Microsoft announcing Blu-Ray Xbox 360 tomorrow?

[LOKO]

Quite possibly (most likely) a stupid rumour, but what the hell:

Rumor: Microsoft to Announce Blu-Ray Xbox on Monday (http://kotaku.com/5014349/rumor-microsoft-to-announce-blu+ray-xbox-on-monday)

We have no confirmation or sourcing of our own on this, so, we don't vouch for its accuracy. But we will be watching the clock at 10 am Crecente time tomorrow, as CrunchGear is rumormongering that Microsoft will announce Blu-Ray Xboxes will be shipping by Christmas, at that time. Rumor has it they'll cost less than an Elite.

The announcement would apparently be timed to upstage Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference which kicks off an hour later in San Francisco. Here's the full rumor from CrunchGear's tipster:

I’m told MS will upstage Apple with a Monday 9am PDT announcement (1 hour before WWDC) via press release that the Xbox 360 will get Blu-Ray before Christmas. Price was “under the current Elite," but i could get any more details.

We'll be pursuing this tomorrow as our means of pursuit are limited today. Carry on.Original story from CrunchGear (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/06/08/ms-to-release-blu-ray-drive-on-monday/).

[mR duDe]

arghahahahahahahahahahahahah

[Pengo]

heh a 360 with blue-ray aint going to upstage the apple wwdc.. esp when they announce the 2.0 3g iphone.

[Catch-22]

heh a 360 with blue-ray aint going to upstage the apple wwdc.. esp when they announce the 2.0 3g iphone.
it depends on what jobs' "oh, and here's another thing" actually is. the very fact that we're talking about the 3G iphone before the WWDC means it's not going to be a surprise, does it?

[Pengo]

Then that goes for the 360 blue-ray right? won't be a surprise either then.

[LOKO]

I'm predicting that Jobs' "wait one more thing" this year will be a boxed piece of his own faeces, and Apple wanks everywhere will go into meltdown. I hear his **** looks like perfectly white plastic, incidentally.

[Catch-22]

Then that goes for the 360 blue-ray right? won't be a surprise either then.

this is ONE report on a website less than 24 hours before the actual announcement. the 3G iphone has been WIDELY reported for weeks before the WWDC.

secondly, apple and MS are not competitors in the console market so trying to 'spoil' an apple announcement is a bit weird IMO

[009]

i dont see the point of blu ray for 360. Is it rumoured to come as an addon like the hddvd addon, or is it another 360 release like the elite.

Either way, I don't see games coming out for 360 in bluray, as to many 360 owners will be cut out. So if games dont utilise bluray (muli disc dvd9 games anyone?), no point really getting this addon. As you can just get a "better" stand alone player.

[Corsair]

i dont see the point of blu ray for 360. Is it rumoured to come as an addon like the hddvd addon, or is it another 360 release like the elite.

Either way, I don't see games coming out for 360 in bluray, as to many 360 owners will be cut out. So if games dont utilise bluray (muli disc dvd9 games anyone?), no point really getting this addon. As you can just get a "better" stand alone player.
I think it's fairly clever actually; assuming the price isn't massively high and Microsoft aren't losing much in the way of cash producing it, having a 360 capable of playing Blu-ray movies says to Average Joe Consumer: Our console is cheaper, has a bigger games library with more hits, AND can now do the main thing the PS3 had over us...

Again, assuming the announcement were true and MS weren't operating at a huge loss, they stand to lose very little and potentially steal some of the PS3's thunder.

Plus it does open up the option of Blu-Ray games as well, perhaps as compilations or special additions (ala when DVD drives were still becoming mainstream for PCs).

I must admit that I have my doubts about this; it's hard to believe that there wouldn't be multiple leaks about something major. If Kotaku and what not haven't listed it, and none of the major mags/sites know about it (none of my admittedly few contacts have heard about it either), then I'd say it's most likely not real.

Course, the occasional secret actually does remain secret every once in a while.

[Scruffy Dog]

I'm pretty sure I remember reading a quote from MS saying Xbox 360 would NEVER have Blu-Ray.

they stand to lose very little and potentially steal some of the PS3's thunder.

Erm... I think you're forgetting who actually makes and markets Blu-Ray. Do you really think Sony will see it as a disadvantage if Microsoft have to pay them for every Xbox or Blu-Ray add-on they make?

[Corsair]

I'm pretty sure I remember reading a quote from MS saying Xbox 360 would NEVER have Blu-Ray.



Erm... I think you're forgetting who actually makes and markets Blu-Ray. Do you really think Sony will see it as a disadvantage if Microsoft have to pay them for every Xbox or Blu-Ray add-on they make?
Like I said, it would depend on the loss/gain for Microsoft.

Besides the rep hit they would take from purchasing tech from a rival (something that I find hard to imagine they would do), they would of course be paying royalties.

On the other hand, if having the Blu-ray drive meant selling more 360s and conversely having less PS3s selling, would it be worth it?

I don't know, but I imagine that someone at Microsoft is thinking about it, regardless of whether this is true or not.

In terms of a quote from Microsoft regarding never having Blu-ray, there actually was one where something along the lines of "our priority is the happiness of the consumer, if Blu-ray wins the war and becomes the standard, then we would consider using Blu-ray"

Can't remember who exactly said it, but fairly certain it was posted up in one of the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD threads on here.

[Nimrodz]

u have to remember that this would most likely be as good a thing for Sony as it is for MS. Because the more blue ray players Sony can sell the cheaper the cost, so by selling to MS they could make their unit of production cheaper per player and in turn look to even reduce the price of the PS3 further.

Either way having a choice of console with a blue-ray player is best for the consumer.

[LOKO]

Guess it was just a stupid rumour.