The Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Blu ray Saga
The recent demise of HD DVD as a format, after it lost its long and hard fought battle with Blu ray to become the future choice for high definition movie lovers everywhere, is set to have a massive impact on the games industry, with Sony’s decision to stick a Blu ray player in the Playstation 3 now looking like a piece of forward thinking genius.
Meanwhile Microsoft backed the HD DVD format, which Toshiba has now officially killed off by ceasing manufacture of all hardware, and face the choice of doing nothing to combat the help this will give the PS3, or move forward and produce a Blu ray drive for the Xbox 360 instead.
If you’re one of those unfortunate Xbox 360 owners who bought the HD DVD add on, you may now be out of luck in trying to ditch you defunct technology, as some game shops in the US are already refusing to accept them for trade in. I expect other chains around the world will also follow the same logical steps.
Rumours are also rife that the price of the HD DVD add on for the Xbox 360 will be slashed to bargain basement levels, with $49.99 being the rate cited by an inside source. Even at that price though, it’s not worth buying, as you’ll soon find the limited number of movies available in the format getting a bit dull. It’s a dead format, just save your money.
There’s no doubt that the PS3 having a Blu ray player included has helped the format succeed, and now it may work the other way around, with Blu ray helping the PS3 overcome the Xbox 360, and maybe, in time, even the Wii in terms of console sales.
Will Microsoft now bite the bullet, admit they were wrong, and release a Blu ray drive add on for the Xbox 360 to go head to head with the PS3? Not so according to the first utterings from Microsoft HQ, with John Schappert saying they currently have no plans on that score.
He cites the low attach rate for the HD DVD drive, which was only a reported 3%, but maybe that’s because people were waiting to see which format would emerge victorious before splashing their cash?
The only thing we can be sure of is that Sony is laughing long and hard over the whole thing, as once again, the Playstation 3 strategy which was mocked for a long time, is now coming good.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I wouldn’t get ahead of yourself. Blu-ray and HD still has a long way to go in terms of market penetration and install base. It may not be until the next generation of game consoles that Blu-ray really takes off (or doesn’t, as the case may be).
March 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
[...] since HD DVD as a format died a bitter death back in early February, there has been speculation over what Microsoft would do now that their [...]