Microsoft denies Blu-ray Xbox 360 for umpteenth time

by Alexander Sliwinski on May 5th 2008 5:25PM

We've absolutely lost count of how many times Microsoft has had to deny rumors of an Xbox 360 with Blu-ray drive, but here's another one. Following a resurgence in the rumor last week, GamePro was told today by a Microsoft official that the company continues to have no plans of introducing a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.

The statement goes on to say that "games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and [Microsoft] remains focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available." OK, that's good and all, but if the Blu-ray thing is out, could the NetfliXbox 360 idea still be on the table?

[Via Engadget]

Source

Tags: blu-ray, microsoft, netflix, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (63)

I stop caring for the umpteenth time. If Microsoft releases one, great. If not, who cares?

Yeah, I probably wouldn't buy it.

No Blu-Ray for X360?!

INCONCEIVABLE !11!1one!

I keep thinking for some reason, that we should care a bit. My 'theory' is that Microsoft has started designing the Xbox 720(or whatever the sequel will be called) with these blu-ray rumors from chinese communist offical newspapers and wii-style remote rumors from mtv etc.

My guess is they might release it sometime next year or the following year and just be working through prototypes but may be manufacturing the blu-ray drives in advance due to the low-yield of blu-ray diodes and other issues that have caused blu-ray player + ps3 shortages/delays before.

If you have a 1,000,000 blu-ray drives ready for when you finalize the design specs and start manufacturing, it would make manufacturing go more smoothly, versus if you put in an order for 1,000,000 blu-ray diodes and waited for your order to be fulfilled before beginning production.

Yes who cares. It's a 360 for christ sakes.

um, meaning?

btw, this may have been mentioned before, but wtf is the deal with clicking to make a comment and you get this "commercial" with hummingbirds about hi def intel shit?

Meaning the 360 won't benefit from having bluray. It's most likely going to be an external if anything. I don't think it will be cost effective for MS nor will it really boost their system.

Your right. It's a 360, it's a game machine and has a ton of great games so more time gaming less time watching movies. The "other" system is an over glorified movie player that happens to play some games as well.

got ya. thanks for clarifying

omg, BIGGEN thanks for mentioning that. I first thought Firefox 3 on my MBP wasn't handling joystiq properly and then I scrolled up and saw that annoying-ass ad.

'stiq, this is worse than that big-ass GTA5P ad. Please fix.

on topic:
Unless the internal BD-rom drive reads 12x DVD (the speed of the current DVD drives), there's no way this is plausible.

External Blu-Ray add-on is a lot more believable.

at least you see something, even if its a f'n commercial. I just get a black screen and the back button doesnt work. It feels like skipping along a sunny meadow and all of a sudden black night falls and someone hits you square in the face with a frying pan and you try to turn back to the meadow ... but its not there anymore. AHHHHH! nightmare. not want

I wonder if they would continue to deny it if they really had no plans or just start to ignore it?

The more they deny it the more I believe the rumors.

Joystiq posts about X-Box 360 Blu-ray for umpteenth time.

This isn't 2002 anymore, it's spelled "Xbox", no hyphen, no capital B.

and for the umpteenth time you make it another story on your blog.

I hope they announce the Blu-Ray 360 at the same time they announce the Wiimote rip off.

Dance, MS fanboys, DANCE!

why do you do it? why?

Internet meltdowns, like blood to a vampire, sustain me.

I'm also eagerly awaiting the news of "high level Sony defection" (I think it's FF13 going multi-plat) and Kingdom Hearts 3 exclusive to the Wii.

aaaaah, it is your lifeforce, it is. i understand. like hating rednecks is mine. it's an entertainment that both pisses me off yet calms me.

That would be epic if they released a bluray 360 w/wiimote rip off bundle. It would be high cost with the bluray player, but market to the casual gamer with the wiimote. So pretty much no one would buy it.

Don't get mad because you don't get the best third party games, enjoy those Gamecube and PS2 ports...

Just think wii2 or 3 you might get GTA4.

So no PSWii60?

Don't even kid about KH3 not going to the Wii!
Either it goes on the Wii or i'm saving up my job money and hopefully it'll be on 360.(Though it probably won't even think about the 360 >_

oh man! i really hope KH3 goes on the Wii or 360.

It'll happen sooner or later.

Don't care.

I'm waiting on the External VHS Player for Wii.

I want a UMD player for my ps3

I would love to see a UMD player on the PS3, myself. Too bad it won't happen, since it would be even more detrimental to the PSP sales.

internal Blu Ray drive for Xbox 360 Confirmed!

OMG XBOX BLU-RAY CONFIRMED BY ViagraFiend!!!

Has to be true if it's coming from a Man Bear Pig with a boner.

barely discernable hairy Man Bear Pig boner added.

Internal Xbox360 Blu-Ray = meaningless to xbox360 gamers

Yeah, devices should only do one thing. While you are at it, tell MS to remove the ability to stream stuff from your PC, play CD's, play DVD movies, and stream HD movies from their video service since they all have nothing to do with games.

I meant, it can't be used for gaming purposes. Although I wish it could. Too bad.

Ahh gotcha. Yeah, they wouldn't be able to use it for gaming purposes.

You didn't say much new material there, hence their attacks not coming faster.

well get plans for it microsoft because its a good idea.

It's actually quite important right now for new consumers to have a built in Blu-ray drive. I am in the specialty gaming retail business and often times the reason a customer cites buying a ps3 is because it is a blu-ray player. With the pricing being very close this can tip a decision in favor of the ps3 so during this very pivotal Holiday season the 360 would do well to be on equal footing with the ps3 in every aspect.

It is still a better game machine (it's a fact - deal) but the blu-ray functionality is something that matters now that the format war has been settled. XBLive is the obvious advantage gaming wise, but the mainstream consumer isn't interested in that to the same level as hd movie playback. HD movies are certainly available on XBL but again, the mainstream consumer isn't in tune with that yet, but undertands buying a HD disc to play in a device.

It would be very beneficial to Microsoft to make this happen and it seems like it will

MS will have at least one price drop by this holiday season and with the ever growing line up of great 360 games Sony is in for a ruff ride.

Sony will have at least one price drop by this holiday season and with the ever growing line up of great PS3 games MS is in for a ruff ride.

The Dave:

Does it really matter why the ps3 is gaining momentum? People are buying the console, the player base will be there which means eventually developers will take the console seriously.

Devs go where the money is. Larger install base means larger chance of titles being developed for the ps3.

I still don't see any real benefit for M$ to sell Sony's product. We know that it won't be used for games and I highly doubt that M$ would make any real money from selling these things. There is no way that Sony would allow them to sell the system with Blu Ray for less than a PS3. I really don't think it makes sense for THIS generation. Next is a whole different story.

Ugh...dollar sign replacing the "S". Anywho, it's not "Sony's Product".

I'd be shocked if an Xbox 360 is released with with an internal Blu-ray drive because of the seek times. There might be some games previously written for the 360 that never took the load times on a 2x Blu-ray into account, and they'd probably take forever to load on a Blu-ray Xbox.

When I read a rumor about "Xbox 360 consoles equipped with a Blu-ray Disc ROM drive," I immediately tune it out. "Bundled?" Maybe.

Microsoft would NEVER release a 360 with a built-in Blu-Ray movie player. It would raise the price by at least $100 and will greatly lower sales, as the PS3 has suffered.

I feel that Sony should have gone Microsoft's route and made the Blu-Ray movie player as an optional external add-on and put the games on DVD. DVD is still plenty for current-gen games as we have seen.

Back when the 360 was announced and I heard it still used DVDs for games, I laughed, but I turned out to be quite wrong.

Wrong again...by making Blu-Ray "optional" on PS3 Sony would have very likely lost the format war against HD-DVD.

Well, if HD-DVD had won, maybe the prices wouldn't have shot up on the discs and players like Blu-Ray did.

That doesn't even make sense. Why would you even care if Blu-Ray prices shot up or even dropped if HD-DVD won? If HD-DVD won, Blu-Ray would be irrelevant...like your post.

My take is this. If MS released an external BR drive at around the 99$ to 149$ mark, I'll bite. I've had a 360 for years and haven't had the RROD(and it's on a LOT as my media center extender, DVD player and games machine).

Anything higher than that and it's pushing it a bit too close to PS3 territory and I'll be picking that up instead.

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Microsoft denies Blu-ray Xbox 360 for umpteenth time

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