Microsoft has issued a two-part statement denying the possibility of HD-DVD in the Xbox 360
after rumors that the company had begun finalizing plans to release an updated Xbox 360 as early as next spring.
The first part of the response, as quoted by IGN: "Microsoft, in both America and Japan, has not announced anything regarding the possibility of a next generation DVD drive being placed in the Xbox 360." (Not strictly true. In an interview with him, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told us, "Look, for us to say we're going to go through a whole generation without an HD capacity drive—I think that would be naive to assume that we'll be sitting here at the end of the Xbox 360 generation and no such device will have shipped."
The second part of Microsoft's reponse: "There are currently no plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with a next generation DVD player." Whether that is true, none of us can know. Is taking their word for it naive?
