Stephen McGill, UK Xbox top dog has spoken about the lack of Blu-ray on Xbox and seems to think the format is already dead. He was asked if the lack of Blu-ray was holding back the 360 and answered,
“I think people may have spoken about that originally, but that’s long gone.
I think people now recognise what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay.
So, who needs Blu-ray?”
Mr. McGill may have a point when it comes to movies but numerous developers have stated that creating games on multiple DVDs for the Xbox can be tough, most recently Mercury Steam discussed ‘storage problems’ for the console.
As for movies, Avatar broke all records for Blu-ray sales in the UK and has sold a stunning 6.2 million copies. Blu-ray disc sales in Q1 2010 almost doubled those of 2009 and the current outlook for the format is ‘bullish’.
HMV recently announced a 12% profit rise, some of which they attributed to the popularity of Blu-ray.
Sources: X360Achievements / Gizmodo / The Telegraph
sshaunss
WTF I want and love Blu rays I have all saw movies and digital downloads I’m not sure but I don’t think they come with special features and extra content.
Alex_Assassin_08
Well, that guy knows fuck all then.
Peter Rushton
I don’t think twice about how I’m getting my content, blu-ray is just so much better quality, I hate watching dvds now because it does actually feel, I say feel because it does, feel strange and horrible, the low res detail is awful to watch.
solidsteven
oh is that so. can anyone smell bullshit? because i can
Quinlank
Who needed HD-DVD? Didn’t stop them pushing that pretty damn hard, leaving this guy’s words carrying more than a slight whiff of sour grapes.
Blu-Ray has seen nothing but growth as far as I can see, and when they revealed the “slimline” Xbox, I honestly lost count of the number of times I saw someone post a variation of “Why still no Blu-Ray?” about it.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Microsoft cope in a couple of years when it comes new console announcement time, as Blu-Ray is going to be the most cost effective storage medium option on the market, as I certainly can’t see/haven’t seen anything else coming that could conceivably be a viable option to build a console around. It’ll be pride swallowing time for MS sooner or later.
seedaripper1973
I smell humble pie being eaten…
Radiitz
Basically it goes like this. Had Microsoft won the HD/Blu ray war, they would be praising at how HD is so superior and the best. But because they got beaten, then not even the superior format is relevant to them…
cc_star
Technically they never really backed HD-DVD either, just made an add-on to confuse the market whilst they prepped a Download Store.
Perhaps if they had of backed HD-DVD properly, by quickly releasing a Xbox360 with an integrated HD-DVD Drive (even if it was only for movie playback, and not game capacity) then rather than it being Blu-ray being a transient technology before digital over powers it at some future point, we could have a burgeoning HD-DVD movie market as the transient technology and Blu-ray being the domain purely of PS3 games and Sony Pictures movies.
djhsecondnature
@cc_star – You say that but to me it seems more like an after-thought with the download store. They probably always had it in mind but had to rush to bring it forward due to the failure of HD-DVD.
PriceKitty
Blu-Ray will always be better.
Radiitz
To answer the rhetorical question asked in the title of this article: The Xbox 360.
ghost5
Maybe Microsoft have a couple of warehouses full of hd DVD drives that they couldn’t sell and so they are going to use them in the next xbox for storage
MXZ
Whats that Nathan Drake? your life of adventure is only possible via the Blu-ray format?
well that is just absurd, why would you even say such a thing? its not as if blu-rays contain more space and therfore have more room for content then regular dvds
SmokeyPSD
sure mate. It’s so easy for me to download a bunch of movies at 40 gig a month in Australia…