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Microsoft is NOT considering Blu-ray: Rumors denied photo

Microsoft has stomped down recent rumors that it will consider Blu-ray support with the Xbox 360 following the death knell of HD DVD, Gizmodo reports. News that The 'Soft may create a Blu-ray player for the 360 if consumer demand is high enough was countered by the company, which claims that quotes were taken out of context to create the story. In fact, Microsoft gave five reasons why the story is rubbish:

1. The "headline misconstrued the context of what [was] said."
2. Microsoft is "not thinking about it."
3. It is "fairly definitive" Microsoft is not doing it.
4. Microsoft has "no plans" to build anything Blu-ray.
5. Microsoft is "totally committed to HD DVD."

Totally committed to HD DVD? Either Microsoft knows something we don't, or it's totally nuts. Stop me if I'm wrong, but hasn't HD DVD failed miserably up until this point? We're not going to tell Microsoft how to run itself, but considering that Blu-ray is looking like the way forward for hi-def formats, some consideration of support may be wise.

Then again, I really couldn't care less about the stupid DVD format wars, so maybe I have missed something that still makes HD DVD the way forward. Despite what MS says however, surely it has to be at least considering it, unless pride is getting in the way of sense.


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54 comments | showing # 1 to 50

ShadowXOR's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 10:25
ShadowXOR
Well that sucks. If Blu-ray wins I have to buy a PS3, I was hoping I could just get their cheap Blu-ray add-on. Oh well.

leshrac55's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 10:39
leshrac55
Well, I completely disagree that "HD-DVD has failed miserably up to this point", as there were rumors circulating before last week that WB was either going to stay neutral or even go HD-DVD exclusive with Fox going neutral. But after the WB announcement, I'd say that HD-DVD has probably failed NOW and that Blu-ray will likely be the next format. Of course, it still may fail to catch on based on the pricing, and could basically just remain a "luxury" item until downloads become the next "format" (which, btw, I'm not looking forward to at all).

http://alinktothefuture.com
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 10:46
king3vbo
Wait, so you dont want that baby?

Above commenter is EPIC FAIL for random spam link
Capn Birdseye's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 10:58
Capn Birdseye
I don't know where everyone is getting this "HD-DVD is teh fail" stuff from - from what I hear, it is still pretty much in the running.

Even though I don't own a PS3, I would happily buy a Blu Ray player or PS3 if Blu Ray came out on top.

However, since HD DVD is region free (from what I hear), and cheaper than Blu Ray, I hope it wins, however unlikely at this point.
wardrox's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:03
wardrox
I saw a graph... Blu rayz had a bigger bar.

Now.. to start caring.
Rhoq's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:05
Rhoq
Your wrong. HD DVD was doing just fine until Warner dropped it's bomb on January 4th.
Neonie's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:06
Neonie
Just becuase Hd-DvD fails doesnt and never did mean that they would hop on the Blu-Ray train. Whereas mabey for the next system they make, if Blu-Ray does, in fact, win the Hd war, they may include a player, they have no reason to for the current system.

And since Hd-DvD isent completely dead yet, it would be foolish for Microsoft to immediatly hop on to Blu-Ray after HD-DvD died anyway, becuase it makes them look traderous and very "Me too me too"ish, and they don't want that.

Timeing is everything.
AgentMOO's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:14
AgentMOO
MGS4 WILL BE A HD-DVD EXCLUSIVE!
ScottEFresh's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:43
ScottEFresh
YEs M$ will have to embrace it eventually. BR add-ons for PC are going to start retailing for like $200...pretty cheap for a new format drive.
Ryan 2502's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:44
Ryan 2502
I think Microsoft's tactic here is to simply stall the format war and try to establish a stalemate.

Why? Microsoft have shown they LOVE downloading. The Marketplace. The Arcade. Xbox Originals. Video Store.

They do not want HD-DVD to WIN. They simply want to keep it in the running. That's why they won't attach the drive TO the console to boost sales of the device.

They are hoping that by causing confusion and stalling the format war for as long as possible, there will be either no eventual winner, and by the time there is it will be more practical to download stuff.

Yes, I know that's a way off, but Microsoft always think in the long term- they poured billions into the original Xbox just to establish a small foothold in the market so they could take control in the future.
Monte's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:51
Monte
Completely committed to HD-DVD and not considering Blu-ray?
Yeah, right... either MS is outright lying or they are the greatest of fools.

Really, giving the option to consider Blu-ray, it would be foolish for MS not to consider blu-ray. Should HD-DVD fail, MS will have to either go with not Hi-def or go with Blu-ray, as the HDDVD players will no longer sell. Going with no hi-def format when their chief competator has one will only serve to hurt their sales; really, at that point, Blu-ray would only serve to help MS... really, if MS doesn't go Blu-ray after HD-DVD fails, it will hurt them and give a lot more strength to PS3 (as it will be the only console you can get a surviving format on)

And if they truly were committed to HD-DVD, then why not release a SKU with built in HD-DVD? As long as they offer a SKU without HDDVD, then they are still givign consumers a "choice". The only thing is, consumers like it when they can just have one machine instead of two; hence why their are many poeple who demand PS3 have Backwards compatibility when they can just have both a PS3 and a PS2... the way i see it, the only reason for MS not to offer such a SKU is because they are giving HD-DVD half hearted support
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:53
Squeewupiwupi
I'm not surprised, Microsoft was with the DVD Forum from the get go. only assholes like Sony would leave and create their own format out of greed.

I truly believe that the only reason HD-DVD isn't doing as well as Blu-ray is a severe case of superior marketing pushing an inferior product and i wouldn't put it past people to just not understand that HD-DVD is a NEW format and not just a fancy DVD due to it's name alone.
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:58
Squeewupiwupi
@ Monte

"The only thing is, consumers like it when they can just have one machine instead of two"

Yeah, and people probably like it more when they get to save money on a console by not having something in it they don't really want/need *cough*PSTriple*cough*
CelicaCrazed's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 11:59
CelicaCrazed
Please MS!! Just side with Blu-Ray and let this war end!!
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:01
Squeewupiwupi
@ CelicaCrazed

"Please MS!! Just don't side with Blu-Ray and let this war be decided my product quality instead of marketing!!"

Fixed
Quest's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:09
Quest
hehehe can't wait to see some 360 users watching talladega nights the their console :)
Quest's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:14
Quest
on their ... sry loll
Corak's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:18
Corak
Once the blue ray pc drive starts to blow up it will pretty much put the final nail in the coffin for hd-dvd. I remember dvd burners were $500 when I used to work at best buy. Now they are what $100 or less? And the discs they pratically give away with rebates.

Ms will not change their drives now, shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Once this whole debacle ends, hopefully sooner rather than later, they might have to. But until that time nothing will change.
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:35
brainderailment
@Squeewupiwupi, product quality? What more do you want. Unless you want a new format to be created, product quality isn't going to change much. Just as much as they can afford and as much as the mainstream will adopt.
vexed alex's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:40
vexed alex
I heard somewhere that the only reason Microsoft was supporting HD-DVD was so that they could throw a monkey wrench in Blu-Ray and lead people towards DLC. Don't quote me on that as it's most likely a rumor and I don't remember where I heard it from.
ShadowXOR's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 12:41
ShadowXOR
@vexed alex:

I've heard that too and it makes sense.
qo_op's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 13:04
qo_op
Why would they say that they support blu ray if they are still behind HD-DVD, that would only make them look like the money hungry non-caring corporate shit's that they are.
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 13:21
Sharpless
Let's read between the lines, here. The first statement was clearly true. Of course Microsoft would offer a Blu-Ray player, if that format became more dominant. That goes without saying. They, however, in retrospect, decided that they didn't want to sound like they were losing faith in Blu-Ray, so they retracted. Microsoft has a pattern of jumping the gun and then backpeddling -- or being asked to backpeddle.

Anyway, if anyone can save HD-DVD from total oblivion, it's the greedy, controlling bastards at MS. Ultimately, I don't really care. I think HD-DVD is the better technology, but Blu-Ray isn't exactly crap, either.
Sir Ireland's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:10
Sir Ireland
How can HD-DVD be better if it has less storage space? blu-ray has far more support now. Hopefully HD-DVD will be gone shortly.
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:18
Squeewupiwupi
@ Sir Ireland

Bigger =/= better. HD-DVD is far more consumer friendly, costing less, being completely region free(you can buy a movie that's only on Blu-Ray in America on HD-DVD from another country and it will play fine in your player), and COMBO DVD/HD-DVD discs that let you buy your movie now to work on your non-HD setup and then not have to buy another disc when you finally upgrade to HD
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:24
Squeewupiwupi
Also, You'll be hard pressed to find an 1080 HD movie that will merit even the 15gb of a single layer HD-DVD
Cheeburga's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:24
Cheeburga
I doubt it, HD-DVD is dead.
If Microsoft wants to stay in the game, they will switch.
Sir Ireland's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:39
Sir Ireland
@Squeewupiwupi though some of your comments are true Blu-ray has and for the most part always had a larger support with prices falling and now with blu-ray disc drives for computers soon coming out, more and more studios joining blu-ray I don't see how there is any point in HD-DVD continuing. In the future the storage will come in handy.
AgentMOO's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 14:44
AgentMOO
(Winks) Suuure microsoft, I'll play my NOT blu-rays on my NOT 360
MrHaVoC's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 15:12
MrHaVoC
Sony is a much more evil company then MS. Why do people keep forgetting that?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20051108/0117239_F.shtml

Screw Blu-ray and the PS3 I hope they all DIAF

mistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 15:30
mistic
i hope they won't bring it out... it would cost me way to much money... the HD-DVD-drive is not really inticing... but a bluray one just might be...

allthough I should probably just wait untill I get a PS3 with the blurayp...
Quest's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 15:57
Quest
@MrHaVoC

you must be living under a rock ... M$ is more evil then sony
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 16:02
brainderailment
"Also, You'll be hard pressed to find an 1080 HD movie that will merit even the 15gb of a single layer HD-DVD"

Oh my god.
Capn Birdseye's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 17:24
Capn Birdseye
There is alot of conjecture here. Anyone actually have any proof that HD DVD is dead, or that Blu Ray is better, or that there is some sort of big conspiracy by Microsoft to force a stalemate in the format wars?

I heard Elvis isn't dead and works at Burger King, too.
Squeewupiwupi's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 17:35
Squeewupiwupi
@ brainderailment

Sorry, that was supposed to read "merit more than the 15GB" my bad
qo_op's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 17:38
qo_op
@Squeewupiwupi : Wut?lol. you can't be serious. But anyway, if HD-DVD is so consumer friendly then why is Toshiba the only manufacturer of the players? Either way, the consumer has spoken, time and time again every month Blu-ray outsells HD-DVD 2-1 sometimes more.
Boolean's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 17:54
Boolean
1) How many stand alone Blu-Ray players are selling compared to HD-DVD?
2) How many PS3 owners actually intend to use the Blu-Ray drive for movies?

We all know that Sony LOVES to tell everyone shipping numbers of their consoles rather than the consoles sold, so I can't help but think that the Sony is using the 'We have XXX number of Blu-Ray players in place, therefore HD-DVD loses', despite that perhaps only a fraction of PS3 owners ever intend to use the Blu-Ray drive. It's like the Wii, just because 10 million people bought the thing hasn't meant much when decent third party games release.

If HD-DVD really wants to stay in the running, I think they need to start doing surveys out the wazoo showing that PS3 owner != Blu-Ray movie purchaser.
MrHaVoC's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 18:10
MrHaVoC
@Quest

Point to an instance where the CEO of MS said that because most people didn't know that malicious software (secretly installed by the company in question) was infecting their computers it didn't matter. MS doesn't have to be evil because their software runs on 90% of the computers sold in this country. Sony doesn't hold 90% of the market on anything they sell be it game console, computers, tv's etc... MS puts out products that suck and we have to wait for them to be fixed but they don't install shit in their own products secretly and them tell the consumer to go F*@k themselves. Enjoy your PSP and PS3 you sad Sony fanboy. BTW tell me when you get a decent game for any of those systems. Nothing for a new sony system got anywhere near the top 10 games of 07.
frygar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 18:39
frygar
@MrHaVoC

Would you like a hug?
MrHaVoC's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 18:42
MrHaVoC
@Frygar

If you are a hot chick then yes I would like a hug. Otherwise I would enjoy intelligent responses to my comments ;D
frygar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 18:47
frygar
@MrHaVoC

The irony of your response is so thick, I'm not certain even a Ginsu knife could cut it.
MrHaVoC's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 18:55
MrHaVoC
@Frygar

Look up the definition of irony and intelligent response. Hopefully someday soon the two of those concepts will come together in your mind and a beautiful baby comeback will be born and he will be held up for all others to see and we will know he is the lord.
FingersTehHand's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 19:01
FingersTehHand
I was expecting Captain Obvious to announce that.
frygar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 19:39
frygar
@MrHaVoC:

lol wut?
Monte's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/10/2008 23:36
Monte
@Squeewupiwupi
I really only see the region-free as the true advantage of HDDVD... i mean, yes HDDVD is a cheaper, but if you look at Price per GB Blu-ray gives you more for your money; so in a sense Blu-ray is cheaper. As for DVD-HDDVD combo dicks for those who do not have HDTV yet, this is only useful in the short-run... looking into the future, such a feature will end up being useless as HDTV's become more common... good idea for today, but not so much for tomorrow.

One thing poeple think about when they look at the formats is not what we need now but what we are gonna need for the future... after all, the longer the format last, the longer we can go without having to move to a new format. The new format is gonna be used for everything that DVD's are currently used for... in many cases, the more crap a consumer can fit on a single disk the better... think back to when you had to use CD's... i remember having tons of CD's worth of crap, it felt great when i was finally able to burn DVD's and able to get more stuff on one disk. really, i think disk size is the main concern for most poeple looking at the new formats and is the reason why Blu-ray is getting more support now.

Grant, the region-free is porbably the only really great thing that HDDVD has that Blu-ray doesn't... but that won't make it a winning format... afterall, it's the movies studios who will end up pushing which format wins, and they don't care about importing and exporting cross region; if they want their movies sold in another country they will just make a version for that country and send it their themselves instead of having consumers order imports. i imagine that the poeple who really need regional-free disks are in the minority... i know a few poeple who are in to importing lots of stuff, but i know a hell of a lot more that don't

@Boolean
I think Wikipedia has all the info on players sold and what not... i'd have to double check, but i think they may even separate stand alone blu-ray players and PS3's

Yes it's true, just because someone bought a PS3 doesn't mean that they are buying Blu-ray movies... however, one thing that is easy to assume is that their is a very high chance that they eventually will start buying them; they are future customers. Once HDTV's become more common place, and HD movies become cheaper to buy, those PS3 owners who never intended to use their console as a player will very likely start using them... What do you think easier, convincing poeple to buy HD movies, or convincing them to buy HD player and THEN HD movies... really, the studios consider the PS3 owners all as potential customers and will aim to push for them... Really, the arguement that "PS3 owner =! blu-ray consumer" would fall on deaf ears since the studios will still them all as potential consumers (if they aren't now, they will be; is more or less their line of thinking)... Poeple already have blu-ray players so let's give them blu-ray movies... thinking about it, considering that PS3 is hurt more by it's poor library than it's price; had the 360 included HDDVD from the start (same price as PS3 but better library), HDDVD might be winning at this point

furthermore, the studios are also looking at the sales of Blu-ray movies vs HD-DVD movies... even if their are PS3 owners that aren't buying blu-ray, the fact is that their ARE poeple buying them. And i think Blu-ray was doing better when it came to sales of Blu-ray movies
SubOrbital's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/11/2008 00:52
SubOrbital
Stupid Blu-Ray. The last thing I want to do is give Sony money by buying their format. I'd rather both formats die than support their monopolistic quest.
Quest's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/11/2008 14:17
Quest
@MrHaVoC

read this

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1163

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1189

so you were saying again about sony for malecious software ??? lolll


next time shut the fuck up little fanboy
Quest's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/11/2008 14:21
Quest
@MrHaVoC

oh i almost forgot

MrHaVoC's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/20/2008 22:26
MrHaVoC
@ Quest

To Microsoft’s credit, the updates in question were actually limited to updating Windows Update’s own files. Also, the only reason this update occurred is because the alternative would mean that Windows Update itself would stop functioning properly, according to Microsoft.

“That result would not only fail to meet customer expectations but even worse, would lead users to believe that they were secure even though there was no installation and/or notification of upgrades.”

Wow a company trying to make sure that their customers have something that helps their computers whether they know it or not is far from Sony's secret installations of a rootkit through their MUSIC CD's which should have no impact on a computers' performance or operation. Remember that MS is by and large a computer software manufacturer and you would expect some modifications to your system by using their products, you wouldn't expect that from listening to a music CD on your computer.

Remember this quote was directly from the CEO of Sony BMG (that means he is the top dog not some lackey press agent)

Hesse defended Sony BMG from the criticism it has received. "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" he commented.

Here you go Quest read up on rootkits and make sure you know the difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

You better put the lid back on that mustard fatass, there will be no celebratory burgers for you :(

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