Banner Year for Blu-Ray, Still Not Coming to Xbox 360
Posted 01/14/09 at 03:15:55 PM by Paul Lilly
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It appears the Blu-ray format may finally be picking up steam. At CES, Andy Parsons, president of the Blu-ray Disc Association, described 2008 as a banner year for Blu-ray sales, and the numbers appear to back his claim. Fourth quarter sales saw 28.6 million Blu-ray sales, up significantly from 9.5 million a year prior. There are now nearly 11 million Blu-ray capable players in the U.S., although 6 million of those are PlayStation 3 consoles.
By comparison, in the same three year time frame after release, DVD players totaled 5.4 million units, not far above all non-PS3 Blu-ray players. And with 40 million homes equipped with HDTVs, there's plenty of room for Blu-ray player sales to grow. Helping to do that, 18 new Blu-ray players were announced at CES, including an HDTV with a built-in player by Sharp.
Despite Blu-ray's recent success, Microsoft reiterated it has no plans to integrate Blu-ray capability with its Xbox 360 console. According to Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, the decision comes down to a combination of not enough users requesting a Blu-ray player, and because it wouldn't help "in the core of what Xbox does, which is gaming."
Image Credit: Flicker /pitzyper!
Are Blu-Ray Drives for
Submitted by cb.monk on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 8:28pm
Are Blu-Ray Drives for computers included in the "Blu-ray capable players" figures?
Just curious. I think anyone with a screen good enough to display blu-ray in all its' glory needs to have a player of some sort.
Submitted by Vegan on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 5:24pm
The last thing the 360 needs is yet another SKU splintering the userbase even more than it currently it. Add Blu-ray to the next system, but not the 360.
Submitted by LatiosXT on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 3:29pm
If the core of the 360 is gaming, then why bother with doing fancy pancy media related stuff to begin with? Why add Netflix streaming? Why add Miis? Why do anything that the first version of the console didn't do?
Oh right, because it has to compete with the PlayStation 3 as a total entertainment device.
Just integrate Blu-Ray dammit. I think Microsoft just doesn't want to cave into the fact they half-supported a format they thought would win.
Submitted by LatiosXT on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 11:09am
First of all, Sony doesn't exclusively own Blu-Ray. If anyone is paying royalties based on using Blu-Ray, it's to the Blu-Ray association (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association). Anyone who pays royalties for using DVDs, it's for the DVD Forum, which by the way Sony was a founding member. Hell, even if you used CDs, Sony got a cut of the profits. In other words, Sony helped create all the popular optical disk formats you know and love.
Second of all while I'm certain that the PS3 uses a 1x or 2x BD-ROM drive which is in fact slower than a 12x DVD drive used in the 360, the PS3 installs the necessary data to the hard drive. That's fine with me, because ultimately that means load times are LESS. I played MGS4 which its install times (1-2 minutes, PC games take much longer for the same amount of data!) weren't that bad. If MGS4's install times were notable critcisms, then other PS3 games shouldn't be that bad. But the kicker is, I'd rather be enjoying my gaming experience without hearing the console. The Xbox 360 is notorious for being loud. Yes I understand that Microsoft "upgraded" the DVD drive to be a bit more quiet, but you can only go so far into silencing a 10,000+RPM drive. But seriously, when I was playing on my brother's Elite, I had to turn up the sound system that I was using pretty damn loud to drown out the DVD drive.
Besides, DVD is really starting to show its age as a gaming medium. I've noticed in multiplatform games on the 360, its visual quality is lower than the PS3 or PC version.
I think MS just doesn't want
Submitted by jcollins on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 6:12pm
I think MS just doesn't want to give royalty money for using BluRay to Sony...
Why do we need bluray on the
Submitted by Antilogic81 on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 5:13pm
Why do we need bluray on the xbox? The speed of data transfer on a bluray player is so damn slow that it's not even worth it...game developers aren't doing anything with it yet until those speeds increase.
Fact is DVD is superior for gaming because of the speed at which information is transfered. For movies it's definently superior, but for gaming...it's not there yet...M$ is making a smart move to not integrate Bluray. You ever hear the game developer mantra...slow loading times kill a game?
Xbox is already more popular than the PS3...check out the sale numbers on wiki if you don't believe me. It's about 4 mill shy of being double that of the PS3.
This link is pretty enlightening.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/1/17/6658
so wait, according to MS,
Submitted by FrancesTheMute on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 3:18pm
so wait, according to MS, Blu-Ray doesn't help in the core of what xbox does, gaming. Ummm, how about being able to fit 5x the data on one game disc?
How come you guys don't seem
Submitted by dankers on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 2:51pm
How come you guys don't seem to like couting the PS3 as a genuine Blu-ray player? That's really all I use mine for, I was quite dissapointed in the games for it.
Why bother
Submitted by SANMANx on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 1:31pm
The 360 is 3 years in. They have time to fight this battle with blu ray with dig distribution. If in 3 years Blu Ray really takes off they will put it in the Xbox 720, DVD is still strong enough, espesially in this economy, that M$ just doesn't need to do this yet. no big deal really. When a player reaches 99.99 I will buy a Blu-Ray player....MAYBE
I am Recession Proof
Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 2:38pm
I saw a BD-rom drive on newegg for $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106273
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