MS surrenders to Sony; Blu-ray coming to 360
Steve Ballmer confirmed to Gizmodo that they will be adding a Blu-ray device to the Xbox 360.
When I asked Ballmer about adding Blu-ray to the Xbox, he said:
Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.
Though he says it with certitude, the timing of any kind of Blu-ray accessory is unclear.
This is yet another victory for Sony. The year of the PS3 continues…
wanna be happy?
use sony and apple
hahahahaha
I don’t really see how this is a victory for Sony, but whatever.
I was holding out on getting a PS3 for about 6 months back when the Netflix deal went down with Microsoft. I figured if I could get a Blu-Ray drive for the 360, I wouldn’t really need a PS3 right then and there and could wait for a price drop..but then MS said they would never do it blah blah so I got the PS3 in October 2008…now look…bastards. Everybody should remember though, no games will be in Blu-Ray format since it would be suicide for MS to force an add-on to play games. Add-ons NEVER work.
At least Blu-Ray doesn’t really benefit gaming at all. All it did for the PS3 was force game installs because the access speed of the BD drive in the PS3 was atrocious.
By announcing this though, I think MS realizes that when they can’t have complete control over the internet connection speed/caps in the world, their idea of streaming video replacing physical media will fail. It’s a great idea and I’m all for it, but most people can’t afford/acquire the bandwidth necessary to stream 1080p or even 720p reliably. And if you are not in the US, you have bandwidth caps in place that totally kills the idea. Until something happens with that, the physical media is going nowhere.
How is it surrendering? HD-DVD drives were just an accessory, and so is this. If anything it gives people one LESS reason to buy a PS3.
Now you can have fantastic games AND blu-ray movies on the 360.
@seven2s
I THINK what they are referring to, now that I thought about it a bit, is equating Blu-Ray with Sony, even though Sony is just one of many companies that back Blu-Ray. I guess you could say that Sony surrendered to Toshiba when the PS2 came out, but that’s just silly. But I do agree, a product like this could take away potential sales for those who would otherwise buy a PS3 for the Blu-Ray functionality rather than the games. So how is this GOOD for Sony? Maybe Sony Electronics, but definitely not Sony Computer Entertainment.
He isn’t talking about addon for 360 but in general BD-players that you can buy.
@Wrtn
I suppose you’re right. He did use “drives” in the plural sense, so I think he is referring to stand-alone players which are now becoming increasingly affordable. He just misused the word “accessories” because I don’t think a standalone player should be considered an accessory. It’s misleading..unless they plan on allowing third party blu-ray drives which is incredibly unlikely considering we still can’t use third party HDDs
Adding support for a disc format is surrendering to Sony? Uh, I don’t think so losers. But at least with the 360 it will be an optional addon that you can pay for if you so want it. Unlike the overpriced, feature-ridden lump and wreck that is the PS3. Don’t want Blu-Ray? Too bad. Don’t want wi-fi? Too bad. Want an optional HDD? Too bad.
@erik
I agree with you except for the hard drive. You have to be a real cheap-ass to not want an included hard drive. Unless you are buying your system for little kids, everyone needs a hard drive nowadays. But yeah, if the PS3 didn’t come mandatory with a blu-ray drive, the cost would never have been through the roof and they would have been doing just fine instead of fighting this uphill battle they have been involved in for the past 3 years. It doesn’t help gaming whatsoever. DVD would have been perfectly fine.
SDF i want a animated gif, king Sony, kid M$, please.
But another question is how much will MS make a person pay for this player? We all know that there “properitery” harddrives and wi-fi are priced stupidly, and I can’t imagine this device will be any different.
$100 for this accessory, no more than that imo.
@tendonut
I really think that I could get by without a hard drive. I mean I wouldn’t have all the badass shit like the Fallout 3 dlc. But I think I could get by with a small memory card if need be.
@InfaredChimera
For anyone who already has a 360 a $100 Blu-Ray player wouldn’t be all that bad.
@erik
But even if you where to buy the Blu-ray player at the same time of buying a 360 (arcade unit), you still just spent $300 and still have to buy a HDD for it.
But if you had your 360 for a while, yeah a $100 blu-ray player would be worth the extra scratch.
@InfaredChimera
“But if you had your 360 for a while, yeah a $100 blu-ray player would be worth the extra scratch.”
Which was pretty much exactly my point the entire time.
@erik
I know, I was just agreeing with ya. But it doesn’t matter anyways since it ain’t happening.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/22/psa-microsoft-not-planning-blu-ray-drive-for-360/
@InfaredChimera
Heh. Think SDF will print a retraction?
@erik
Nope, hell would have to freeze over then it would have to thaw out and froze again. And then it would have to noterized.
Someone should tell their tweeter twit that there’s been a cock up at Fox ne- SDF
I can get a bluray player at wally world for $150, A much better deal than the only-good-for-movies POS3 and I would guess any addon player for 360. Since I got my 60gig PS2 playing POS3 for $149, I have a very good bluray player. Oh, and LBP, the only game I like to play on POS3.
My 360 as well as my son’s 360 is constantly played.
Still waiting for that retraction…
you ps3 fanboys still dont get it how does microsoft surrender wen they put blu ray on the 360 mean they surrener? it aint like they said “oh here we surrender so we’re going to put blu ray on xbox”. so how does that have anything to do with surrendering?