14 DAY TRIAL // One of Microsoft's executives recently claimed that the Xbox 360's producer would eventually support the Blu-ray format, in case it gets popular and enough and meets a high public demand, during a series of CES 2008 interviews. It all comes down to the failure or success of the HD DVD format and it's up to the consumer to decide, as group marketing manager for Xbox hardware Albert Penello said. The Microsoft representative also claimed that the 360's sales won't be affected in case the Blu-ray becomes the new favorite standard.
A major part in this shift is played by Warner Bros, who dropped HD DVD and replaced it with the Blu-ray fomat. Penello also mentioned : "I fundamentally don't think... this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus (Sony's) PlayStation 3. With the PlayStation 2, DVD was a big part in the beginning, but over time, people were not buying it as a DVD player after the first year or two" in an interview with Reuters.
Strangely enough, there's no Xbox Ultimate at this year's CES, nor is there a HD-DVD Xbox 360 version and it seems that Microsoft is not too eager to start the production of these devices. It's important to notice that, while most movie studio seem eager to join the Blu-ray universe, the consumers choose HD-DVD, mostly because of its price and its popularity. I liked the quote of Penello saying that "Until Toshiba goes out of business, this war is not over.", to keep hope alive for a next gen/format in the following years, instead of a boring alliance of producers that wouldn't leave us much choice but to buy an universal next-gen console.
Well, at least Nintendo's staying out of this, while the Wii fans are still demanding DVD playback support and the homebrewers have already achieved it. Is this the only console NOT trying to become the future's next multimedia center?