It's a possibility according to Albert Penello, Microsoft's group marketing manager who admitted that should the Sony born, HD format win out this generation's "Beta-war" that the staunch supporter of the HD DVD format would consider a Blu-Ray add on to the Xbox 360.

Blu-Ray is Sony's answer to HD DVD, coming standard on the PlayStation 3 and is the spiritual successor to Beta, a previous Sony incarnation that was the competition against the regular Video Cassette formatting.

Though Beta had proved to be the better quality and it still used by professional camera operators and station operators, Video Cassette won out as the consumer choice, being cheaper and more widely used brand.

unlike Beta, Blu-Ray does seem to be catching popularity with consumer audiences as well as film studios and production companies. Though still more expensive than HD DVD, with a regular Blu-Ray player costing around $400, Blu-Ray's better quality could win out against HD-DVD. Though it's still early to call a victor, if Microsoft is willing to look towards Blu-Ray, it could spell curtains for HD.

Tags : Blu-ray : HD-DVD : microsoft : PlayStation 3 : Sony : Xbox 360

Comments

By: ApplesauceNinja On: 06:19 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	I don't really have a preference between the two formats, especially in light of the Blu Ray drive being an add on. Now, where I would be stoked is if they started making 360's that could play games stored on the Blu Ray disc. With all of that extra storage space, I think you could see the 360 go where nobody thought it could. Oh well, maybe the next time around, eh?

By: Evren On: 07:07 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	I dont have any right now, and Im happy to wait. =)

By: Dragonfly On: 11:12 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	Not. Gonna. Happen. It would be the equivalent of Microsoft giving Sony the Halo franchise.

By: Samuel On: 03:06 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	You'd think so; but you have to remember that blu-ray is a sony product, but HDDVD isn't a microsoft product. Therefore, it's not microsoft bending over and letting sony mount them like savages, but rather; [sarcasm]"hey, you won in a game we weren't really playing. Congratulations, I'm really sure many more people will buy a PS3 now, with it's top-quality interface and best-selling exclusives"[/sarcasm]

By: boa On: 05:09 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	If you look right back, MS actually stated it was a possibility when it was about to release. And Bill Gates recons it doesn't matter as it'll all be downloaded/streamed soon anyway ^_^

By: Evren On: 05:44 Jan 10th, 2008 Offline	Thats because whenever Bill Gates goes to the bathroom. He earns money. Literally, He poops money.

By: ApplesauceNinja On: 08:08 Jan 12th, 2008 Offline	Really? If that's true, I would gladly kneel before his naked backside and hold out a large bag for him to crap into. :lol:

By: ManicGamer On: 06:45 Jan 12th, 2008 Offline	Seems that a 200$ DONGLE of a drive is a huge price for a game someone is not "playing". When we start seeing games with as many as 50 gigs worth of data the under 10 gig DVD format games will look paltry at best in size and texture quality etc. The PS3 versions of most multi platform games are already 3-15 gigs larger on average. Seems silly to even put an HD-DVD (30 gig discs) add-on onto a system that can't support 1080p to begin with. ESPECIALLY when it is nearly outweighed by the ever-present power brick. ... and before the anti-fanboys start grabbing their proverbial pitchforks and torches and massing virtual mobs of angry 360 villagers/owners this must be conceded: The 360 has done VERY VERY well with the amount of space it has to work with for its gaming. Mass Effect ALONE seems like it should take half a TB in how beautiful and expansive it is. Bioshock was a KNOCKOUT along with Halo 3 (I can attest to this having worked the Launch Party at a Gamestop). These titles are great examples of how great games don't necicarily NEED tons of space.. however it boggles the mind to think how much better these titles could have been (at least visually) with 1080p resolutions and more data .. such as MAPS for Halo 3, which would have made the single player experience a bit more fulfilling. I'm not sure Bioshock really needed anything though.. a beautiful game to say the least. Mass Effect would have only benifited from TONS of more planets and environments.. hell even if the 30 gig HD-DVD disks would have helped to provide enough room so that the Shivering Isles content for Oblivion didn't need to be downloaded to ones hard drive. NOT trying to start a war here. I'm just saying that for anything involving quality video playback I personally prefer my PS3. And when it comes to these "format wars" we tend to break up the consoles. The fact still remains that more data offers developers more room to work with and ultimately adds to the games and what they are capable of offering. I look forward to the day when Microsoft and Playstation are capable of enjoying the same titles on the same amount of space... and even letting us play against eachother online would be cool. I'm not saying this is EVER going to happen... but it would save me $$ in Live points at least.