The format war seems to be settling on whether or not Blu-ray or HD-DVD is the choice for the upcoming years. But what about an Xbox that plays Blu-ray movies?

“It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider,” said Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware. Penello was asked by Reuters whether Microsoft would support a Blu-ray DVD accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed.

Since Microsoft fully backs Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, don’t expect a switch soon. Microsoft still believes that their videogame sales will not be affected by DVD sales, and has expressed doubts whether the format of choice will ultimately be Blu-ray.

“I fundamentally don’t think … this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus (Sony’s) PlayStation 3,” Penello told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

DVD has always been a big hit for current systems dating back to Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox, but the driving factor in video game consoles are the games themselves.

Microsoft currently offers an add-on drive for the Xbox 360 with a price point much lower than most stand-alone HD-DVD players.

Source: Reuters

Tags: Blu-ray, hd-dvd

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3 Comments » NJ on January 9, 2008 4:16 pm Microsoft isn’t about choice or else they would’ve offered a blu-ray option from the beginning. MS will never support Blu-ray. This is just a statement that it’s possible. So they can keep selling X360s. Blu-ray will never be on X360. Krispy Demon on January 9, 2008 11:25 pm I could see a blu-ray player add-on drive for the 360 if blu-ray would suddenly become the defacto standard, replacing even DVDs, but I don’t think that there is any way that blu ray is going to replace DVDs in this console generation even if they win the HD format war tomorrow morning. So yeah, it’s possible, but it’s also possible that an alien ship could land in my lawn and pronounce me leader of a great galactic civilization. bob on January 15, 2008 10:09 am I think it all over for HD format. sale’s of blu-ray acount for over 70% of the market in 2007 http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=149 RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.