Rumorang: Xbox 360 external Blu-ray drive ready, waiting

I doubt this is true but if it is I'll be happy since it's another dagger into the ps3.

Still though I'd probably get a standalone player dedicated to Bluray and keep my games SEPARATE from my consoles.

Thanks for the offer though MS.

Not a chance in hell. I guess it's law that this rumor pops up twice a year, but that doesn't make it any more true.

Will not happen. Bank on it.

If the 360 would read ntfs formatted discs, I'd have no need for this at all. (Ive got some WMV-HD files that are >9gb in size). So if this drive could read BD-R/RE discs and read any files stored on such a drive, this would be useful.

If it happens, and it's at an affordable price, I'll buy it.

So I can watch Speed racer over and over and over again. That movie is gorgeous.

dark knight blu ray dec. 9th - i'd buy one

I would buy one asap as well!

This is definitely intriguing. If it was as low as $150 or less, that might convince me not to buy a PS3. The problem I would have however is that the PS3 is still considered near the top of blu-ray players AND it is still one of the only kinds that can upgrade, i.e. Blu-Ray 1.0 to 2.0. PS3 also offers free Online play, and I wouldn't have to pay $50 a year, so I would save on that as well. So, we'll see what happens.

I hope they don't do this simply because I already own a 360, and after getting my 50" plasma with my girlfriend, she's been down for the idea of getting a PS3 sometime soon. Mainly because she wants a blu-ray player. I want it cause I want a ps3. Better start saving now before word gets out.

Lots O' testosterone in the air!

I believe MS is releasing this as an opportunity to put more info on one disc, not so much as a Bluray player. Just wait - the BIG games next fall for the 360, all on Bluray.

How many times has this rumor come up now??? I've lost count...

I kinda doubt that $100-$150 price range. If they can't sell the 120GB hard-drive for less then $150 then what chance does a Blu-Ray player have??

I have said time and time again, it makes no sense for Microsoft to do this, although I guess from a technical perspective it could be done, but there would still be issues.

Microsoft has said that any high defintion disc format would be used for movies and not games. This is because they don't want to introduce TWO formats to purchase games on.

Introducing such an option as a primary drive, would affect the current specs, and lower read times, which I seriously doubt they'd do. So it such an option were available, it would likely be external.

There was a provision that allowed they to play HD movies without using HDMI. I'm not sure if the same provision is available in the Blu-Ray space.

The Blu-Ray spec includes support for JAVA, which is a direct competitor to Microsoft. This alone would kill the deal, as I seriously doubt Microsoft would support JAVA if they didn't have to do so.

Microsoft has a growing direct download movie library which is going to expand soon with the Netflix deal. Supporting an external option just for disc movies, wouldn't necessarily make much sense, as it offers no benefit to Microsoft.

I would buy one tomorrow if it was available. If they don't announce this soon I'm going to break down and buy a PS3.

It's funny though isn't it - if MS had released an ADD ON drive for the console when it came out people would have criticized it for not being internal, "another box to hook up when the PS3 can do it 'all in one' so to speak"

MS couldn't incorporated HD or Bluray because they didn't want to cripple their games, imagine millions of consoles with a dead format drive in them.

MS played it open bet on download and streaming and kept the disc format open. I kind of thought they would bring out an external later. Sony was smart with the bluray, though it was an expensive gamble, it probably swung quite a lot of console buy decisions.

And now..it would be seen as an add on but a good one. 360 has fallen so much in price it's actually attractive to me. And I still use my xbox original.

To be honest though I'd like to get past all this, and we really should, WE really should have games which play each other CROSS-PLATFORM.

Isn't that what Games are for - to bring people together.

If the drive is Vista plug and play (like the HD-DVD drive was...) and it is $149.99 or less I would by one for sure...
I do not have a 360... but it would be nice to have an external blu-ray drive that I could use with my media center computer and my laptop. My blu-ray collection is growing and I would like to be able to watch the movies in more than one room of my house!

Well... a standard internal SATA Blu-Ray for your PC is still $100 from Newegg, so it's unlikely that this, if it exists, would be any less than $150. It seems dangerous for Microsoft to go this route. It would be good for current 360 owners, but after this was released, a savvy consumer would likely compare the cost of a PS3 against the cost of a $300 360, plus a $150+ Blu-Ray drive, and, if they need it, the ABSURDLY WTF priced $100 wi-fi adapter.

external drives are tacky

You know though.. if they start using blu-ray for games.. I hope they don't move the bottleneck just because they have the space for uncompressed data, and then cause people to forcibly download portions of the game..

What they should do (if this feature is in here), is make sections of it compressed and uncompressed..

i thought ps3 blu-ray was the only one that sony were willing to update as new profiles became available?

as far as i know thats why most 'ppl in the know' don't recommend getting a stand-alone blu ray player and instead opting for the ps3 becos it'll always be updated and supported by sony?

is this correct?

I don't think this makes sense. First of all, MS still has no need to prop up BluRay. Additionally, as standalone players drop in price, add-ons make less and less sense.

After Sony upgraded the Bluray features to have Dolby True HD and DTS HD capability...and I've used those features...I would not go back to regular viewing.

The sound experience is fantastic !

One reason I purchased my PS3 is that it has the ability for firmware upgrades that most other Bluray players do not at this moment have.

Another thing about the 360..if you want to load more than one disc to play a game...that's up to you.

I'd rather have the one disc (PS3) and play a game instead of having multiple discs to load just for a single game.