to PC makers that adopt HD-DVD drives into their systems.

However, despite the obvious preference for HD-DVD, it seems Microsoft isn't willing to completely tie its fate to the format just yet. During CES 2006, Microsoft's Xbox corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing Peter Moore told Japanese site ITmedia that a Blu-ray Xbox 360 peripheral could appear for the system if the need arises. Moore admitted that Microsoft isn't sure of the next-generation format war's outcome, with the worst-case scenario being a repeat of the Beta vs. VHS war of the '80s.

However, he suggested that whatever the outcome of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war, the Xbox 360 can adopt the dominant format since its uses an external drive. He also suggested that it's a weak point for PlayStation 3, saying Sony's system is stuck with Blu-ray. Microsoft hasn't announced how the HD-DVD peripheral will connect to the Xbox 360, but it's most likely going to use one of the system's USB ports. While the PS3 may come with Blu-ray out of the box, there's no apparent reason an external HD-DVD drive couldn't be hooked up through that system's USB ports.

Moore once again confirmed that the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 is only for watching movies, and there are currently no plans to use it for games, nor are there plans to release an Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD drive.

Switching to the subject of the Xbox 360's launch in Japan, Moore admitted that sales have been slow in the country. He said the biggest factor contributing to the poor sales in Japan has been the lack of games, as only six titles were available at launch. He cited the delay of Dead or Alive 4 as being particularly influential to the less than stellar debut of the console.

When asked if Microsoft considered delaying the console's launch until there were enough games for the Japanese market, Moore said it wasn't an option. He added that a global launch within 2005 had been Microsoft's business goal and a change to that plan wouldn't be considered, especially since Japan is a vital market. Moore once again emphasized that Microsoft is taking the Japanese market seriously, developing multiple titles catering to the Japanese audience such as Blue Dragon, produced by former Square executive Hironobu Sakaguchi. Moore hopes that the titles will boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan in the future.

236 Comments

  • luna_chanfui

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 6:46 pm GMT

    They said PS3 is better than 360 although the game is less on PS3. If you're a Xbox user, will you buy for external HD DVD add on? and how about if M$ want to change to Bluray once they found that they have no space for the latest game?They will ask you to buy external Bluray add on again.. I wonder why M$ still sturbborn and why not having bluray by now... Killswitch308 you're true, if 360 has BLURAY NOW, PS3 might doom..seriously..

  • Killswitch308

    Posted Jun 8, 2008 1:50 pm GMT

    I don't know why people think the ps3 is better then the 360. it doesn't have the games to compete, and with the possibility of the 360 having blu-ray, that would tear apart any chance the ps3 had of beating the 360.

  • Zoomer30

    Posted Mar 15, 2008 12:03 am GMT

    The PS3 still has the 360 beat in the are of reliability. You could make a addone for the 360 that did holographic movies and made you coffee at the same time and it would not help.

  • AngelnX

    Posted Mar 10, 2008 11:58 am GMT

    This is a chance for Microsoft to give its 360 a huge push over the PS3 even further. All of my friends only bought their PS3 for the blu-ray because its the cheapest player. They only have a coupld of games in their PS3 library because all other games they can buy for their 360 and since everyone else has 360 for xbox live, why not! See, that would be my only reason why i would get a PS3 is because of blu-ray. I hope Microsoft adds a blu-ray player!

  • RonTorque

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 5:05 am GMT

    @Eaglez7711: You are Right.Although It might happen soon not that soon....but soon that Microsoft obtains Blu-Ray.
    If this happens then the PS3 Will be Disposable...Sorry for the PS3 Owners i don't mean to flame or be rude or anything but i think if Microsoft put it's hands on the Blu-Ray this means that every thing will be in the X box and Sony don't wanna loose it's customers so this process will take time.This might not happen...Nobody is sure and you never know what might happen....It is just a theory.

  • Eaglez7711

    Posted Mar 8, 2008 8:00 am GMT

    Lol, Sony owns blu-ray you idiots. Microsoft aint getting blu-ray with this kind of competition. Face it.

  • LycanBane

    Posted Mar 3, 2008 7:45 pm GMT

    sounds cool, I have a 360 so that'll make things easier for me. I'll get a ps3 some day.......just don't know when

  • Ocelot113

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 4:18 am GMT

    BloodLoss - "... game developers aren't capable of filling either Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs."

    Thats not true. They could fill it. The problem is this generation hardware wouldn't be able to run it though. Supreme Commander for the PC was up to like +15 gigs at one point. Thats a full HD-DVD.

  • RakinR

    Posted Jan 9, 2008 7:27 pm GMT

    im just pissed hd dvd lost the war. microsoft should just make an external hd dvd and blue ray player if possible if they dont want want to make it built in ...

  • Sammojo

    Posted Jan 8, 2008 6:25 pm GMT

    Isn't Blu-ray a Sony product? How will Microsoft get Sony technology into the Xbox 360 when the PS3 is trying to compete? Doesn't make sense to me, unless they don't need Sony's ok to do it.

  • viiral

    Posted Jan 7, 2008 4:27 am GMT

    I could care less about who wins the war, all i want is the f'd format war to end to get rid of some of the annoying fanboys.

  • Martin_G_N

    Posted Aug 7, 2007 3:18 pm GMT

    hehe....Microsoft was never going to make games on other formats than DVD (good luck with future games), so the only reason you buy a Bluray or HD DVD add-on on the x360 is because of movies. And how will they get 1080p from the x360? Because the x360 doesn't support Digital HDMI, only analog. Most new tv's don't support 1080p through analog HDMI and that there is an copyright thing on BluRay that also makes it difficult through analog. For the future, and I mean future(10-20 years from now) they can add more layers to the disc's, that can give up to 200 GB of storage space on one disc. Sony invented the CD, so why shouldn't we trust them now. CD is still in use. You will see how important BluRay is to the game developers in the future, they can have big textures so when you run the game in real 1080p you can see much more details. How big do you think World of Warcraft would be if it was made in HD??....BIG....it would take up alot of GB.

  • BloodLoss

    Posted Jan 17, 2006 5:38 am GMT

    Do any of you really care if Blu-ray or HD-DVD wins!?
    I'm getting the PS3 and the 360 for the games...
    I dont care what type of disc the games are released on. Dosent matter one bit!
    I highly doubt that you'll see any difference in game quality from increased space on the disc format. At least not this generation. Why? Because game developers aren't capable of filling either Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs.
    Give it about 5 years, maybe 4 before you'll see a game the fills out any of the "next-gen" disc formats.
    They'll both be pretty useless for years to come if you ask me.

  • jrhawk42

    Posted Jan 17, 2006 3:15 am GMT

    My only worry is that it won't be worth it to buy any of the add-ons for the 360. Sure you can buy a HD-DVD or blue ray add-on, but for how much? I know microsofts peripherals are ussually the highest quality, but they're also the most expensive. For example it cost 100 dollars for the 20 gig add-on for that price I could buy an external HD well over 100 gigs. I will give props to Microsoft for not putting in a next gen disk drive, and driving the cost of the system way up.
    r.s. I'm not gonna mention anything about the ps3 or sony because it doesn't even pertain to this story.

  • moori_moori

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 8:58 pm GMT

    For those Sony fanboys, you all are expecting TOO MUCH.
    1st. the price of both PS3 console and a game title. 2nd the enormities of data in a game. Both of that are irrational in business world. Think about it guys. Imagine you own a gaming company, what would you do? Would you make a very great great game which required most of your resource (time, money, etc.) for an affordable price? Would make a very NEW GEN console which you invested lots of resources for years in a very affordable price? Remember, you're doing business, doing for profit, not making a donation. Your objective is not MAKING ALL GAMERS IN THE WORLD LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!
    So I suggest you not to expect that much, or you'll suffer from your own expectation.

  • killab2oo5

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 8:55 pm GMT

    ...Blu-ray is bad for this generation,its just alot of uneeded space.HD-DVD would be better...DVD-9 is good enough still for the next gen of games.Look at computer games like Half-Life 2,Doom3,F.E.A.R.,all really high graphical games at much higher resolutions than consoles and they still fit on one DVD-9 disc...there's PLENTY of space on the standard DVD's...SONY just want to hype up the PS3...But if a next-gen format was to be on both consoles,it should be HD-DVD.

  • Rayze78

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 8:19 pm GMT

    I find it dissappointing that they say the HD DVD format for the 360 is going to be used for only movies....MOVIES!? I got this to play games, not watch movies (well, actually I WON the 360, but anyway). Well, it says there are 'currently no plans for games.' Thanks for being vague. So maybe someday there will be plans for games? I'm sure the device will be great and everything, but use it for games, for frigsakes, not movies.

  • ebax7588

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 8:08 pm GMT

    PS to all you idiots out there.
    A troll is no better than a fanboy jackasses.

  • ebax7588

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 8:06 pm GMT

    You know what, I already own an Xbox 360, and as long as it's not too expensive, I'll be willing to upgrade. I'm not really a fanboy, I'm just a consumer like anyone else whose actions ultimately decide what happens. That's who it is folks, Gates is rich, but he doesn't sit around cackling in his office about ripping people off. Worst case? I go back to CD-ROMs and play Final Fantasy VII on my PSX, who's with me!?

  • Qwert929

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 3:28 pm GMT

    Oh yeah forgot to say something,
    Stop... Can't Touch This.

  • Qwert929

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 3:27 pm GMT

    by the way, there are too many damn posts. B/c no-one in the RIGHT mind reads down all the way to page 22. Seriously. Im sure no one is even reading this now. But if you are, you dont need to post Another damn comment about Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD. Trust me.

  • Qwert929

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 3:22 pm GMT

    Poor HD-DVD... if it loses... i'll feel very damn sorry

  • evilyoda861

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 2:35 pm GMT

    crapheads.

  • monster4545

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 2:14 pm GMT

    Haha, I cant believe people are calling Microsoft smart about these dicisions. They're basically feeding from Sony's hands and besides that, all the poor saps with Xbox360's are gonna have to buy two external drives to get the full experience from their console. sad.

  • Ace_The_Ace

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 1:03 pm GMT

    Gosh! So much for faith. I would be affended if I was a company making a HD-DVD.

  • masiisam

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 12:40 pm GMT

    I think it is a smart move. MS did not develop the technology; MS is only “supporting” it by default. Who in the business world supports what the other guy is doing. Now that is stupid. So I don’t understand the comments that MS needs to pick a side. What do they care? Best case scenario is that they don’t support Sony with there Blue-ray technology. If not they make an external drive for 360’s. Even then who cares by the time that games need that amount of space, the drive will be cheap. It is wash just like the argument that MS needs to pick a side.

    Sony HAS to include blue ray into there next Gen. How the hell would that look to the shareholders and consumers if they did not? It will show there lack of confidence in there OWN technology. So Sony has set its path and will have to run with it no matter what. That’s a pretty expensive coin toss. If blue ray does not win, Sony is between a rock and a hard place. They now have a platform that is “out-dated.. per say.

    Yea you can “throw” more information on the Next Gen disk, but who said that will happen. It is still up to the developers. When that time comes that developers use all that space, and then people will complain that games now cost $100.00

  • masiisam

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 12:39 pm GMT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • ChiefHunter1

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 12:36 pm GMT

    Games on Blu ray disks will probably cost between $70 and $80. I wouldn't want to pay that much for a single game. I am already mad that I had to dish out $60+ for my 360 games.

  • Zorak000

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 10:54 am GMT

    as long as either HD/blu can't play games for 360, come back to my when I care...

  • miiiguel

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 10:30 am GMT

    side-note: I meant BR as an acronym for Blue-Ray (here in Portugal, markting campaigns tend to use the name Blue-Disc) - sorry.

  • miiiguel

    Posted Jan 16, 2006 2:20 am GMT

    Sony must force the use of BD, because they don't want to have another "Beta system" in their hand: so what better way to push BD, then put one inside a super-hyped device such as PS3. It's not, in my opinion, because of their concern for the game's quality. It's a buisness move - but some of you have really putted Sony's shirt...

  • mythrol

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 11:29 pm GMT

    Nintendo is using regular DVDs. This is actually a smart move if you think about it. MS releases its console at a reduced price by going with regular DVDs. Right now games only take up roughly 3 - 4gigs. Because of the graphics of the 360 you wont need prerendered movies on it, you can simply use the gaming engine to produce all the graphics. Maybe towards the end of the life cycle of the 360 will games start to run out of space but for the first 3 - 4 years it wont be an issue. Heck with the way compression technology is, storage might not be an issue for a long time. The PS3 is forcing you into buying HDTV technology. If you dont own a HDTV, then whats the point of buying a blu-ray movie? None. It wont look any better. 90% of Americans dont own HDTVs. So basically Sony is forcing you to buy technology with the idea that "eventually" you might use it. Atleast with MS idea they arent forcing you spend more cash. Only those people that WANT to watch HiDef movies will buy the expansion, those gamers that just want to play games wont. This is very similiar to the DVD remote in my eyes. If you want to watch dvds on your xbox, you buy the remote, if not, you dont. That way they can keep the system price down and offer consumers more options and better pricing. Its a great idea.

  • metalmulisha808

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 9:34 pm GMT

    this whole war between BRDs and HDDVDs is making it hard for next gen consoles to decide what format to use. i wonder what ninteno is going to use?

  • mathias89

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 9:17 pm GMT

    Just another proof that microsoft is not strong minded enough...for example nintendo is still hard with its policy for "inovation" now if it works or not is another thing but at least Nintendo is reliable...with Microsoft, it seems that one day you can buy something they say is vital and the next day tis worth nothing..

  • halopower67

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 9:08 pm GMT

    i think it is very intelligent of m$ because....seriously...what game is going to have over 9 gigs of data thats just outrageous!!! so sony is just putting the freakin drive on the ps3 so the ppl have to pay more, on the other side m$ gives you a choice and doesnt force you.

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    Posted Jan 15, 2006 8:55 pm GMT

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  • Lex_Luthor_XLII

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 8:26 pm GMT

    Actually ChemKill, what they were saying was if for some reason HDDVD wins out over BR, Sony *will* be "stuck" with BR.

    M$ can go either way, which is technically smarter. Pay more attention next time.

  • ChemKill

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 8:15 pm GMT

    wow kids, i like how most people fail to see that the ps3's BD player is completely backwards compatible with cds and dvds. So not only do you get to play games on BDs but also on the other formats as well. And well, as said before (slight paraphrasing) "Who cares about blue-ray, all the space is redundant", it pretty much comes down whether or not you want to play/watch in High Def or Standard Def. Plus in the future its safe to say games will get very large. Anyways, to sum it up, Sony isn't 'stuck' with anything, and M$ isn't doing anything 'Smarter' than anyone else.

  • Tuffg

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 7:33 pm GMT

    this format war with blu-ray and hddvd is just retarded! Whats the point of it really! I don't get it at all

  • TwistedMindX

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 7:06 pm GMT

    This is all such a big Gamble...

  • whitey3221

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 1:22 pm GMT

    It's is the smartest thing for microsoft to do really. Somebody please tell me that if you owned a company in microsofts position that you would not do the same thing. Where the PS3 is released afterwards they can take their pick now and that will be used for sure for all PS3 games. Microsoft though has the opportunity to wait and see which is more popular or if one is actually better than the other, so I say why not wait? Anybody that would not wait in Microsofts position has bad business sense that is all it comes down to if you actually think about it and not just be a playstation or xbox fan.

  • mardigrasmorgan

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 11:48 am GMT

    talk about straddling the fence and not picking a side.... way to make a stand a bold play... more like hurry up and pray.....

  • Psycho_Teen

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 9:18 am GMT

    I like that M$ is backing both sides but im just disapointed they launched the system with out a hd dvd drive while i could care less if halo 3 is on 4 disks what about games like ultimate spiderman or gta who try to make it one countinuing experience with out load times will they still want to publish for microsoft? Of course chances are they will and you will just swap disks at every island in gta and such and they will probally have special hd dvd and blue ray versions like they have on pc that all fit on one disk.

  • Cyberdemon_2k

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 8:49 am GMT

    i dont normally post on these, cos its mostly just fanboy **** madness but i had to reply to one comment i saw..

    "microsoft is giving us a choice by releasing a hd-dvd drive and bluray drive where as sony is not!"

    need i remind you the 360 is out! microsoft have thier mind set on other things such as perphials and games and windows vista now the 360 is out, however sony has yet to release its ps3 and they are concentrating on that as much as they can, so dont go ****g on about microsoft giving more choice when the ps3 is still being developed!

    /rant

  • ROCKINGFOOL

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 3:08 am GMT

    guys guys guys
    whats wrong you its ok to play 2 dvds or 3 dvd games and the ppl who is arguing about it is propably their @ss is so big they cant move 2 inch to their console youll only gona do it every 30 hours of gamplay fat albert

  • CrayAku

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 3:00 am GMT

    The HD-DVD/Blu-ray war so why cant they both be plast in to the new E3 consol's it woed be a big hit if you all do HD-DVD/Blu-ray then we will find out what is the best consol out ther (xbox 360 or PS3)

  • CrayAku

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 2:45 am GMT

    Bring on Blue ray 25gb 50gb 100gb

  • dcsytail

    Posted Jan 15, 2006 1:41 am GMT

    Smarts choice MS. guys if 360 came with Blu Ray it will be cost exspensive and beside now u pay what u get right? guys do the 360 games not look great to u? the graphics sucks? try to think about it xbox360 just started and the games u are playing now the developer not yet push the 360 to the high-end. so dont worry about the Blu Ray btw MS is going to make external so u can buy it if u want and MS didnt force u all 360 owner to buy it. And the PS3 if ps3 really runs games with blu ray but just use 4-9GB on the blu ray and u need to pay more $10-$15 do u really gonna pay for that...

    Dont worry about the Blu Ray or HD-DVD like i said"u pay what u get" but i will buy the external drive for 360.

    Another thing if PS3 Blu Ray rom broken after 3 months u know how exspensive it will repair or maybe replace. thing about it dont just yelling i ps3 rock hail for sony ps3....

    xbox360 owner playing DOA4 ^^

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