Another day, another
horrible rumor. Microsoft will not
announce that the Xbox 360 is getting Blu-ray on Monday.
This latest rumor does give me a good chance to cover Shane Kim of Microsoft Game Studios saying the Xbox 360
is set
to last seven years. This would clearly go against what I’ve been
saying about the shelf life of the Xbox 360 playing into Blu-ray considerations,
so I’ll admit that I’m wrong on that front.
That said, I still don’t see an Xbox Blu-ray addition near-term.
If they are going to stick with
the Xbox 360 and focus on games, the community aspect, media downloads, etc
then a Blu-ray Disc drive still doesn’t fit into their plans. An internal
drive isn’t can’t be used for games, an external drive is not going to allow
the Xbox 360 to compete with the price of the
PS3. There is still little advantage
from Microsoft’s perspective to do Blu-ray in the Xbox 360.
Console design and graphics are
getting to the point where the Xbox 720 will most likely not blow you away in
comparison to the Xbox 360. What has
more chance of bringing in gamers are new experiences, which is why you will
see that Xbox
motion sensing controller before year’s end. On the media side, downloads are still
Microsoft’s business more than ever, Blu-ray isn’t.
Update: Bach says
no Blu-ray on Xbox 720
Cross Posted from Chris Lanier's Blog at
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/