Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September?

For all of Microsoft's denial, the Xbox 360 Blu-ray console rumors just will not die. In fact, they are getting more and more specific. The Chinese language Economic Daily News is reporting that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS, has won the order from Microsoft to assemble the Xbox 360 with Blu-ray Disc ROM drive -- shipments are expected to being in Q3 of this year. Now come on Microsoft, just come clean on the matter, we won't tell anyone.

[AC @ May 2nd 2008 2:16AM]

it was bound to happen once HD-DVD died

[Micanos @ May 2nd 2008 2:57AM]

Now I can finally say it,
I don't care if you low rank me
but




XBOX 360 FTW!

[Tony Rayo @ May 2nd 2008 3:11AM]

You mean another rumor FTW, right? M$ is banking a lot on downloadable TV/Movies/IPTV/etc.

[caramelzappa @ May 2nd 2008 4:24AM]

They aren't banking enough. Until their catalog is neck and neck with the content on blu-ray, then it just isn't a dependable place to get your media and consumers will want a blu-ray player anyways.

[George @ May 2nd 2008 7:01AM]

You mean MS is banking on 720p to compete with the ONLY 1080p player out there?

...doubtful. This is MS we're talking about. They won't be happy til they're the only name on the block.

[Rex @ May 2nd 2008 7:50AM]

Do I hear some one shout, "HERESY"?
BTW, simple question, (might sprout a fanwar though)
With PS3 and XBOX360 both with blueray, which is better? XBOX360 with its (famed) library, or PS3 with its better processing power?

[Pochi @ May 2nd 2008 9:35AM]

@Rex

Processing power shouldn't really be a factor in your decision. Check out a release schedule for 2008/2009. See which has the games that are going to appeal to you.

Since I think achievement points are the most useless things ever. and beating foul mouthed 13 year olds over Xbox Live doesn't seem like a good way to spend my time, I am in the PS3's corner.

But yeah. Games.

[The New Guy @ May 2nd 2008 10:13AM]

If i were MS, i wouldn't bank on downloadable movies...
Because i live in Canada, and Rogers Internet is already restricting it's download capacity to 60GB a month...



P.S. I hate Rogers!

[fred @ May 2nd 2008 11:49AM]

@REX

....yeah, its "famed" library.....seriously people make a big deal about xbox's library when it really isn't all that impressive....only to MAJOR games that xbox has is GOW and HALO (which turned out to be a dud)..."famed"???? more like overrated.

[DiscoCat5 @ May 3rd 2008 3:45AM]

@micanos u serious?


i cant begin to tel lyou how wrong and outdated that statement is.

[jagermeister_ @ May 6th 2008 11:00AM]

@The New Guy
I hear you.. But I think it's Canada in general that has that problem. Telus is also 60GB/m. Canada is not ready for streaming HD content, or at least the ISPs aren't. Seems to be a matter of corporate greed.

[Tonicboy @ May 2nd 2008 2:18AM]

This just doesn't make any sense to me. While inclusion of Blu-Ray on the PS3 helped out BR adoption vastly, it made the device much more expensive to people who had no interest in BR. Sony was willing to do this because it stood a lot to gain from having BR win the format war, but what stake does Microsoft have in pushing BR? I would imagine this is just one more SKU and not mandatory for all Xbox 360's, but will they really be making any money off these BR drives? The Xbox 360 is so heavily subsidized as it is, it's hard to say.

[LMM @ May 2nd 2008 2:23AM]

The fact is Microsoft's got a high-powered gaming system with HD plugs and no HD content. DVDs can only hold so much, and the only logical step is a better storage. They failed on HD-DVD, and while they don't want to, they gotta suck it up and grab Blu-Ray. Without it they're losing the valuable HD enthusiasts/gamers, the people who want HD movies, and the people who want bigger, better games. Microsoft's gonna have to face the facts and grab it while they still can if they want to please all the people, which is ultimately the goal in competition: Be the best.

[Tony Rayo @ May 2nd 2008 3:15AM]

X360 will never have games that are released solely on BD (and if they decided even ever release a game on a BD, it would make them look bad... a game can be released on CD or DVD for PC, but on a console it would just look like a mess). Also they do have HD content, which they are making a nice bit of chance out of, in the form of downloadable content.

[Rich @ May 2nd 2008 5:15AM]

"The fact is Microsoft's got a high-powered gaming system with HD plugs and no HD content"

What are you talking about? All Xbox 360 games are at least 720P and there's plenty of HD video on the Xbox Live Marketplace too.

[computer.dude.28 @ May 2nd 2008 8:42AM]

I agree. They should just release another add-on drive. What about all us who already have a 360? And the Halo 3 editions?

[natels @ May 2nd 2008 9:08PM]

My guess would be that people now want an all in one sort of deal there with their media players. The Xbox will now play games, stream from your pc, play blu-ray dvd's, etc. I guess it's a good move, I am just curious to what the price is going to be and will it be an exclusive like the Elite or will it be standard on the regular 360s?

[Pulp @ May 4th 2008 3:00PM]

Microsoft will not make any money off of a BR drive. They don't make money now off of the Xbox 360 console as is...they lose money every time one is bought. They will continue to lose money with a BR drive as well. By the way....so does Sony. Neither one of the companies make money on the sales of their gaming systems. They have both lost money from the start and continue to. That is not the purpose of this..believe it or not. They are battling for market share for the games and the online community.

[Mike @ May 6th 2008 1:40PM]

It make sense with just this sentence:

When idiotic parents go to buy their kids something, now the salesperson doesn't say "PS3 is the only system with a blu-ray player built in". Removing one of those positive points for the PS3 is all this is, and it will only bring more profits.

[Big Boy(30 incher) @ May 2nd 2008 2:19AM]

I can hear the PS3 owners starting to cry already.

[white_ultras @ May 2nd 2008 2:53AM]

PS3 imports owners? Yes, those traitors should cry.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ May 2nd 2008 3:15AM]

What? Why?

Seriously, you think PS3 people would get jealous because now some 360 owners might get what they already had?

Sounds like at least one 360 fan really envies something the PS3 has.

[Tony Rayo @ May 2nd 2008 3:18AM]

Not all PS3 owners are crazy fanboys that like to hold any possible advantage over other people. Expansion in BD content would be good for everyone, but I don't see it happening in terms of a BD drive being built into a 360. Perhaps an external add-on like the HD-DVD drive.

[Tonicboy @ May 2nd 2008 3:30AM]

Yeah, actually, PS3 fanboys are pretty nuts. When there was a rumor that PS3 may lose its MGS4 exclusivity, the PS3 interwebs absolutely exploded with furor, despite the fact that loss of such exclusivity would have no affect whatsoever on their own enjoyment of the game. They really couldn't stand to think that their sworn enemies the Xbox community might actually get to enjoy the game as well.

[Mark @ May 2nd 2008 3:34AM]

Laugh you mean.

A lame bolt on, that can never be used for games, without alienating 18 million existing owners.

You would have to be a total idiot to buy a 360 right now, let alone this afterthought..

[Kurian @ May 2nd 2008 4:44AM]

It'll never support games of the external drive anyway so in the long run the PS3 will have better games due to the abundance of free space.. Heck there are PS2 games that barely fit on a DVD9 (God Of War 2).

While the PS3 owners get nice uncompressed studio quality audio in games (MGS4), the 360 will get shitty compressed 15 year old Dolby Digital audio.

[Rususeruru @ May 2nd 2008 5:25AM]

Mark... cry right, because the game catalog on 360 sucks and because game devs are going to over look a console with a large install base. The 360 is NOT the Dreamcast. Developers have been and will continue to create content on it so long as there are people that own it and still buy games. Lest we forget the attach rate that's been reported.

Kurian, As for "shitty compressed Dolby Audio" how many games are truly using the 7.1 uncompressed capabilities the PS3 has? Just the Sony exclusives also how many gamers have a 7.1 sound system? The adoption rate for that technology is still low, likely lower than the adoption rate of HD-TVs. I for one don't care, I don't even use my 5.1 set up that often usually I'm just listening through the set.

[fred @ May 2nd 2008 11:42AM]

Im a ps3 owner and im not crying. this means more $$$ for sony.....so im not crying....if there was anyone to be crying it should be xbox owners

[Kurian @ May 3rd 2008 3:45AM]

@Rususeruru
I don't care actually. I don't own either console. I was just flaming the fanboy.

But if I were to buy one of them, I'd get a 360 because I only pirate games. Just like I don't even own a single original PS2 disk for my PS2.

[Thomas @ May 2nd 2008 2:20AM]

Microsoft, if you come out and say that a Blu-ray drive is coming so many people will not buy the PS3. It will be to your advantage to say that its coming.

[BobTurbo @ May 2nd 2008 4:48AM]

Which is why it isn't. This rumor was just manufactured as the console wars are at a crucial point where ps3 sales are about to accelerate and xbox will be left behind. I highly doubt Microsoft can afford to put a blu-ray player in their console.

[Hero @ May 2nd 2008 9:53AM]

If they announced a built in drive a lot of their current sales would stop because people would wait on the new system. Only way it would be benefical to anounce it early is if its a add on drive like the HD-DVD

[caleb @ May 2nd 2008 10:14AM]

Exactly. MS is not Apple. They are not known for being secretive about upcoming releases. Especially when said announcement could stem the flow of people to a competitor.

A co-worker was deciding whether to buy GTA4. His cost of entry is high because he does not have a current gen system. I think he'll end up getting a PS3. He cited the following reasons:

Blu-ray support
Free Online gameplay
Built in wireless ( I wasn't sure about this, but he was certain that the 360 required an $80 Wireless adapter)

[JamesD @ May 2nd 2008 1:28PM]

Exactly I haven't bought either because I didn't have the cash until now. But now I kind of want to wait and see what happens in the next few months because I was thinking of going the PS3 just for the blue-ray on my new tv. If XBox comes with blue-ray I will probably go with that as 90% of my friends have a 360. I'm patiant I will wait, besides I still have my wii until I make a choice and buy something so I can play COD4 on my tv instead of my PC or at a friends.

[Vic20 @ May 2nd 2008 2:23AM]

"...shipments are expected to being..."

Now that's an ontological quandary.

[JAmerican @ May 2nd 2008 2:34AM]

So we should expect Xbox 360 EEE Blu-ray Drives @ $50 :)

[Jouten @ May 2nd 2008 2:38AM]

MS should really save it for the next gen Xbox. For now, just have a BD add-on like they did with HD-DVD.

People who bought into HD-DVD (like me) still have a nasty taste in their mouths and are still bitter about being burnt financially from the first risky gamble of being an early adopter. Yeah, BD might be the clear winner and there's 'no risk' so to speak, but like any 'hand/gun shy' person, we really might not be too enthused about investing in another format (whether it 'won' or not).

My 2 cents.

[Tony Rayo @ May 2nd 2008 3:21AM]

Personally I've always thought the 360 should have come with a mandatory HD (it worked very well for the first Xbox) and a built in HD-DVD drive. Even if it lost the movie war (which it might not have if it was built into 360s), it would have provided more space for developers.

[Rich @ May 2nd 2008 5:19AM]

I agree that the HDD should have been mandatory. However, I think the decision to go with a regular DVD drive was the correct one.

Just look at the absolute fiasco that is PS3 loading times and the utterly ridiculous "solution" of installing the game on the console's HDD. If I wanted to faff about installing games, I'd buy a PC. This is all caused by the slow BluRay drive in the PS3.

And that's before you factor in cost and launch date.

[Rususeruru @ May 2nd 2008 5:27AM]

agreed, no less than a 20GB HDD should have been on all Xbox models this gen, but Microsoft is still the "newcomer" so errors can be expected I suppose. The third gen Xbox and whatever Sony cranks out next will likely be almost identical machines from a capability standpoint.

[Schranky @ May 3rd 2008 8:48AM]

**I own both a PS3 and 360**
I dunno, I like my Playstation better. Xbox just doesn't seem to have their act together. I love my xbox and all it does-but I have sent 5, yes 5, to the Texas repair center. I also bought the HD DVD as well and that was a giant fluke. It seems that in light of these huge problems, PS3 prevails, in everything. It just is a more stable choice and it really does do a fantastic job with blu-ray quality and all those processors. I was afraid of buying GTA4 on xbox soley because I feared it would make yet another system take a dump. There are still many many PS2 owners with games slowly trickling to a halt, but look at xbox. When 360 released, all xbox projects and support was dumped. I often wonder when my 360 warranty expires, whether I'll extend it or play it until it fries and smile at my Playstation 3 happily spinning BD's.

[Schranky @ May 2nd 2008 7:05PM]

**I own both a PS3 and 360**
I dunno, I like my Playstation better. Xbox just doesn't seem to have their act together. I love my xbox and all it does-but I have sent 5, yes 5, to the Texas repair center. I also bought the HD DVD as well and that was a giant fluke. It seems that in light of these huge problems, PS3 prevails, in everything. It just is a more stable choice and it really does do a fantastic job with blu-ray quality and all those processors. I was afraid of buying GTA4 on xbox soley because I feared it would make yet another system take a dump. There are still many many PS2 owners with games slowly trickling to a halt, but look at xbox. When 360 released, all xbox projects and support was dumped. I often wonder when my 360 warranty expires, whether I'll extend it or play it until it fries and smile at my Playstation 3 happily spinning BD's.

[Snitch @ May 2nd 2008 2:39AM]

Will the price stay the same when it gets blu ray??? cause the PS3 comes with a bigger drive & WiFi and it's not plague with RROD, although i admit it's not even close to the 360 when it comes to games

[Jouten @ May 2nd 2008 2:42AM]

However, since it would be an internal drive, it might be quieter and that in itself may be enough for some people to buy into it. I love my original Costco special launch console, but it is sooooooo noisy! Like 'Jet Engine' noisy!

[Smacksmackums @ May 2nd 2008 7:07AM]

It's like the exact opposite of Xbox vs. PS2 war. The Xbox had the hard drive, the built in ethernet jack, Xbox Live and technologically was superior pretty much across the board. The PS2 however had all the disc read errors, all the games, the head start and the fanbase and we all know how that turned out.

[nxtiak @ May 2nd 2008 11:53PM]

Why did Snitch get low ranked? He brought up valid points. Probably the PS3 fanboys low ranking him because he mentioned the games on the ps3 not as good as the 360?

[NineT9 @ May 2nd 2008 2:41AM]

Sweet, now the 360 will be just like the PS3, took them 2 years nice

[zomg0t @ May 2nd 2008 3:16AM]

You're wrong on all but the first and last words of your comment.

[ethana2 @ May 2nd 2008 3:43AM]

FAIL. compare with me here:
www.psubuntu.com
www.free60.org

The 360 will always be a fricking paperweight, while the PS3 is a domestic supercomputer.

[caramelzappa @ May 2nd 2008 4:30AM]

Paperweight? Because of its linux support?

Sorry, I use my computer as a computer, and my game console as a game console. I got my 360 so I could play the great games it has in its library, not so it could be a supercomputer. I might be getting a ps3 soon, but just because it's the best blu-ray player. The great games are all out on the 360 and I really don't need a computer hooked up to my tv, so aside from the occasional movie, the ps3 is the paperweight.