Microsoft's Steve Ballmer talks Blu-ray support

by Scott Jon Siegel on Mar 7th 2008 12:30PM

At Microsoft's Mix 08 Internet Conference in Las Vegas, company CEO Steve "Monkey Boy" Ballmer took a moment during his hour-long session to address Microsoft's official stance on Blu-ray, following the death of HD-DVD.

According to Ballmer, Microsoft plans to support Blu-ray in "ways that make sense." The company is already working on Windows device drivers, and with Sony in talks with Microsoft about the possibility of building a Blu-ray add-on for the 360, it's only a matter of time before Ballmer's dancing around and chanting "Blu-ray! Blu-ray! Blu-ray!"

Source

Tags: blu-ray, microsoft, sony, steve-ballmer, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (55)

Who cares.

Stand-alone blu-ray players will be $99 soon enough!

soon = not before 2010
?

...soon enough

That doesn't mean next week!

I'm thinking summer 09' or even winter 08'.

They'll probably be $299 by Holidays 08 and $199 by Holidays 09. But that doesn't negate the attractiveness of a sub-$200 add-on this summer.

"They'll probably be $299 by Holidays 08 and $199 by Holidays 09. But that doesn't negate the attractiveness of a sub-$200 add-on this summer."

If they still sell for $299 by the 08' holidays they still won't get those high sales volumes. The players have no reason to still be priced in the high $400 range right now. I'm hoping for $199 by this winter and hopefully $149 by summer 09' and therefore $99 by winter 09'.

If they take too long they will lose the market that is composed of the DVD-happy consumers that make up the vast majority of the current market. The Warner Bros, Paramounts and Disney's don't want to wait another 3 years for the market to accept this new media massively.

Money Money Money...

p.s I am a new Xbox360 owner (Dec 07') and I honestly see no point in getting a blu-ray addon. So stop voting me down! :P

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&rlz=&q=external+Bluray+drives&um=1&ie=UTF-8

Yeah, that add on will be cheap....

Nope...Sony themselves said that they wont even reach the $200 mark any time this year. Sounds like $100 players are a long ways away. No surprise here though.

A match made in Heaven that only fanboys oppose to.

agreed

That guy is out of his mind! It's SO AWESOME.

JESUS CHRIST ITS A BALLMER GET IN THE CAR

SO the next Xbox in 2012 / 2011 will have Bluray drive?

Nice only better it will be a fast one.
Or HDD in standard for 5GB+ installs....

I am so glad I was a Switzerland in this format war.

By the way... 20GB Xbox 360 will no longer be in production... they are going to be replaced by a 60GB version.

You hear that first... fernandorocker.com =p

http://www.trustedreviews.com/gaming/news/2008/03/07/EXCLUSIVE-60GB-Xbox-WILL-Replace-20GB-Model/p1

Joystiq will delete this post, I know.

You really should make your own website, that would be awesome.

They'll delete it because:

A. Its not really on topic
and
B. They have a tip submission form.

I'd visit your website.

meh, u suck. :P we all know that is inevitable.

it's like saying: "I know from inside source that Xbox 360 will have a Blu-ray addon!!" after Blu-ray won. We all know that, it's inevitable.

I'd troll your website. Every website needs their own Fernando.

The addon will be announced at E3 prob around the $150 region. How do i know this? I own a Delorean.

Hey can I borrow it? I wanna go back and unbuy the PS3.

I keed I keed!!

*shusss* Don't tell the Sony fanboys but so do I.*shusss*

If it's not out in like two months I will have already bought a PS3 most likely. So get it in my face MS!!!

Am I the only one who saw this:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9445&Itemid=2

And how many times do these companies deny something just to reveal it soon thereafter?

Is it a link to monkey porn? If so, then yes, you are the only one who saw it. Sicko!

Does it matter? By the time it comes out, everyone will already own a Blu-ray player of some kind, whether its PC, Laptop, stand-alone, Ps3, heck, even mobile, lol

Not everyone, the add-on is likely to come out long before Blu Ray is the defacto movie standard. And 360-only users are a prime target for this deal. The add-on is most valuable to those who never intended to get a PS3 in the first place.

So I don't really understand the acrimony of the previous thread on this topic. It'll likely have little impact on the PS3, but it'll profit both Sony & Microsoft.

This sounds like a no brainer to me... Blu-ray will probably end up as the next storage format for all games, just like DVD made more sense than CD-Rom way back. It's really just a storage format that Sony owns instead of someone else. I just hope that they drop the hyphen and go with the more streamlined "Bluray"

I really want to see another media for games storages... a cheap flash memory.

Hopefully next next gen will use some sort of memory cards... that way we avoid loading screens, mndatory installations, a better console without an optical drive.

Is not a Sony propietary format... why people keep saying that?

except it won't be. sounds like your saying 360 and possibly even wii will be using bluray in the future for games storage? Cause the answer is "no way in hell" or " your a thousand percent wrong" . Because their are 17 million xbox360s in the wild without bluray drives no developer would ever write a game to bluray. Even if 5 million xbox owners bought the drive (way more then the 300 000 who bought the hddvd drive) even if 5 milllllion bought the bluray drive a developer would still be making a huge mistake by selling a game for 360 on bluray.

Seems that bluray is only destined for game storage on the xbox 720 and this will be one of ps3s strongest points.

You know "way back" is like last year or the year before. DVD took WAY to long to replace CD-Roms.

My world of warcraft originally came on 5 CDs. Its only been recently that DVD has become the standard data storage format.

No thanks Steve, my PS3 already does the job. Yet a Betamax add-on would be cool (being that you're already in talks with Sony and all).

It was a reply to Michael.

Its not? Last time I checked it was

"Is not a Sony propietary format... why people keep saying that?"

Because the internet made it so. It suited everyone to think that about the format. Anti-Sony crowds (HD DVD, 360, etc) wanted to diminish the chances of success by hammering the format by the company that brought you UMD, Betamax, and Mini-disc. Sony crowds (Blu Ray, PS3, etc) that "knew", fanboy style, that it would succeed defended the format by defending Sony and the PS3 Blu flagship.

Of course, now it only suits one side to think this way. So now you, and folks like you, hammer home that it's a broad consortium behind the format while others stick to the established story.

OK, THAT one up there of mine is a joystiq screw up. Just look at the time stamps. I clearly said reply to Michael.

Hey get out of my thread with your bickering ya punks!!!

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

Blu-Ray,Blu-Ray,Blu-Ray,Blu-Ray,Blu-Ray,Blu-Ray.

I.......LOVE..THIS.....COMPANY...

*kills a dog by sweating*

Ideally we would all have 100mpbs internet connections, all have unlimited bandwidth and therefore the use of optical drives would be useless.

We could then use huge 50-100gb flash keys/drives to easily and quickly copy movies/games and then watch/play games as Fernando said.

Meh I'll buy a Ps3 as soon as the MGS4 bundle hits the shleves.

But I'll buy the HD-DVD add-on now that it's a dead format.It's cheap and includes Batman.

By batman do you mean king kong?

I often get those two confused. They look so much alike, and drive similar cars.

No,The packages here include Batman Beggins suckas.

I read that as "Batman Baggins".

Thats the one where he has to throw the ring into the acid pit Joker fell in, right?

No Crono, "Batman Beggins" is the one where he loses averthing after the house burns down and becomes a streetwalking hustler begging for change. It was very sad. Tim Burton did that one I think.

oops - I made a typo too. :(

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Microsoft's Steve Ballmer talks Blu-ray support

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