Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 03 May 2008 11:29
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Rumours that Microsoft will release an Xbox 360 equipped with a
internal Blu-ray drive just won’t die, with a new report suggesting
Asustek is making them – just in time for 3rd quarter and end-of-year
sales and a big fight with the PS3.
If the Xbox 360 came with a Blu-ray drive, letting you watch Blu-ray movies, wouldn’t that put a spanner in the works of the Blu-ray equipped PS3, or at least, muddy the waters in terms of which was the best console to buy?
The word on the street is that any Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray drive would only allow users to watch Blu-ray movies, and not play Xbox 360 games issued on Blu-ray discs, primarily because no games developer would issue Xbox 360 games on Blu-ray discs – or, at least, not until there was a sizeable number of units in the market.
It also begs the question as to whether or not Microsoft will issue an external Blu-ray drive for movie watching, letting existing Xbox 360 owners buy what would likely be the cheapest Blu-ray add-on in the market.
It would also potentially allow Microsoft to switch on Xbox 360 Blu-ray gaming, were all this to pass, in one stroke eliminating the major advantage that Sony has been pushing for the PS3: that its games can be much larger and equipped with better video and audio, something that simply isn’t possible on an 8.5GB dual-layer DVD.
But then we get to the problem of multiple SKUs, as they call them in the industry, or ‘stock control units’. How many versions of the Xbox 360 do retailers need to stock? Retail floor space comes at a premium, and Microsoft has already eliminated the profits the Xbox 360 was beginning to show when the ‘Red ring of death’ warranty scandal erupted.
Would retailers be happy in stocking two different versions of Xbox 360 games? How much would that cost Microsoft? Microsoft already made things complicated for games developers by launching an Xbox 360 without a hard drive, forcing all games to be playable on systems with no hard drive at all.
So, how likely is this latest rumour? Please read onto page 2.
