Microsoft discusses Blu-Ray drive for XboX with Sony
Following its brief campaign to support the doomed HD DVD format, Microsoft has now apparently entered into talks with Sony to bring Blu-ray disc technology to the Xbox 360. That once-unthinkable scenario was outlined today in a report in the British economic daily the Financial Times, two months after Xbox group marketing manager Albert Penello reopened the door to the possibility. Citing an unnamed “senior executive,” the Financial Times said that Sony and Microsoft are not simply discussing a successor to the Xbox 360’s now discontinued, dirt-cheap external HD DVD drive. The newspaper said that there is also the possibility of an internal Blu-ray drive being incorporated into a new, more expensive “premium” 360 model, as it is already in the PlayStation 3.
Thusly, Sony would earn royalties from sales of a rival console–a first for the game industry. For its part, Microsoft quickly denied any move toward Blu-ray had been officially made. “We have made no such announcement,” a rep told GameSpot. “Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.” For its part, Sony welcomes the possibility of a Blu-ray-equipped Xbox 360. “If Microsoft wants to release Gears of War 3 on a Blu-ray Disc, I think we can make that happen,” Sony Computer Entertainment America’s vice president of product marketing Scott A. Steinberg said.
Source: Gamespot
Comments(68)
I’m glad now I sold my xbox hd-dvdplayer on ebay just before the announcement!
all is going according as planed
They finally got out of the failboat.
For Sony’s sake, I hope they deny Microsoft the rights to Blu-Ray. The 360 will die soon, anyway.
yeah stuff sharing blue-ray, the 360 is gona start struggling now that the ps3 is finding its legs
Well, as for gaming the 360 still holds the best odds, specially with all the exlusive titles coming this year. The PS3 is still going strong cause of it’s blu-ray drive, not the gaming experience (cept for Call Of Duty 4)
Anyway, I believe that Microsoft could file a case on Sony having a virtual monopoly on their product ?!
I agree with N-Zane. The PS3 is only selling because of its BluRay. If you want decent games and the best online gaming, the 360 is the way to go. No way the 360 will die soon. No doubt a BluRay player wil come out for the 360, not sure I will buy it though. I’ll hang on for digital distribution instead of the DRM infested Bluray, forced on everyone by Sony.
N-Zane, you haven’t really taken Resistance 2, Killzone 2, GT5, FFXIII (and Versus, MGS4, Tekken 6, God of War 3, The Getaway 3, Haze and LittleBigPlanet in consideration, have you? Seems like quite the lineup for the PS3… but hey, the 360 has like.. GoW2, right?
And I mean, most 360 “exclusives” always end up on PC anyway. So what’s the point?
Sega’s Dreamcast, which is the same generation as XBOX and PS2, had Microsoft’s Windows CE. So it’s not the first time.
The day consoles integrate seamless keyboard+mouse control for games is the day I install Linux.
I’ve been waiting for it since, well, forever and would like to see it happen.
That is a good thing to hear for blue-ray holds more info which will make the games longer, but to allow your game rival to print your games well that doesn’t sound to smart…(Like microsoft would allow sony to print gears of war 3)…The 360 will never die out, I will always buy xbox………
Yes, Rest in Peice XBOX, allways been shat and forever will be!
i wonder what will happen to xbox360 if sony doesn’t give them a blue-ray drive. Surely xbox360 will suffer a bit (maybe a lot) if it won’t be able to play HD movies and play games in high-capacity discs.
@# Jeunas
Man, where have you been living? PS3 has already support for Linux and you can connect any usb mouse and keyboard and play Unreal Tournament 3 like on a PC, better if you have a 37″+ 1080P LCD
XBOX360: owned!
Options for Microsoft :
1. Integrate Blu-Ray into XBox 360 and suffer endless
humiliation from PS3 users and Blu-Ray supporters. =)
2. Don’t integrate Blu-Ray into XBox 360 and suffer financial
losses and endless humiliation from PS3 users and Blu-Ray
supporters. =)
3. Quit the console business for the moment and suffer endless
humiliation from PS3 users and supporters. =)
Any of the above options = endless humiliation from PS3 consumers. =)
Nintendo Wii is on a league of their own, bow to crative thinking… =)
i dont understand, i thought sony sold bluray to toshiba?
why discuss with sony
@19 Sony sold the cell factory to Toshiba (since they are partners with IBM) not Blu-ray.
The Xbox is and has always been a modular system, allowing you to add stuff as needed (WiFi, HDD, HD Drive) so will be able to update itself easily.
Even beyond that the console itself isn’t so important and is just a platform for the Live community. The fact that I can carry my live profile over into any future microsoft console or even windows is what I like.
I will be getting a PS3 in a few weeks to go with my new TV, but I have no intention of buying any games yet. This isn’t because I have some kind of loyalty to 360 but because no games have yet screamed “Buy Me!” (maybe Drake’s Fortune). I will be mainly using it as a media centre and for Blu Ray.
The one other big thing about the PS3 that always put me off in the past is the controller. I know some people are loyal to one system but you have to admit the PS3 pad is a bit crappy, just a PS2 controller with some motion cotrol forced in.
Nzane: Sony should sue Microsoft on having monopoly on Windows! Your logic is excellente!
Finally that faulty POS has been owned. This is only the beginning, the slaughter the PS3 has in store for it has been a long time coming.
Microsoft su X-box finally pawned by Sony. Great!
WTF
Why are people picking sides for a games console, if one console won we would all suffer. What would be the incentive for a company to push forwards if it had no competition, and who would stop them charging even higher prices if no alternative existed.
The Xbox doesn’t currently use HD discs for games so this will have NO EFFECT on quality of gaming. All this will do is open up the blu ray disc market for those who own an Xbox and can’t afford a standalone player. Maybe in a year or so Microsoft may consider moving some games onto blu-ray, but not until it’s absolutely necessary.
W
nderful! Monopolistic M$ gets a taste of its own medicine. But SONY on the other hand is, was & will remain pure evil! I hate them equaly if not more.
Sony would be complete idiots to allow them to use Blu Ray.
Waiting till it happens, then buying a 360.
If they bring Blu-Ray to 360, I hope they make a external drive, I got an Elite but I’m not buying another 360 just for an internal Blu-Ray drive even though it WOULD be easier. I really hope this happens, I wouldn’t mind having Blu-Ray without having to buy a PS3 or a standalone Blu-Ray player.
The amount of rampant ignorance in these comments is amazing.
I am so tired of hearing PS3 owners talk about what is coming out in the future… What do you have out now ? Ratchet and Clank ? lol
Just wait till Metal Gear man…
sum1 please send me an invite to bitme.org. my email address is deathrow_2222@hotmail.com. would like 2 download sum stuff from there.
@27
yes, but the 360 is the better console
Why bother waiting for Blu-Ray add on or a “premium” Xbox360 with built-in Blu-Ray player. Just go and buy a PS3.
Microsoft taking up the blu-ray format would be a big boost for the Sony electronics company as a whole, so their is no way they would deny them the usage.
Granted to our eyes it would seem that Xbox is using a rival Sony format, but you have to remember it’s only a storage media. This has happened many times before betamax/vhs and then MCD/SDD which later became DVD after Sony dropped MCD (MultiMedia Compact Disc) and adopted Toshiba’s SDD (SuperDensity Disc).
I just beat a ps3 owner over the head with a ps3……after he started talking crap….he now believes in red ray and the king of the pototoe people.,but anyways i have a feeling ms kinda had a feeling hd was a touch and go thing from the …almost start….,as they never intergrated into the 360,just made a drive that to be honest they never really pushed for.
there game was always primary to focus on gaming ,and intergrating varios platforms of devices and not the next dvd format,i feel it was a secondary concern or even less.
well it seems the ps3 did come out on top after all. if microsoft wants sony to make blu-ray players for the xbox, then its obvious that the xbox will lose in the competition. and i’ll explain why.
the condition sony will have for the blu-ray players will most likely be that they get rights to “exclusive” xbox titles(halo, gow, etc). and on top of that, sony will hold royalties to xbox sales.
obviously bill gates just got shat on!
console arguments, reminds me of a Jerry Springer episode!
Bloody hell, I just spent an age writing an in depth post about who runs Blu-Ray and it didn’t appear.
In short Sony don’t solely own Blu-Ray, it was founded by nine companies (including sony) and now has 18 companies as it’s board of directors.
It wouldn’t be difficult for Microsoft to get themselves on the board and creating an Add-On would probably get them in the position to be voted on.
You still have to be able to program good games on it
and right now it is harder to do that on the PS3.
Because it can play movies means nothing.
i have a xbox 360 i only use it to play xbox games . all my videos are in avi files but I was thinking last month to get a ps3 so i could watch the blu-ray dvd ’s and well… because my xbox 360 got the ring of death… so i had no video games to play in the month of 9th —- 29th of feb THAT SUCK !!
There is no way Microsoft will pay royalties sony already pays Microsoft royalties due to the codec used on blu-ray is owned by Microsoft so I think in exchange for x box to have blu-ray means no royalties at all.
http://www.news.com/Blu-ray-group-gets-behind-Microsoft-tech/2100-1041_3-5330786.html
Read this article microsoft does not need sony permission it owns the VC-1 codec
MS is good at screwing the customers and making them like it, the 360 is already going to be scrapped in another year for a xbox 720 or whatever so stop buying it and wait for the next version.. system wise it cant keep up with the PS3 when they fully unleash its power Mid 2008.. now in the junk pile early xbox and xbox360… I love them guys at MS, keep up the great work!!!
Blu-ray will not appear in the 360 and they can’t make games on BD without alienating over 18m owners. Just like they couldn’t make games on HD DVD and why some 360 games span across 3 or 4 DL DVD’s.
What they can do is install an internal Blu-ray drive in the next M$ console, which will come out next year. Remember, the intended life span of the 360 is only 4 years and it came out in 2005. The Xbox came out in 2001. I see a pattern and history tends to repeat itself. Buying a 360 now is not a sound future investment and Gears Of War 2 will be one of the last major titles being released for it. The 360 exclusive line up for 2008 should be ringing alarm bells to people.
All of you PS3 owners are just mad because your system is still sitting there getting no use. Im sorry our product was soo good it just pooped little turds on the PS3. People dont buy VIDEO GAME systems to watch movies. People who dont wanna spend money on a good Blu-Ray player buy the PS3. For gamers, the 360 is where its at, always has been. OH yeah and Halo is not on Blu-Ray, a game you guys will never have. Microsoft will get blu-ray if they want and then we wont care what PS3 owners have to say, because your system will still be bad. Wasted money on DEV and Research to bring what. A millions dollar black box with 5 games and a blu-ray.
There’s few things as pathetic as fanboys…
I use my computer to play movies, so I don’t give a crap about this format war. And I’m not buying a PS3 untill there’s above-average exclusive games on it. MGS4 will most likely be a game like that, but to buy a console for one game just doesn’t seem worth it, so I’ll just have to wait longer then.
@37 jak: hahahaha where did you come up with that. ps3 will never see halo so you can stop dreaming and just go buy an xbox 360, you lost. I supported the ps2 for the longest time over xbox, but then realized that there online sucked and there where no really good multi-player games. Now they are trying to make a online system like live. Will never happen and it will never be as good. MS is years ahead of them in that, and if they want blu-ray, i think they will get it without being screwed over. Not to mention MS is supporting indie dev with a lot more tools to develop game for Win/xbox. Who cares about over priced sony anymore.
@33 Why is the 360 a better console ?
A polite & informative answer to backup your claim would be welcome.
Look back a little at Sony’s history with the Playstation machines, from the PS1, lasted a good 5-7 years and still selling now, the PS2, a fantastic machine for its time & still going strong, was outselling the 360 not so long ago btw, the PS3 has all the bells & whistles that MS forgot toput in its console, ie simple swap out 20,40,60 & 80 gb drives for lets say a 500GB ?, Bluetooth is better than wireless at transfering data and a lot faster at it as well, Blueray means bigger (way bigger) & better disc content (TDK want to go to 200GB -)) supported by over 170 members including Sharp,20th Century Fox,Walt Disney,Hitachi,Panasonic,Warner Bros & Samsung to name a few,built in (not an addon) wireless connection,an ethernet port capable of handling 1GB broadband bandwidth (phew thats a lot),HDMI already built into 1st release not 3rd,1080i/1080p output as standard,built in power supply (no additional ‘brick’ to hose somewhere),0.2% failure rate not 17% as the 360 is now.
So like i said ‘How is the 360 better’ ?
Only a complete fool would buy a Bluray extension for such a faulty piece of hardware
I can’t believe all the morons there are in these comments. This is probably whats going happen realistically.
1. Microsoft will license and Bluray add-on probably for no zero money due to them already licensing their VC-1 codec to Bluray.
And thats all. Anyone telling you any different doesn’t know their ass from their elbow. Microsoft ain’t going anywhere anytime soon so deal with it.
Final Fantasy ain’t coming out for years and Little Big Planet and Metal Gear will sell some consoles sure, but no more than Gears 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Banjo Kazooie 3, Alan Wake, Halo Wars, Left 4 Dead, Fable 2 and GTA 4 XBOX exclusive episodes Playstation owners don’t get to play.
In summary both consoles have enough exclusives to be worth owning. Anyone saying any different is pretty much a poor fanboy who cant afford both.
whats so great about a 360 i checked the site and u have to buy a load of stuff to compare it to the free online NO double A battries ( playstion 3). $449 for elite
that comes a wired head set dont know if it has wifi cant find it on site i found this though. The 1st big black box that launched Microsoft into the world of console gaming is still going strong with a library of hundreds of games, online multiplayer capabilities, and accessories for different game genres. lie. ps2 has titles coming till at least aug 08 p.s wheres all the ps3 haters at has any body notices as time goes by less badmouth about ps3 and 360 guys im not hating on 360 just trying to find why u think it better than ps3 right now also can any one give me a list why i wasted $399 on my ps3.
fan boy wars are so funny. get both systems and then talk. 360 is better system because it has the better games. only thing ps3 has over the 360 is blu-ray and who really cares about that. plus 360 will get the blu-ray ad-on eventually but it really isn’t necessary until the next console. i have both systems and xbox live plus the games make it better than ps3. really only use the ps3 as a blu-ray player
also if xbox gets blu-ray that means the ps3 has nothing over xbox.
you want go on about royalities ,just to add more to it,ms must pay sony so what,but sony must pay ms for its windows on is Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 so everyone must pay each other….
regardless of what many of you may thinks concerning which of the two consoles “owns” “pwn” whatevers… it’s just common sense to know that when it comes to media formats and whatnot… the tech is constantly changing and what was once the best is usually at the bottoms after a few years… as for the whole xbox adopting blueray… do they really need it??? not anytime soon for sure and not without bill having done his homeworks and behind the scenes developement… and if bill wants blueray is there anyone or anyways to really stop him???
whether we likes it or not microsofts not going anywhere and with his kind of financial backing all the xbox can do is get betters
but personally i likes the wii
whatelse can play games and controll ableton live
simply respex
om-1
the wii can run ableton live ??
i have 360 its ok, like a reasonable pc running well , and some games look fantastic at 1080p on my tv. I’d rather have a ps3 any day of the week cept there no ixtreme for it and no blu-ray burner L((
im still waiting for my list of why i wasted money on my ps3 besides games being exclusive and $50 to pay for online play and all the other thing u have to buy to be up to date like corny headsets with wires and foam 80s battries in controllers ha ha like my first remote control car who buy battries any more, i do for my 3 year old son’s toys360 is like a hooker u pay to get her to the room then gotta pay more for the good stuff so all 360 owner’s that love there systems are tricks instead of steping up ya game
I’ve had a 360 since launch and will be getting a PS3 to go alongside my new TV for Blu-Ray.
As far as positives and negatives I can only really comment on the 360 at the moment.
On the negative side i’ve had two failures, one was a faulty drive caused by me knocking it over that was replaced instore the other a rrod that was covered by MS warranty and fixed within two weeks (pretty easy process).
On the positive it was cheap as anything at launch compared to other consoles and with a VGA cable could be used with a PC monitor. Plenty of great games and the online Live service is beyond great, even allowing HD movie downloads.
For all the people who rely on nothing but technical specs to review a GAMES console, if that was the most important thing we’d all be playing gaming PC’s.
The HD movie downloads from XBL, are you actually buying the movies or are you just renting them?
@60
Just a rental service at the moment.
first off, sony would have to allow ms to use blue ray, who ever said monopoly was right, and when are people gonna wisen up and say hey, instead of using blue ray lets try a more updated form of compression. maybe im missing something, but i feel as though im getting screwed into a new tech when they could just as easily find a better way of compressing video. someone help me if im wrong. and for gaming….360 hands down, and i have both. the only thing i give to sony is that the sound is almost always better, but until they charge they will never be able to compete with live, hell theres over 2.5 million people on live who have played cod4 and you think it lost the console war?
WOW, maybe Microsoft should think about their RROD Xbox’s before they actually try to improve anything. They have lost loads of reliability through the reoccurring Red Ring of Death. Therefore, it would make sense to try to really get the respect back from its customers.
I owned a 360, it went RRoD, then sent it back, got my replacement, and that, within a month, went RRoD as well….so, I’m kinda pissed that they gave me a 2006 model (the defective kind).
Befored they go off exploring frontiers with BluRay, they should work on their landscape with RRoD’ed customers.
Again, the 360 only has less than 20 months shelf life before it’s replaced. The PSN will be able compete with XBL, when they start charging for it. I expect it to be cheaper than M$ currently charge and will happen before the end of 2008.
Blu-ray will not appear on the 360 due to:
- the expected arrival of the next M$ console in November 2009;
- only 3% of the 360 user base bought the HD DVD add-on;
- they would also p!ss off the 360 premium & (especially the) elite owners if they brought out yet another SKU;
- M$ can’t use BD for games just as they couldn’t use HD DVD;
- 360 doesn’t support HDMI 1.3/1.3a so it can’t take advantage of the features (mainly audio) which are inherent in the PS3/stand alone Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray is as much of a Sony format as is DVD and CD. M$ need permission from the BDA, not just Sony as M$ wasn’t involved in creating the Blu-ray standard.
With Blu-ray just (officially) winning the HD format war, do you think that M$ or any other organization/group are going to get another form of optical media in peoples homes (by the millions) in the next 2-5 years? How do you think that we, the consumers would react to another format being touted as the next best thing when Blu-ray’s potential has not been tested. DVD was successful but PC and 360 gamers can see the limitations when games start to appear on 2-4 DL DVD’s or when content is left out because it can’t hold on a disc.
So with a new console due out next year, I would say that M$ is losing the console war with the 360. They rushed to launch a console before Sony and it has suffered massive problems which have only just been fixed although it has been very successful for them. M$ still need to conquer the Japan/China region and they are failing miserably at the moment. Sales in the UK have dropped and the PS3 is picking up. We will have to wait and see how the new price drop in the 360 (Arcade has been confirmed, not sure about Premium/Elite) affects sales over the new few months.
good point spider man, can some one please tell me whats SO GREAT ABOUT 360 ONLINE compared to PS3 what are the pros and cons
all most forgot about (thizzle) u shouldnt have to have both systems to know witch would be better there are things like people who own1 and websites like xbox.com that still have pages for the 1st xbox with this (Over 500 games: Choose from an ever-expanding library of exciting titles. There’s something for everyone in every genre: sports, action, adventure, racing, and more.)(The big black box that launched Microsoft into the world of console gaming is still going strong with a library of hundreds of games, online multiplayer capabilities, and accessories for different game genres.)that right there is funny.ps2 and ps3 are better than 360 if im wrong please let me know for dvd function u must pull up a menu then u can use the controller like a ps1(cd’s) ps2 ps3 whats so next gen about that when a ps2 can do it on the fly, 1st xbox u hade to buy a remote no question…(xbox design metting lets make this system with limited capabilities so they have to buy more accessories or diffrent systems to be satisfied(ps3 design metting lets give them the best system good for ten years make price 100’s less than production make money then lower the price lower than an elite less box and give xbox customers a chance to WAKE UP
@65
Regardless of any fanboism their are certain things that MS and Sony have strengths and weaknesses in.
Sony have always made great hardware, just look at their TV’s. Their software on the other hand has always been a bit rubbish and buggy (Sony Connect, ect).
MS with the rrod problems have shown they have a lot to learn as far as hardware. But being the worlds largest software company the 360 OS is almost faultless.
Live has a central ‘gamertag’ that collects all your gaming data in a way that allows you to compare with your friends. The gamertag lists all your friends, allows personal messaging, voice chat outside games, a gamerscore based on game achievements, a star rating based on pos/neg reviews. The os has something called ‘blades’ that seperate the different sections. One of these is the marketplace that allows you to download free demos, buy game content, buy arcade games, rent HD movies and loads of other stuff.
I don’t have any experience with the PS3 software.
@65 & 67
Yeah, something similar to that will happen on the PSN when HOME is introduced (it’s in a 2nd beta phase in North America at the moment) and Sony start charging users who will get better online content than those who don’t pay.
As Sony said, the PSN will always be free but if you pay an annual subscription, you will be rewarded with extra content. I don’t think that HOME will be available to people who don’t have a subscription. If it is, they will have an extremely cut down version.
One thing that XBL has over the current PSN, is the quality of their online gaming servers. Once subscriptions are introduced on the PSN, gamers will have access to these similar better, faster servers.
If you have a PS3, you will notice changes to the current PSN Store in April. There should also be a new firmware out at the same time. All of this should happen before GTA4 is released, so I’d say early to mid April.
every thing online the same except rent hd and achievements/star rating but $50 less, as for bugs all games i play are fine so far had ps3 4 months after release. and im not a fanboy i just dint understand when xbox came out everyone who owned a ps1 ps2 turned fanboy, xbox just riped cd’s had oversized controller requred remote to watch movies and it was the best system all of sudden and ps2 got badmouthed until it got scraped. so fanboys are xbox/360 owners who got burnt and they gotta keep the hype up insted of admiting the system isnt better