Microsoft has said it has no plans to develop a Blu-ray add-on for its Xbox 360, and will focus on digital downloads instead.
You might recall that
Microsoft had thrown in its lot with
Toshiba and the HD DVD revolution, selling add-on boxes for its
Xbox 360 console.
That revolution ended far short of the palace gates, with HD DVD vanishing like snow in the sun, and the general expectation has been that Microsoft would begin to offer a Blu-ray add-on, given that Blu-ray has emerged as the winner in the HD wars.
But in a
Reuters interview, Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, has firmly denied that Microsoft has any plans to delve into Blu-ray. Instead, the company was diving into digital downloads as the way to distribute content, including HD downloads.
"Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the
Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience. We're the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content."
Some consumers will have noticed that Xboxes have been out of stock lately, due to production problems, but Greenberg promised everything would be back to normal by April. Handily, that will be just in time for the release of the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 4, with the Xbox version boasting exclusive content.
Paul C on Mar 18th, 2008 at 8:34 PM:
Yeah, didn't Microsoft say that they would never put an HDMI port on the 360??????