Microsoft denies HD DVD equipped 360 ... for now

by Dustin Burg { Jan 5th 2008 at 8:00PM }

With all the pre-CES speculation running rampant and the hot, hot, hot rumor of an HD DVD equipped Xbox 360 being announced, everyone in Xbox 360 fandom is on high anticipation alert. And we were on the HD DVD 360 anticipation bandwagon until a few moments ago when Microsoft spoiled our speculation fun. Uncharacteristically wavering away from their traditional "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation" response, they took the HD DVD Xbox 360 rumor head on telling Gamespot that "we have reiterated multiple times since launching the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player that we have no plans to integrate an HD-DVD player in to the Xbox 360". Bummer. A Microsoft rep further went on to explain that "we feel that offering the drive externally is the best way to give consumers the ultimate choice to create their own high-definition experiences." Double bummer.

It's possible the official Microsoft response is just a smoke and mirrors trick in an effort to squash rumor talk before Gates announces the new hardware at CES. Though, we wouldn't count on it. We advise sitting tight, because Billy Gates will be walking across the CES stage tomorrow and all shall be revealed. Anyone still holding out hope?

Tags: hd-dvd, xbox-360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

nerrrrrrd @ Jan 5th 2008 8:09PM

the bombshell... new 360 with internal Blu-Ray player!

Brian Fantana @ Jan 5th 2008 10:13PM

I'd buy it. HD-DVD isnt looking too good. Sucks, cause it's the better format. Maybe Billy Gates will announce a BD add-on, made by Samsung. Aren't MS and Samsung still partners? Or a combo drive.

Platinum_Skeet @ Jan 5th 2008 11:45PM

Xboy coming out 2008.... Handhelds will be forever changed...

or

Just added functionality like DVD burner, capture card or IPTV...

Nick @ Jan 6th 2008 3:43AM

I wouldn't count it out as a possibility. The HD-DVD player add on was mainly a temporary solution for xbox owners while I believe MS was waiting the storm of the format war to start having a clear winner.
MS may have some interest in HD-DVD for pc's, but most computer geeks prefer the BRD for the next storage medium to replace DVD-RW.
If in the next six months, which would be the release window for the Ultimate in my opinion, the costs are sufficient to integrate Blu-Ray into the 360, then I think this is the way they should go.
It would do a couple things for MS. It will take away the PS3's selling point that it has Blu-Ray built in and can also support Blu-Ray games. This would now work to both systems benefit. However, it would also give the Ultimate a one up on the PS3. If the HD-DVD add on box was still compatible with the Ultimate system, and why wouldn't it be. MS can then sell the Ultimate as an all in one media whore system with 300gig hdd for iptv, built in Blu-Ray for movies and games, and include in the box the HD-DVD attachment. When comparing systems at that point one could say well you can watch and play games on Blu-Ray, but we can do the same and PVR iptv, and have HD-DVD movies to boot.
If would definitely be the ultimate machine.

Platinum_Skeet @ Jan 6th 2008 5:25AM

Yeah but by doing that you leave out a portion of the market... The 17+ million that have a 360 will have become obsolete. So if they do add one it'll be for video purposes only...

BlackBeltJones @ Jan 6th 2008 6:32AM

If they were making the Xboy handheld they wouldn't have announced Blue Dragon and Viva Pinata as DS titles.

DaveC @ Jan 5th 2008 8:10PM

It's always worth hoping :)

John @ Jan 6th 2008 7:42AM

totally

id buy it if they did release it like lol

kHz Glitch @ Jan 5th 2008 8:14PM

I still think that it might happen, you never know...

Trekster_Gamer @ Jan 5th 2008 8:25PM

I think it's better to keep this media component seperate from the game console at this point. You can customize easier and have less wear and tear on the 360 itself. They say the PS3 will be around 10 years in this life cycle (fooling yourselves if you think it's technology is that good) but if you watch a huge amount of Blu-Ray movies and games and everything else that you do everyday do you think it's going to hold up to this amount of use? As powerful as the 360 is, and has proven to be up against the supposed all powerful PS3 I would be willing to bet the next great console that comes from Microsoft will dwarf the 360 and PS3 in all areas, and by that time there will most likely be a true standard in the media war.

cheese @ Jan 5th 2008 10:30PM

Yeah, 10 yr life cycle LOL *sarcasm* Kinda like the PS2, it's only been around for about 8 yrs or so, still selling quite a bit... MS already has plans for their next console, and they should, considering their current one has so many problems.

chris @ Jan 5th 2008 11:05PM

Ya the 360 has reached the end of the power band, the ps3 is just starting. And the new format is now and it's called bluray.

GregA @ Jan 6th 2008 12:30AM

chris,

Do you have any evidence of that?

Because, I had this debate with the lead xna developer last fall, and had my ass handed to me. The cpu processor on the xbox has not yet been driven to its full potential by any game, and we are only starting to see what the shader on the gpu is capable of... As that has not yet been used to its potential either. Take a look at the demos on the xna creators club web site and look at all those effects that have yet to be exploited by any game.

Just wow, are there any demonstraitors like that for the ps3?

Trekster_Gamer @ Jan 6th 2008 12:44AM

chris said...
"Ya the 360 has reached the end of the power band, the ps3 is just starting. And the new format is now and it's called bluray."

Tell me Chris what games now that the PS3 has been out over a year can you say really show any better offerings? The 360 showed some great offerings in less than a year after it had been out. The PS3 if you do your homework has crappy dev tools and is a bitch to develop for, could this be why games released today look as good if not better on the 360?? Oh you have the Cell but inferior GPU, PS3 will go the way of the Saturn, with a blueray that you paid too much for. If the Blu-Ray does win then so be it I will buy a cheap player down the road that is not attached to an overrated overpriced console ALA PS3

chris @ Jan 6th 2008 10:57PM

From what dev have been saying it's at about 80 percent while the ps3 is only at 30, how about Uncharted. That kicks the shit out of any game on the 360, how about call of duty that looks just the same but handles better. 3rd party Ps3 games are being held back by the 360, cause it's all got to look the same. Now have a look a GTP, the best looking racing game soon to be out. Hell best looking game of any genre. It's too late for the ps3 to go the way of the Saturn, besides it's right on par with the 360's sales. And the 360 offered nothing until gears came along. If I remember right that was right around the end of year one. In it's first year the ps3 has brought more to the table than the 360. The tools have improved and the dev are over coming the learning curve. So that argument is old and busted just like most 360fanboys. It's no longer to expensive, it has so really good games, and over all it's a better built system. Oh and bluray is winning.

Trekster_Gamer @ Jan 7th 2008 12:04AM

Response to SONY's Bitch: chris

The proof is in the games, they look as good if not better on the 360. Tell me this why does some new games have a noticeable difference ala HL2 Orange?? Gee, this is also a new release but the 360 kicks the PS3's ass in performance and looks as good if not better? Maybe the reason they have only harnessed 30% of the so called powerful cell proc is that the DEV tools Suck ass and it takes longer to get the same game released??

Like I have already said I don't care if the blu-ray wins, that means nothing in a gaming arena, and if it ever does I am sure MS will release a cheaper addon. Face it you have an overly expensive system with mediocre games, and some games that look as good as the 360 and play lame. Then you have really no good online services for gaming. if the PS3 was so damn hot then there would be sales to prove it, shouldn't there be at least twice the amount sold by now to be where the 360 was at this stage??

And BTW what about the 40 gig PS3 owners, they are raped by sony as far as backwards compatibility goes, Microsoft is ALWAYS working to add more and more backwards compatibility. SONY PROMISED this and has not delivered, gee did they kiss you before they screwed you????

Larry @ Jan 5th 2008 8:33PM

I think that's good. Hopefully more media-centered entertainment options will surface tomorrow. I will be glued to Engadget for updates from CES.

NitroFrost @ Jan 5th 2008 8:35PM

i hope this doesn't happen seeing as I have one from launch and my bro just got a elite and with a new one WOW more money I have to spend.

mark @ Jan 5th 2008 8:45PM

how about an external blue-ray player which would give 360 owners "that offering the drive externally is the best way to give consumers the ultimate choice to create their own high-definition experiences."

R0B3RT @ Jan 5th 2008 8:48PM

Who wants hd dvd now that 2 big studios just went to blue ray lol

Dante @ Jan 5th 2008 9:13PM

its Blu Ray ... not blue. btw I have both

texinick @ Jan 5th 2008 9:30PM

In light of the Warner announcement yesterday, and rumours that Apple are going to put Blu Ray in their computers, I don't think it would make business sense for MS to put the HD-DVD inside the 360. They need to cover all bases, and if HD-DVD goes belly-up, which sadly is looking more likely now, then they need to be able to do a switcharoo pretty quickly. If anything, they may want to have the Blu Ray external drive on stand-by!

NukeAssault @ Jan 5th 2008 9:39PM

Unless it plays HD DVD games its useless to me.

bs6268d @ Jan 5th 2008 9:44PM

This just came in

Microsoft joins the bluray camp yaaaaaaaaa

Killer @ Jan 5th 2008 9:53PM

The only thing I see happening (if anything) would be Microsoft's annouces that all blu-ray players for pc will not be compatable with windows operating systems....That would put a nice kick to the face in the format war. >;>

New 360 with Built in HVD drive...Since it uses all the same lasers as a dvd player, it could kick blu-ray's ass anytime, hell it kicks even a harddrives ass too.. Mass Effect 2 on a 1.6 TB disc.. :D

eugene @ Jan 5th 2008 10:01PM

At this point, the only point to adding HD-DVD to the 360 is if games will take advantage of the capacity. If MS adds it just to keep the war going, it will only make a difference if MS replaces EVERYONE'S 360 with an HD-DVD spec model for free.

OBM @ Jan 5th 2008 10:32PM

Knew it was never going to happen. Bill Gates didn't become the richest man in the world by making stupid decisions like this. HD DVD, it's high risk, they offer it as an option because of this. On the other hand, Sony put all their eggs in the basket with Blu Ray, which is why Sony sucks and MS rocks.
We all know the future, it's downloads, MS knows this, they're already kicking off and will be well ahead before half of the other contenders even realise.
Also DVDs will take a long, LONG time to go away, there's no substitute for cheap media, even if it isn't in HD.
As soon as someone makes a multi layer DVD (over 2 I mean) which uses original drives, no one will even look at blu ray let alone HD-DVD.

chris @ Jan 5th 2008 11:09PM

Downloads are not the future people want something to show for their money and not just used up space on a hard drive. It will take for every for downloads to become the norm if it does, it will take longer for that to get going than it will for dvd to die.

bigmac375 @ Jan 5th 2008 10:52PM

if they do release this, they would have lied.

won't happen, doesn't need to happen.

RoseGold @ Jan 5th 2008 11:18PM

i mean at this point is pointless to make an ultimate xbox360 with hd dvd they should of thought of that at the beginning when hd dvd had a chance

SuicideNinja @ Jan 5th 2008 11:34PM

I don't know what the obsession with a built-in HD-DVD drive is. I can't possibly see how that would be a good move for a company who's interests lie in a digital distribution future

I like HD-DVD better overall; I'll take standards over extra unnecessary storage space. I even work for Toshiba technically. But building in HD-DVD would just be a bad gamble: Blu-ray has the lion's share of studio and retail support. Not to mention PS3 owners.

Microsoft has committed to DVD9, which is just fine; there's no reason to cram the drive in there for the added expense.

They should just make a new Elite with more USB ports and built in wireless. Maybe Bluetooth, a built-in card reader, bigger hard drive, and IE7. Form factor: Smaller, lighter, whatever. That's what I'd like to see.

Cal @ Jan 5th 2008 11:56PM

IE7.. =(

But yeah I don't get why 360fb and co are so obsessed with this built in HD-DVD player idea...

Zeus the God @ Jan 6th 2008 12:02AM

the PS3 would have a jump on MS if it went to downloads by the time most people would want a bigger HDD it would be cheaper for the PS3(external HDD too anyone for movies and music. 500gig on stand by for me if needed). people forgot from the jump kutaragi was backing downloads and people just laughed at him(could you imagine the time it would take to download, most people don't have that fast of a connection?they said) how quick we forget. Sony has single console adopters on there toes jumping from piller to piller as the last one falls. So far single 360 owners still have the 1 up with the amount of consoles out and a couple exclusives any hardcore gamer would love to have but even thats getting smaller. when the PS3 hits 10 million consoles sold will that still be a problem, it seemed like the perfect number to stay exclusive on the 360.

hellvector @ Jan 6th 2008 12:59AM

I actually just picked up a PS3 today. 80gb btw. I've been all about the 360 for a long time now but I had the opportunity to get a good deal one by trading in my old zephyr elite since I got myself an new falcon a couple months ago. All in all I spent less than $200 on the PS3. I don't have an HDDVD drive for my 360, but I do have a BluRay player that happens to play my PS2 games and grill burgers. If HDDVD comes out on top somehow then I'll get the player, if not, I've still not lost anything.

OBM @ Jan 6th 2008 1:34AM

Dude, you realise you're using code names for the SKUs?

Mike @ Jan 6th 2008 1:47AM

Lower HD DVD add ons to $79 with 3 movies....and a new ultimate xbox 360 with free replacement.

Toshiba to drop price of A3...still with the movie 300 to $129...maybe $99 and markets as the best value upconverting dvd player as has hd dvd capability and comes with 7 free movies so price of unit is a wash.

George @ Jan 6th 2008 1:56AM

There is no way this will happen... ever. Even if it were planned at some point, this week's move by Warner over to the Blu-ray camp makes it downright stupid for MS to put an HD-DVD in the 360. The increased manufacturing expense just isn't worth it. Also, expect the HD-DVD add-on to disappear within a year.

Chase @ Jan 6th 2008 3:52AM

The 'big news' will probably be some new iDevice; possibly a new iPod. As near everyone has stated, I fail to see any sense in coupling HD DVD and the 360, when BluRay is apparently the future of HiDef DVD. You know what I would want them to announce? Free money to those people who had no choice in opting out of Vista with their retail laptop/desktop computers.

BlackBeltJones @ Jan 6th 2008 6:35AM

It could still be a mega 360 just without an hd dvd drive.

Jedimonkey @ Jan 6th 2008 8:02AM

Actually if you think about it, Microsoft's decision to make the HD player external makes perfect sense. Now that it appears that BR is going to win this format war, all they need to do is release a BR player for the 360. It can and will happen. Microsoft is dumb at times, but this is one where they'll need to lick their wounds. If Blue-Ray does win, everyone will be buying a PS3 (since it's one of the highest rated players). Just watch...they will announce a BR player for 360 within 6 months.

GuiltyDragon @ Jan 6th 2008 8:28AM

The reason Microsoft is not integrating an HD DVD player with the XBOX is because it knows (rightly) that the future of digital entertainment is direct downloads to a hard drive. With the sucess of systems such as Steam, investing millions into an HD optical format would be short-sighted.

The only reason MS is courting HD-DVD in the first place is to slow the sucess of Blu-Ray to allow R&D progression on a digital distribution model.

In laymans terms: You will be paying for a download of Halo 4 rather than buying it on a disc.

Chase @ Jan 6th 2008 8:58AM

If it means I get to bypass the middleman, the asshats at GameStop, then I cannot wait.

Len Q @ Jan 6th 2008 10:06AM

Bigger hard drives out of the box. Larger storage capacity could mean more HD downloads and with DRM just about in the ground, how about movie downloads longer than 24 hours?? Maybe Michael Bay was right!

Titty Pink @ Jan 6th 2008 11:22AM

I'd love to see all games as downloads, but don't see it being a major part of this generation. Warhawk on PS3 had a download option (you could buy the disk), and I did it. The downfall is you can't take it to a buddy's house or resell it on Craigslist. The download was painless, but it was only 812MB or so; took about 3 minutes. I like the idea though, Gamestop and all the other assholes that rape us for used games wouldn't though, and I'd imagine somehow the "disk" guys, whoever they may be, will lobby against that happening for a long time. Kinda like the car that runs on water, it won't happen.

Trekster you can't be serious about asking to see the offerings of the PS3 in the first year. I can give you quite a few, COD4 is about a week outside of a year, but does that count? No? Ok how bout Oblivion, which looked BETTER on the PS3? I KNOW that counts. Most of the ports were not better than the 360 originals, but for the most part the differences were neglegible. Now you tell me of the great offerings that the 360 had out in the first year. I'll give you COD2. Fight Night was good too (I always forget that one). The rest was typical launch console bullshit. King Kong, Madden, you know. Garbage. And don't talk to me about overpriced. How much does the HDD cost if I want to buy one for the 360? How bout the HD-DVD drive? Wireless connectivity? 4 USB ports? A 360 so well equipped is a bit more expensive, AND you'll probably have to replace it in the first year. So how is it that the PS3 is overpriced again? Don't say dumb things dude, you too Chris. How the hell can you say that the 360 is at the end of it's powerband??? Did you SEE Bioshock at all? Its only been two years dude, what are you new or something?

How are dudes mentioning yet another SKU for the 360? APPARENTLY the Elite doesn't cut it either to some. They SHOULD have built in the HD-DVD player into IT, but they'd have charged $650 for the effing thing, because thats what MS does. Bad business decisions in their gaming division. Well, maybe next gen...

Wolfster @ Jan 6th 2008 4:32PM

Thanks to MS not having the HD DVD drive in the xbox, HD DVD has lost. Like Tiddy Pink says...maybe next time.

GuiltyDragon @ Jan 7th 2008 9:16AM

"Thanks to MS not having the HD DVD drive in the xbox, HD DVD has lost."

Lost HD-DVD might be, but in the end Blue Ray isn't flying off the shelves either. Infact, it would probably be in the same place HD-DVD is now if it wern't for the PS3. When it comes back to the unwashed masses, they look for simple reasons for upgrading their stuff. I was taught this when I worked in electrical retail. These can be broken down to

1) The old one broke
2) The new one is cheaper
3) Someone bought it for me

It is for one of these three reasons that most people upgrade.