Blu-Ray drive for 360 by Christmas

[UltimateFighter]

From http://www.psu.com/node/10948

During a recent interview in Japan, Peter Moore told reporters that Blu-ray could be heading to 360.

IT Media was informed by Moore that the 360 will see a Blu-ray add on, similar the to the HD-DVD add-on, before Christmas. The drive will give 360 owners the power of viewing Blu-ray disc movies much like the PS3. No announcement was made on whether or not Blu-ray games will be playable, but given Microsoft's stance on HD-DVD games, playable Blu-ray titles are highly unlikely.

The only question is, can the 360 support Blu-ray as well as the PS3? Sony and Microsoft each adopted either Blu-ray and HD-DVD respectively, in hopes of creating a new standard format. Moore said that the hopes of HD-DVD becoming the standard are now “bleak.”

The PS3 was completely built around Blu-ray which gave the format the upper hand over HD-DVD in delivering high definition movies to as many homes as possible. Moore insisted that “Microsoft is giving the consumers the most cutting edge technology out there and in this moment in time Blu-Ray is that.”

He added “that whatever the outcome of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war, the Xbox 360 can adopt the dominant format since it uses an external drive.”

The question remains: can the 360 repeat the PS3's success as a Blu-ray player, especially as the Premium Xbox 360 has no HDMI output