Microsoft: lots of reasons why Xbox 360 won't go Blu-ray

[xtop]

http://www.qj.net/Microsoft-lots-of-.../49/aid/127829

Since Sony decided to lay out its cards in the light of CES 2009, it's only fair Microsoft does too. In a recent interview, Microsoft's Robbie Bach explains why they'll never introduce Blu-ray on the Xbox 360.

The biggest reason? Xbox 360 gamers just aren't that interested. But let's let Bach do the talking:

It’s not a feature we get a ton of requests for. We really don’t. When you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list.

The second thing is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. We can’t have publishers produce games on Blu-ray disc. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space.


The third thing, and this maps to all three of those, is that it costs a lot of money. And so the scenario is, OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.

Oh, and by the way, I have an even better way for you to get high-definition content straight to your TV, between the combination of what we’re doing with Netflix, what we’re doing with (video on demand), we have a great Xbox Live solution. In a way it’s a little bit of a technology looking for an answer. We just have no plans in that space.

Fair enough. A lot of multiplatform games were delayed simply because programming was that much harder on the PlayStation 3. It can be argued that a great game needs proper time to develop, but when a mediocre game gets delayed on both consoles because of programming issues on the more sophisticated console, that bites.

Then again, sticking with the DVD format has its downsides. The most obvious one is that you just don't have the advantage of space, as proven by games like LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. A big reason why both games couldn't appear on the Xbox 360 was because of the lack of space on the DVD.

[Septimus Prime]

Those are some very legit reasons, and I think it's cool how he didn't blatantly lie about it. But then I've been saying the same thing for a while.

[ChoosyLobster]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

Those are some very legit reasons, and I think it's cool how he didn't blatantly lie about it. But then I've been saying the same thing for a while.

I agree but Microsoft does not have any other alternative but to go to blu ray when the new console comes out

[Septimus Prime]

Originally Posted by ChoosyLobster

I agree but Microsoft does not have any other alternative but to go to blu ray when the new console comes out

I think so too, but a few people think that they would go BD with the 360.

[MoPe]

Then why did the release the HD-DVD drive? It's not like they could format the games on the HD-DVD anyways, so what was the point to release a HD-DVD drive?

Obviously releasing a HD-DVD add-on drive :

"...is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space.


The third thing, and this maps to all three of those, is that it costs a lot of money. And so the scenario is, OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it."

[Septimus Prime]

Originally Posted by MoPe

Then why did the release the HD-DVD drive? It's not like they could format the games on the HD-DVD anyways, so what was the point to release a HD-DVD drive?

Obviously releasing a HD-DVD add-on drive :

"...is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space.


The third thing, and this maps to all three of those, is that it costs a lot of money. And so the scenario is, OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it."

I'm thinking the HD DVD drive's market failure is what caused them to see it that way. Back then, the format war was still a toss-up, sort of (not really), so MS could have been a pioneer in the industry if that horrid thing succeeded.

But now, they see that they have few benefits to reap with such an add-on, so there's probably no reason to follow up a mistake by repeating it.

[MoPe]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

But now, they see that they have few benefits to reap with such an add-on, so there's probably no reason to follow up a mistake by repeating it.

They should include a coupon to redeem a free BRP add-on, for all the hell they put through 360 owners.

I like my 360, but I will NOT be purchasing a new Microsoft gaming unit when they do come out with the next-gen unit. No way.. A crappy product, with crappy customer service. No thank you.

[Monkey]

They might want to have made that list of BS excuses public before they slept in Toshiba's bed Instead they got curbed stomped right along with Toshiba by Sony and the BDA

[Septimus Prime]

The other thing we have to consider is that Xbox division could very well have been receiving pressure from MS Corporate to include that HD DVD mess, since, at that time, MS as a whole was an HD DVD supporter.

On the other hand, that's not how it is now. The cat is out of the bag that MS wants to push digital distribution, but I think that MS is supporting BD anyway with its Windows line shows that there is indeed demand for BD and that they most definitely recognize that. They just don't really have to pressure Xbox division to support something they don't really believe in as a company.

[Oddiophile]

#1 reason Microcrap won't make a Blu-Ray drive for the 360, they would owe money to Sony for the royalties.


There not going to pay there competitor when there trying to take all there gaming business away form them.

[Septimus Prime]

Originally Posted by Oddiophile

#1 reason Microcrap won't make a Blu-Ray drive for the 360, they would owe money to Sony for the royalties.


There not going to pay there competitor when there trying to take all there gaming business away form them.

That's ridiculous because Windows already supports Blu-ray, and MS and Sony (VAIO) have a working relationship already.

The reasons given make far more sense than that.

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

That's ridiculous because Windows already supports Blu-ray, and MS and Sony (VAIO) have a working relationship already.

The reasons given make far more sense than that.

exactly

I dont know why people allways forget about this

[jamclaur]

Originally Posted by xtop

The second thing is, from a technical perspective, it doesn’t help us in the core of what Xbox does, which is in gaming. We can’t have publishers produce games on Blu-ray disc. Because then they won’t play on the 28 million Xboxes we’ve already shipped. So it doesn’t help us in the core gaming space.

that makes LESS than zero sense. NONE of the 360 games play on xbox... so why would the new system require a format that is compatible with the 360?

I think he just wanted to say how much they've sold, as if trying to say they didn't need BD. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see them offer 1080p games on a strictly DL basis... Lets see how cost effective those hard-drives are. since gamers will be able to fit what, 3 or 4 games on the current line-up if it was ONLY DL.

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by jamclaur

that makes LESS than zero sense. NONE of the 360 games play on xbox... so why would the new system require a format that is compatible with the 360?

I think he just wanted to say how much they've sold, as if trying to say they didn't need BD. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see them offer 1080p games on a strictly DL basis... Lets see how cost effective those hard-drives are. since gamers will be able to fit what, 3 or 4 games on the current line-up if it was ONLY DL.

He is talkng about releasing newer blu ray 360's

not about blu ray on the new Xbox all together

Try reading again, before coming so eager to bash at MS


ofcourse , saying that for the new xbox model 720 or whatever, would make 0 sense. but it makes perfect sense for coming out with a newer model of the 360 with a blu ray drive

[york weir]

I'm sure there are customers that want it but historically add-ons fail. Look at the HDD for the PS2, 32x, sega cd, hd dvd addon etc.

[Monkey]

It isn't cost effective for them to sale an add-on now considering the pricd of stand alones. Secondly an MS insider Amirm mentioned the bandwidth required isn't even possibly on the 360. HD DVD barely worked and not fully functional.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Monkey

It isn't cost effective for them to sale an add-on now considering the pricd of stand alones. Secondly an MS insider Amirm mentioned the bandwidth required isn't even possibly on the 360. HD DVD barely worked and not fully functional.

I don't think anyone believes what Amir says anyway.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

As a multiplatform gamer, owning many systems going all of the way back to Atari 2600, including all 3 current systems, I will say that it makes plenty of sense not to try to include Blu-Ray in the Xbox 360. And there probably isn't a lot of demand for it to be included.

Obviously, they cannot at this point start to make BD games for the 360, because as the article stated, it would alienate the many people who already own the system, and that would not be a good idea at this point.

So, the only possibly use would be for movies. But to include that would drive up the price of the system (assuming they were to build it into an updated model), and it would be pointless to do that (IMO) since the games, themselves wouldn't benefit from it.

And if they were to make an add-on drive, it would probably end up costing at least $200, if not more, and at this point you can get a decent stand alone Blu-Ray player for about that price.

Plus you have to figure that they will be coming out with a new system within the next 2 to 3 years, I would imagine. And since they haven't already started, it would take quite some time to develop Blu-Ray for the 360, so by the time they would even release it, the system would be on it's way out.

And while I do enjoy playing games on the system, given the failure rate that the system has, I don't see any reason why anyone would want to use it to watch movies on Blu-Ray, DVD, HD-DVD, or any other format (including the netflix downloads).

Even with people who haven't upgraded to hi-def movies yet, anytime I hear of someone using the 360 as their DVD player, I just want to smack them with a rolled up newspaper and scold them like a dog that just peed on the floor, and say, "NO!! That's Baaaddd!"

On another web forum that I frequent, there is an ongoing general video game thread, and one guy was talking about how he had to keep sending in his Xbox 360 for repair, and kept saying how he uses it for games and DVD movies, and I kept telling him that he should just shell out a few bucks for a decent upscaling DVD player to play his movies on. Using the 360 for movies just adds pointless wear on it. I don't think he ever listened though.




Having said all of that, the part that I don't fully agree with in this article is where they imply that the extra time delay in porting a game to PS3 is because of the Blu-Ray format. Now, while it's possible that there may be some differences (beyond the storage capacity) between writing games to a DVD vs. a Blu-Ray disc, at the end of the day, it's just a storage medium. Unless I am way off base here (and feel free to correct me if I am), any difficulty that may exist in programming games for the PS3 would be a completely separate issue, having to do with the actually processors or whatever in the PS3, and would have almost nothing to do with the format itself.

It's sort of like the PS1 vs. the Sega Saturn. Both were CD-rom based systems. But the Saturn was more difficult to program for because of it's hardware, meaning the actual 'computer' portion of the system (and not the CD-rom drive, itself).

So, as far as I can tell, Microsoft making that statement implying that PS3 being difficult to program for is because of the BD format is il-informed and bogus. And there is no reason why Blu-Ray shouldn't be included in their next system that will eventually replace the 360 entirely.

[opterasis]

Just out of curiosity, do some of you ever go back and read your posts and realize what children you sound like with the name calling and complaining?

[Maximus]

It is not in MS's interest to announce that Blu-ray was actually a better bet than HD DVD right now. Not while 360 sales are still doing alright, it would dent their image and actually make that silly chart from SCE look relevant.

I firmly believe that MS will be using HD DVD in their next console instead of Blu-ray most of the ecosystem is in place already (thanks to Toshiba) and it gives them massive protection against piracy as it is nearly impossible to produce anything more than a 1x HD DVD-R.

Obviously this does leave the whole no HD optical disc content, but by then the XBL marketplace will have a good enough selection of HD-Lite movies to keep or rent along with Netflix style streaming services.