Microsoft has no plans for Xbox 360 Blu ray drive

After the Blu ray vs HD DVD war came to a crashing end last week with the HD DVD format being declared dead, there was intense speculation over how Microsoft would react. It seems, for now at least, there are no plans for an Xbox 360 Blu ray drive.

After the Blu ray vs HD DVD war came to a crashing end last week with the HD DVD format being declared dead, there was intense speculation over how Microsoft would react. It seems, for now at least, there are no plans for an Xbox 360 Blu ray drive.

After Toshiba announced they would be ceasing manufacture of all HD DVD products, it was thought Microsoft would be forced to move allegiance over to Blu ray, and bring an add on drive out for the Xbox 360.

In an interview with Eurogamer, John Schappert, Corporate Vice President LIVE, Software and Services for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft stated that there are currently no plans for a Blu ray drive for the Xbox 360:

“I don’t think we have any comment on that right now or any plans, but my focus is I’d rather give you community gaming and contribute to more games you can play and focus on the fact that you’re walking in, you’re buying that box and it plays great games and has the best online service. I think the fact that it does movies and sometimes TV shows in other territories is great but not the primary reason.”

“What I’ll say is we have nothing to comment there. We have no plans to announce or anything like that right now.”

And the reason for this lack of enthusiasm for an add-on? Well, according to Schappert, the attach rate for the HD DVD drive was only 3%, which means Microsoft don’t feel the need to make it a priority.

Instead, it seems the company is going to concentrate on the games, even if those games are just the crappy user created content that they seem intent on pushing to make Xbox Live more worthwhile.

“I’d also urge you to look at the attach rate for the HD-DVD drive.”

“It was a 3 percent attach rate. So again, when you’re saying ‘the obvious thing’, you also have to take into account how did the other accessory do when you look at the future. We have nothing to comment right now on that and my focus is how we make Live better, how we get more great games and how do we empower the community.”

This is going to be a disappointment for all Xbox 360 owners, who may not have bought the HD DVD drive due to worries about the long term viability of the format, which have obviously now been proved right. But now that one high definition format has emerged victorious from the long and bloody battle, more would be likely to take the plunge and buy an add on for their console.

When everything is said and done, all we can be sure of that Sony is laughing long and hard that they saw fit to include Blu ray in the Playstation 3 right from the beginning. There’s no doubt it has helped sales, and could see the PS3 leapfrogging the Wii to win this console generation war.

Source: http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/02/23/microsoft-has-no-plans-for-xbox-360-blu-ray-drive/


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