The Inquirer has published a speculative article supposedly based on news from Games Developers Conference Europe that suggests Sony will have to pay $100 per Blu-Ray drive in each PS3. No, wait, more than $100 per console. And that number comes from an article that states;

"Microsoft is playing a safe game here, it will launch with DVD+RW but in some point in the future might release a new Xbox 360 version with HD-DVD or a Blu Ray drive."

Uh, since when is Microsoft putting DVD+/-RW drives in the Xbox 360? Last time we checked it's just a standard 16x DVD drive, which can't be costing Microsoft any more than $5-10 a unit, if you adjust for the huge number they've ordered.

Sure, it's a given that the Blu-Ray drive will be expensive, but more than $100 after economies of scale are factored in? That'd make it possibly the single most expensive component in the PS3 bar the Cell chip. As it stands, the article makes incorrect statements about the rival console's optical drive and fails to back up the statement with a source. We're getting in touch with The Inquirer to see where exactly they pulled that number from. Stay tuned for more.

[Thanks, bandersnatch]

[Update: Dan of gamegeeknews.com gave us the low down on the original source. In June a Merril Lynch analyst from Japan estimated the costs of the components at $100 each for the Cell, RSX CPU and Blu-Ray. We've got no idea why The Inquirer felt the need to write up this 3 month old report as news, or why they stated the 360 will have a DVD burner.]