Microsoft: 'We have no plans for Blu-ray on Xbox 360'
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 23rd 2009 1:49AM
posted October 23rd 2009 1:49AM
A recent Gizmodo sit down with Steve Ballmer led with a headline exclaiming a Blu-ray add-on for Xbox was coming. See, when Ballmer was asked about making the Xbox a home theater companion of choice and where Blu-ray might fit in, the Windows 7 wild man said, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there -- you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories." He then added that on-demand is the future of movies, not physical media. Now our bud Major Nelson, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, has stepped up to lay the conflation to rest. The Major says that Ballmer was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC and reiterated Microsoft's focus of bringing instant-on 1080p streaming movies to the Xbox 360. So... that should end speculation of Blu-ray on Xbox right? Not if history serves, nope.
what? wake me up when america's "high speed internet" bandwidth can even keep upto a subpar bluray. the average household has a 1.5mbps downlink connection while a standard bluray is in the 20mbps+ range. instant 1080p is more like a pipedream.
i agree that downloadable/on demand content is the future, however the future is very far from now with the current state of "high speed internet"
I'll only agree with the comment about on-demand digital media streaming is the future when EVERYONE can afford broadband internet the same way they can simply go to a store to buy a DVD.
I find it absolutely foolhardy and wishful thinking to expect every person to afford new technology and call it the future when the majority will realistically not afford them. And, this applies to stating on-demand movie streaming is the future. If you look at the infrastructure of the US compared to say Europe or Japan, we are severely lagging behind them in terms of broadband services.
Streaming and downloadableHD media!
Woooooo!
Hear that? That's the sound of quality being flushed down the toilet.
Just like downloadable music, but much worse, since it's easier to tell with video :x
Oooooh, he's nay-saying the boss?! Someone will have his desk clean by the end of the day.
when ever engadget posts any thing about ps3 or xbox its like light the blue touch paper then run. if there ever was a troll magnet it was a computer game console.
A message to any body about to post mines better than yours, please bear in mind real gamers have both.
I have to agree that Blu-Ray will probably not survive the Internet and online distribution.
If you even look at Blu-Ray as a pure distribution Medium, there are already major factors that soon will make it extinct. The main being portable storage/flash prices and capacities, let alone speed (which is why MS even avoided HD in the XBox as HD media speeds were significantly slower than cheap DVD.)
Imagine this, in a couple of years you will be buying movies on SD/USB/Mini-SD 32/64gb cards if you want a physical copy.
For the 'rental' market for people without high speed internet, imagine taking in your Store certified USB/SD Flash drive to the local Redbox or Blockbuster and picking out your movie, and have it put on your card, and you don't have to return it.
Optical media doesn't have the capacity advantages, and until they are producing 50TB Optical drives in the next couple of years we probably won't see Optical return, as Flash will become disposable cheap, and it almost already is, even at the 32gb range today, which more than competes with Blu-Ray.
Microsoft was smart on this, as they have always had a strong online Video marketplace, and services from Media Center and home media sharing to services like Netflix, etc. - And this is not even counting the new Zune Marketplace coming to the XBox, which convergences the online stores and subscriptions and adds a ton of content.
When even on a crap DSL connection you can do instant on 1080p with Silverlight streaming technologies, there is no reason to focus on other distribution or media options at this point. (And yes this even works on crap DSL bandwidth as the quality ramps up, so it starts out about DVD quality and then buffers on to 1080p.)
Right, Blu-ray will not survive... because widespread online distribution will happen only in 10 years.
He's right. Psychical media, e.g. Blu-ray, DVD, CD etc is 'so last century'.
The best choice I made was to buy a blueray burner for my PC so I can
Anydvd + Blueray DvD + MovieStyle = WMV (Blueray Quality) on my WHS
Streaming Blueray quality movies to the Xbox360 has been just as easy as the standard dvd's minus the (at the time) $200 blueray burner for my computer. Physical media is outdated and I think many companies are seeing this. Even though, I like to buy physical copies of my movies, I still utilize Xbox 360's netflix streaming feature more often than I thought I would have due to its availability and movie selection, this is truly going to be the way of the future....
-Chris
Indeed, I 100% agree with you there.
o'rly? then i have no plans of purchasing a 360.
Retro iPod. High school flashbacks, lol.
I wouldn't trust anything Nelson says. He's commenting on something outside of his division anyways. That guy's an ass.
I wonder what the next gen MS console will use as its medium for games? Will they go Bluray? Will they buy up the patent for HDDVD from Toshiba and have slightly proprietary discs? Will they go highly proprietary and support perhaps Red Ray? Or maybe one of those crazy theoretical standards like holographic discs?
No, the next gen consuls... ALL OF THEM... will primarily support downloadable content. Unlike the movie industry which doesn't really get all that much competition from the 2nd hand industry, the game industry is looking for ways of shutting down the used game market. EA, Activation, Sony, SEGA, Square ENIX and almost all other companies are pressuring the game industry to go that way because of the major hit they are taking from companies like Gamestop selling used games as a main form of profit and the trend of major retailers like Best Buy and Toy-R-Us looking into selling used games. The XBox 360, PS3, and Wii all support digital content, and the 360 and PS3 are going to selling old titles across their market places, and potentially selling new titles as they come out, by-passing the retail industry all together. If the next gen consuls do have an optical drive it will be to support the older systems, don't expect this from Sony who has no interest in backwards compatibility of their old systems because this causes stagnant sales of the new system software.
So people without internet or broadband (maybe even people with shitty broadband) will all be without next gen systems? I'm not so sure. Personally, I count myself lucky in the internet department, I had good 15/2 Mbit with Optimum Online, and recently switched to 35/20 Fios, but I don't think the majority of people would be so lucky. What minimum downlink speed would you think is reasonable for next gen to be solely downloadable?
No disc, at all. did you read the story? online distribution is the only way to go in the future. No one wants to go buy/rent physical discs much anymore
You did not address the questions I posed, you just said the same thing as the other person.
"No discs, online only," ::grumble::
no shit sherlock, the Xbox does not even have the proper audio hardware for truehd or dts ma. Why would Sony give theri trojhan horse to Microsoft????
This is such BS. "It's an accessory for your PC". And how exactly does that help your xbox? Windows Media Center won't stream a blu-ray movie, so what the F Chuck?
Either allow streaming to media extenders or give me a blu-ray "accessory" for my 360.
@CaramelZappa PlayOn gives me Netflix and Hulu on my PS3, my Wii, and my WDTV Live.
my prediction is that the wii is probably gonna reign big again, and that the ps3 will be last again because they let out the slim too early with little improvment (but its still cool i have the slim myself) and xbox will be second again
Um, this isn't a console ware. We're talking about the future of movie rentals. Nintendo is not a subject in this matter at the moment. LOL
Who has DVD's anymore? I must admit that Microsoft lost in the HD DVD and Blue-ray Wars but nobody I know still has DVD's we are Streaming so this article is useless, Microsoft had to switch up there strategy when it backfired on them, they are looking to stream everything cutting out the middle man completely
Microsoft will lead the "nail in the coffin" on this. I too agree that online distribution is the ***almost*** current way to go. I actually rent movies more on Xbox Live & Netflix "Watch Instantly" more than I use physical media now. It's a lot more convenient. With optical Internet service and high speed cable (20MB) more available these days blu-ray's days are numbered very soon (in the next 2 years). That's why I never bought a blu-ray drive. Not necessary in my opinion u know?
You ignorant loser why must you compare the 360's HD to the PS3's Blue-Ray? Its obvious Blue-Ray is better and has more support http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-state-of-the-s-union-s-division/
I guess if Ballmer wants to take the "differentiation" path with xBox 360, he's entitled to think that way. Personally, I think Blu-Ray is still the future of home entertainment, and kudos to PS3 for realizing that.
I can't see myself buying a Blu-Ray add-on for my Xbox, I'd rather just buy a stand-alone player or a functional external USB Blu-Ray burner for my laptop or desktop. In fact, I have one right now - ( http://www.digistor.com/Digistor-External-Blu-ray-Burner-USB-2-0-Tray-Load ) - and it's much more functional for the price I paid for it (watch movie or burn to Blu-Ray discs).
I guess Microsoft kinda sees that, and if I were them, I'd rather put an internal Blu-Ray drive for one of the future versions than have an add-on that would be singularly costly AND impractical.
honestly if blu-ray is not added to the 360, HD buffs will probably just buy a ps3 slim because it is a better investment than a standalone blu-ray player. as a movie buff i can tell you this; streaming is nice, owning is much nicer. i really don't mind walking the 10 feet to change a disc. it takes more time to buffer a HD movie anyway.