Yesterday, it was reported that Lite-on were to manufacture internal bluray drives for the 360.
Yes I know it was april fools day, but I dont think they have april fools day in taiwan.
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20080331PD214.html

Today, its reported that bluray equipped 360s may sell at a loss, due to the cost of the bluray drive over the standard dvd.
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20080401PD216.html

Should be interesting, despite MS saying they wont have bluray on the 360.  But they said that about HDMI too.

Obviously if M$ were to just announce a new blue-ray 360 at this point a lot of people who are going to buy one will wait for the new version to come out, and that would reduce their market share in the short term.

Not gonna happen. They sell very well without a blu-ray drive and actaully make MS money now. Why would they stick a blu-ray drive in and go back to losing cash.

Seems it IS[/b] going to happen if Liteon have recieved the order to build them.  Seems pretty pointless to ask them to build them if they arent going to use them.  If its only in one SKU, then it doesnt really matter about losing money, then when the price comes down in a year or sos time stick them across the board.
Also by the time they actually release the rest of the components in the 360 will be cheaper also.  Shouldnt be difficult if they are already making BD-ROMs for Dell as well.
As for them selling well, the PS3 and 360 are now neck and neck in terms of sales.

Quote from: soopahflySeems it IS[/b] going to happen if Liteon have recieved the order to build them.  Seems pretty pointless to ask them to build them if they arent going to use them.  If its only in one SKU, then it doesnt really matter about losing money, then when the price comes down in a year or sos time stick them across the board.
Also by the time they actually release the rest of the components in the 360 will be cheaper also.  Shouldnt be difficult if they are already making BD-ROMs for Dell as well.
As for them selling well, the PS3 and 360 are now neck and neck in terms of sales.

Thats just it though, the article says Lite-On declined to comment. Do we know who these industry sources are?

Besides, even if they are making Blu-ray drives for MS, it doesnt mean they will be in the consoles, they may well just be an add-on like the HD-DVD drive.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EkpZEyllApeERuwhfX.php
Lite-on says no.

Tbh, I would have been suprised if it had turned out to be true, but with two reports in two days it makes you wonder.

MS always say no and not hard t ask their manufacturers to do the same

HDMI was not happening, The Elite was not happening, HD-DVD drive was not happening etc, As has been said aready they say no so people like clocked do not wait to buy an xbox with said features and get one now which they want and them make you buy another. They have always done that.
The statment is from MS not Lite-On, Lite on are just refusing to comment.

I recently posted a quote off the group manager of 360 stating there were catagorically no future plans to develop a BR drive.  I doubt very much this is genuine.

Yeah but as has already been pointed out MS always deny things then they actually happen, HDDVD, Elite, etc etc....

They simply dont want people to stop buying Xboxs, if they announced a BRay drive would be in the Xbox in 3 months, people would wait, sales would drop...

Quote from: CypherI recently posted a quote off the group manager of 360 stating there were catagorically no future plans to develop a BR drive.  I doubt very much this is genuine.

The same guy who said no hd-dvd and hdmi plans   as well as others

It would be no different to the current SKUs in the fact that it plays the same games on DVD9.
It would also be an alternative to people who want a bluray player as it would almost certainly be cheaper than the PS3.
Lets just hope this comes out on the 65nm/65nm gpu cpu xbox later in the year.

so theyre going to ship an Xbox with an internal BR drive?

doesnt that kinda screw those of us with normal drives? or mean that new xboxes wouldnt play older games?

wouldnt software houses all know by now if games were being shifted onto Blue Ray?

isnt the scoop going to be the story that reads along the lines that MS have announced an internal DVD/BR drive so that all current games and films can be played on the 360...

Matt

Nope.  Bluray plays DVD also.  It was only the very first drives that didnt.  Same with DVD really.
They have always stated that games will always be made on DVD for this xbox.  I dont think its in the consoles code to read games from any other format.

IF liteon are making internal drives for the 360, lets not forget that if you crack open one of the HD-DVD add on drive, theres an internal drive in there that could in theory work inside the 360.

Quoteso theyre going to ship an Xbox with an internal BR drive?

Some say No but I am like others that Say yes as MS always say no on things, you can see why but it does look likely yes - the question out on though is the external drives.

Quotedoesnt that kinda screw those of us with normal drives? or mean that new xboxes wouldnt play older games?

As already mentioned no, It will just play blu Ray movies not Blu Ray games and Blu Ray plays old DVD formats as well as well as playstation games so will be playing Xbox and 360 games just the same. As I know it The deals that have been done are just for the player and while it will be almost a dead cert the Next gen and the format has not been finalised but as quoted in another thread SONY big wigs do not see a problem if the next gen Xbox machine plays blu ray discs.

What some do not realise is that while they are rivals in the console war they have many ties from the PC the the media and movie industry, MS have elements in regard to the Blu Ray, they allow drives etc to function under their OS and more.
In terms of the movie Industry movie companies will have a big say on anything really and it is indeed the Movie companies which basically decided the HD war before it really got to a full market battle and they want their movies Sold to make money and if a 360 or 720(whatever) is selling like the 360 is now and has the ability to play their movies with an addon or new version or as standard they will want this to happen. While Sony is indeed the major boss of the blu ray group they are not the only company involved with that and the other companies also already have Microsoft ties and as quoted elsewhere MS has even got stakes in them.

The gaming industry itself is not always the ugly war people make out and in cases they do work together for the great good of the gaming industry and in terms of format DVD was a format for all and everyone from any angle will want a successor to be just the same and so Sony could not really prevent this in my opinion (and others) and in any case it would be a coo for them and money (which they need) in the pocket from Microsoft and Microsoft has the money to give them

This year - Blu ray player internally in the next SKU
The external player will come but I think a bit after the SKU, the demand will be high but MS will try and rip people off a bit by making them buy the new console and sell the old one. They could be nice and release both at the same time But I do not think so, they may also not do an external player which will would piss a big chunk of people off and would see a hell of a lot of bricked 360s suddenly get shipped for repair or replacement, lol.

Next gen I can see being blu ray and ps4 blu ray again which the developers would push for and be good for them as they would know their capacity limits and help with all format games, Nintendo will probably again go off and do their own thing but they have money this time so may go spendsies which I think they will do, keep their new concept about play but up the anti a bit in terms of perfomance and of course graphics.

One thing as a side post is that I personally think there should be some mini standards from all the console makers to help the developers and from this week on gamespot that is something some developers also would like..

I mean you can have totally different consoles of course and different games and play but to know for example..

- Blu ray drive
- HAS a Hardrive of at least 60gig
- Has online play....

Etc as something they defiantly know this would help them produce their games.