Xbox 360 still open to Blu-ray add-on should HD-DVD fail

*article from inquirer.net:

HOW MANY times can you get kicked in the balls and still get up? I managed it once after about 10 minutes of drooling, wishing the world would end and mewling in the kind of really high voice only dogs can hear. While I would like to see some scientific experiment on this vitally important topic, I am not volunteering – unless, of course, I’m doing the kicking.

You know those bits in movies where the hero gets kicked in the balls and falls over into a foetal position of almost-dead proportions but, then, miraculously manages to groan and battle his way through the pain in a superhuman effort over numerous minutes to skewer the baddie who’s been monologing, as usual, about being victorious and evil and all-powerful etc. etc. In kids movies, it’s even better, because the hero can get kicked in the nuts, crush them falling onto pipes, run into things with them and have speeding projectiles smack into them repeatedly but still recover. Right now, if the HD DVD camp was a cartoon character it would have balls swollen to the size of a hot air balloon from all the kicking it’s been getting lately. With the shock defection of Warner Bros. to the Blu-ray camp this week, it’s possibly time for HD DVD to cup its nads and crawl off to the nearest casualty unit where it can share stories with other balls-kicking victims like Betamax and UMD.

Blu ray good, hddvd evil.

"digital distribution is the way of the future"

Very very very FAR away future. We wont see any of that until MAYYYBE about 3 or 4 more console cycles down the line.

Take CD's for example, they arent going anywhere soon either even though tons of music is being downloaded via Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo, illegaly lol at the moment.

I don't understand why digital distribution is thought of being years off, when it's already here-- it's just in it's infancy.

You can download PC games from Steam. You can download games from GameTap. You can download games and content to all the major video game consoles. You can download/stream SD/HD movies and TV to the 360. You can download music and video content from iTunes. You can download/stream movies from Netflix. You can download/stream TV content from Hulu. The list goes on and on.

It will certainly evolve and get better as time goes on.

In regards to digital distribution being the way of the future, people tend to forget that DVD consumers and "movie buffs" fit a very specific demographic profile. Most are "collectors". They don't want to pay money each time they feel like watching their favorite movies. Think about it. What percentage of homes in this backwoods country even has broadband? The argument is less about watching the actual movie, but more about the fact that their DVDs look awesome all stacked up on their bookshelf. Yes "digital download" sounds great to geeks, gamers and techno dorks, but normal people won't screw with this any more than they're screwing with Hi Def DVDs. Anyone who thinks digital downloads are the "way of the future" seriously need to consider what type of consumers they're catering to. I'm sick of hearing about digital downloads from smelly tech-babblers who actually believe consumers will pay for their shit more than once. Anyone remember what happened with the original Circuit City Divx program? It sank miserably and for all the same reasons.

Please everyone immediately stop with the, "I'm perfectly fine with marketplace downloads of the same material." You won't waste your precious download bandwidth on non-bittorrent DRM protected content and you know it.

What I would like to see is Microsoft selling a dual format player. I like the performance and reliability of HD DVD but, after the Warner decision, I see most of the content on BluRay. As I've stated before, the only way to not be left out as a consumer is to have a player that supports both formats. For under $300, I'd buy it.

by the time microsoft is ready to release a blu-ray drive standalone players will be much cheaper then they would charge for it anyways.

That update -
It's ridiculous. Affordable prices for them! The final price for the consumer is the same.

i was so close to buying a HD DVD add on to my 360 now i think ill just buy a PS3

Man, every site I have gone to for news on the format war is already declaring Sony the victor in the current console race. Guess I should sell my 360 and Wii and buy a Ps3.

Heh, I love the update since it shows what total hypocrites they are. MS is basically saying "Consumer choice is great but we're not going to give it to you. No indeed, you can take this crappy HD DVD add on or nothing at all."

What they actually mean by "consumer choice" is consumer confusion and they're sowing as much of it as possible amongst HD DVD and Blu Ray by propping up the inferior format to prolong the war as long as possible.

Well I don't understand it at all. Some people complain about the blu ray format like it's being forced on them or saying that the ps3 should remove the blu ray feature to make the ps3 better. It doesn't make any sense, The blu ray format is in no way affecting games on the ps3 or how they perform. So whats the problem with it? Other than that I think its a smart move if Microsoft gets the blu ray add on.

Same time last gen, when Dreamcast made it in before PS2 with an old gen CD drive, it later down the road failed miserably. Now im not saying the 360 is going to face a death the the DC, but the optical storage format due help and determine a winner, even if its not in the gaming scene.

that picture is so awesome