Microsoft denies HD DVD equipped 360 ... for now

the bombshell... new 360 with internal Blu-Ray player!

It's always worth hoping :)

I still think that it might happen, you never know...

I think it's better to keep this media component seperate from the game console at this point. You can customize easier and have less wear and tear on the 360 itself. They say the PS3 will be around 10 years in this life cycle (fooling yourselves if you think it's technology is that good) but if you watch a huge amount of Blu-Ray movies and games and everything else that you do everyday do you think it's going to hold up to this amount of use? As powerful as the 360 is, and has proven to be up against the supposed all powerful PS3 I would be willing to bet the next great console that comes from Microsoft will dwarf the 360 and PS3 in all areas, and by that time there will most likely be a true standard in the media war.

I think that's good. Hopefully more media-centered entertainment options will surface tomorrow. I will be glued to Engadget for updates from CES.

i hope this doesn't happen seeing as I have one from launch and my bro just got a elite and with a new one WOW more money I have to spend.

how about an external blue-ray player which would give 360 owners "that offering the drive externally is the best way to give consumers the ultimate choice to create their own high-definition experiences."

Who wants hd dvd now that 2 big studios just went to blue ray lol

In light of the Warner announcement yesterday, and rumours that Apple are going to put Blu Ray in their computers, I don't think it would make business sense for MS to put the HD-DVD inside the 360. They need to cover all bases, and if HD-DVD goes belly-up, which sadly is looking more likely now, then they need to be able to do a switcharoo pretty quickly. If anything, they may want to have the Blu Ray external drive on stand-by!

Unless it plays HD DVD games its useless to me.

This just came in

Microsoft joins the bluray camp yaaaaaaaaa

The only thing I see happening (if anything) would be Microsoft's annouces that all blu-ray players for pc will not be compatable with windows operating systems....That would put a nice kick to the face in the format war. >;>

New 360 with Built in HVD drive...Since it uses all the same lasers as a dvd player, it could kick blu-ray's ass anytime, hell it kicks even a harddrives ass too.. Mass Effect 2 on a 1.6 TB disc.. :D

At this point, the only point to adding HD-DVD to the 360 is if games will take advantage of the capacity. If MS adds it just to keep the war going, it will only make a difference if MS replaces EVERYONE'S 360 with an HD-DVD spec model for free.

Knew it was never going to happen. Bill Gates didn't become the richest man in the world by making stupid decisions like this. HD DVD, it's high risk, they offer it as an option because of this. On the other hand, Sony put all their eggs in the basket with Blu Ray, which is why Sony sucks and MS rocks.
We all know the future, it's downloads, MS knows this, they're already kicking off and will be well ahead before half of the other contenders even realise.
Also DVDs will take a long, LONG time to go away, there's no substitute for cheap media, even if it isn't in HD.
As soon as someone makes a multi layer DVD (over 2 I mean) which uses original drives, no one will even look at blu ray let alone HD-DVD.

if they do release this, they would have lied.

won't happen, doesn't need to happen.

i mean at this point is pointless to make an ultimate xbox360 with hd dvd they should of thought of that at the beginning when hd dvd had a chance

I don't know what the obsession with a built-in HD-DVD drive is. I can't possibly see how that would be a good move for a company who's interests lie in a digital distribution future

I like HD-DVD better overall; I'll take standards over extra unnecessary storage space. I even work for Toshiba technically. But building in HD-DVD would just be a bad gamble: Blu-ray has the lion's share of studio and retail support. Not to mention PS3 owners.

Microsoft has committed to DVD9, which is just fine; there's no reason to cram the drive in there for the added expense.

They should just make a new Elite with more USB ports and built in wireless. Maybe Bluetooth, a built-in card reader, bigger hard drive, and IE7. Form factor: Smaller, lighter, whatever. That's what I'd like to see.

the PS3 would have a jump on MS if it went to downloads by the time most people would want a bigger HDD it would be cheaper for the PS3(external HDD too anyone for movies and music. 500gig on stand by for me if needed). people forgot from the jump kutaragi was backing downloads and people just laughed at him(could you imagine the time it would take to download, most people don't have that fast of a connection?they said) how quick we forget. Sony has single console adopters on there toes jumping from piller to piller as the last one falls. So far single 360 owners still have the 1 up with the amount of consoles out and a couple exclusives any hardcore gamer would love to have but even thats getting smaller. when the PS3 hits 10 million consoles sold will that still be a problem, it seemed like the perfect number to stay exclusive on the 360.

I actually just picked up a PS3 today. 80gb btw. I've been all about the 360 for a long time now but I had the opportunity to get a good deal one by trading in my old zephyr elite since I got myself an new falcon a couple months ago. All in all I spent less than $200 on the PS3. I don't have an HDDVD drive for my 360, but I do have a BluRay player that happens to play my PS2 games and grill burgers. If HDDVD comes out on top somehow then I'll get the player, if not, I've still not lost anything.

Lower HD DVD add ons to $79 with 3 movies....and a new ultimate xbox 360 with free replacement.

Toshiba to drop price of A3...still with the movie 300 to $129...maybe $99 and markets as the best value upconverting dvd player as has hd dvd capability and comes with 7 free movies so price of unit is a wash.

There is no way this will happen... ever. Even if it were planned at some point, this week's move by Warner over to the Blu-ray camp makes it downright stupid for MS to put an HD-DVD in the 360. The increased manufacturing expense just isn't worth it. Also, expect the HD-DVD add-on to disappear within a year.

The 'big news' will probably be some new iDevice; possibly a new iPod. As near everyone has stated, I fail to see any sense in coupling HD DVD and the 360, when BluRay is apparently the future of HiDef DVD. You know what I would want them to announce? Free money to those people who had no choice in opting out of Vista with their retail laptop/desktop computers.

It could still be a mega 360 just without an hd dvd drive.

Actually if you think about it, Microsoft's decision to make the HD player external makes perfect sense. Now that it appears that BR is going to win this format war, all they need to do is release a BR player for the 360. It can and will happen. Microsoft is dumb at times, but this is one where they'll need to lick their wounds. If Blue-Ray does win, everyone will be buying a PS3 (since it's one of the highest rated players). Just watch...they will announce a BR player for 360 within 6 months.

The reason Microsoft is not integrating an HD DVD player with the XBOX is because it knows (rightly) that the future of digital entertainment is direct downloads to a hard drive. With the sucess of systems such as Steam, investing millions into an HD optical format would be short-sighted.

The only reason MS is courting HD-DVD in the first place is to slow the sucess of Blu-Ray to allow R&D progression on a digital distribution model.

In laymans terms: You will be paying for a download of Halo 4 rather than buying it on a disc.

Bigger hard drives out of the box. Larger storage capacity could mean more HD downloads and with DRM just about in the ground, how about movie downloads longer than 24 hours?? Maybe Michael Bay was right!

I'd love to see all games as downloads, but don't see it being a major part of this generation. Warhawk on PS3 had a download option (you could buy the disk), and I did it. The downfall is you can't take it to a buddy's house or resell it on Craigslist. The download was painless, but it was only 812MB or so; took about 3 minutes. I like the idea though, Gamestop and all the other assholes that rape us for used games wouldn't though, and I'd imagine somehow the "disk" guys, whoever they may be, will lobby against that happening for a long time. Kinda like the car that runs on water, it won't happen.

Trekster you can't be serious about asking to see the offerings of the PS3 in the first year. I can give you quite a few, COD4 is about a week outside of a year, but does that count? No? Ok how bout Oblivion, which looked BETTER on the PS3? I KNOW that counts. Most of the ports were not better than the 360 originals, but for the most part the differences were neglegible. Now you tell me of the great offerings that the 360 had out in the first year. I'll give you COD2. Fight Night was good too (I always forget that one). The rest was typical launch console bullshit. King Kong, Madden, you know. Garbage. And don't talk to me about overpriced. How much does the HDD cost if I want to buy one for the 360? How bout the HD-DVD drive? Wireless connectivity? 4 USB ports? A 360 so well equipped is a bit more expensive, AND you'll probably have to replace it in the first year. So how is it that the PS3 is overpriced again? Don't say dumb things dude, you too Chris. How the hell can you say that the 360 is at the end of it's powerband??? Did you SEE Bioshock at all? Its only been two years dude, what are you new or something?

How are dudes mentioning yet another SKU for the 360? APPARENTLY the Elite doesn't cut it either to some. They SHOULD have built in the HD-DVD player into IT, but they'd have charged $650 for the effing thing, because thats what MS does. Bad business decisions in their gaming division. Well, maybe next gen...

Thanks to MS not having the HD DVD drive in the xbox, HD DVD has lost. Like Tiddy Pink says...maybe next time.

i wish game consoles were...well, gaming consoles.

until MS stops ripping people off of hard drives, downloads will stay where they are. I have an Xbox but when as soon as i can download torrents on ps3 the race is over.

I'd buy an Xbox 360 with a lifetime guarantee to not red ring. I could care less about an HD-DVD player.