Rumors have been floating around the past few days that Bill Gates will be making some surprise Xbox 360 related announcements in his final CES keynote on Sunday. According to the rumors, he will announce that Microsoft will incorporate an HD DVD drive and DVR functionality into the Xbox 360 by partnering up with companies like Toshiba. Essentially, it would be a consumer electronics device that would have the ability to play Xbox 360 games.
These rumors are pretty interesting, so I thought I’d share my two cents. DVR functionality wouldn’t surpise me at all, since MS has already told us about their plans for IPTV on the Xbox 360. The HD DVD drive, on the other hand, is a little harder for me to swallow. On one hand, I agree with the thoughts of Michael Bay, that MS would rather both formats lose so that digital distribution can become the next “format” of choice. On the other hand, a consumer electronics device would be a great way to introduce “non-core-gamers” to the Xbox 360, since that is the market that seems to elude Microsoft at the present time.
Anyway, MS hasn’t done the best job of keeping their secrets in the past, so I think it’s anyone’s guess at this point. What are your thoughts?
Link: Visions of Gates’ keynote swan song [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
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3 Responses
Jive
Comment posted January 2, 2008 at 10:15 pm 1Well I don’t know how solid this rumor is, I’ve heard it on a bunch of websites, although I’ve heard rumors in the past from multiple websites that never became true.
As far as this rumor goes, I think all the parts mentioned will be a requirement if they want to compete in a consumer electronic device. In order for them to entice “non-gamers” to purchase it, it needs to have current technology. You need the larger hard drive because a consumer will want a DVR (with streaming capabilities of course). We are in the HD era, if they want it to be what this rumor says it needs to be able to capture HD TV and replicate it both in games, recorded video and DVD’s.
While I agree MS really wants IPTV to work out (and maybe such a device would really introduce it) the general population is not yet ready to adopt it and with out some form of High Def DVD playback it would be a failure.
Other reasons to make sure it has HD DVD capabilities:
Have you seen some of the PS3 commercials lately, some of them don’t even talk about the video game system, it just talks about their blu-ray abilities for movies. They are selling the unit as a cheap blu-ray player that also plays games. This type of consumer would have to be a major MS hater to pass up on the ability to have a DVR, hd-dvd capable, video game system that also has the ability to connect to live to purchase streaming movies etc.
If you can win the war of HD DVD formats that will hurt future sales of the PS3 and just another jab at Sony’s way of making everything proprietary.
MS has a partnership with Toshiba- who is a major player in the DVD format war, I’m sure they would be pushing hard to have any type of new system be HD DVD compatible (with out an add on).
Even though I have an xbox 360 with the HD DVD add-on and a HD DVR I would be seriously tempted to purchase this type of device if it were reasonably priced.
Shafnitz
Comment posted January 2, 2008 at 11:36 pm 2Very good points.
Tha R1gga
Comment posted January 3, 2008 at 10:11 am 3They have said since the xbox 1 days that they wanted to get a system into the living rooms of homes. If that system is supposed to be the xbox360, then they will have to add more media features to it like HD-DVD. Even if the speculation that they want both formats to lose it true, the consumer still believes HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are next-gen and will feel more inclined to buy a system as a media hub if it includes ones of those. I think it’s pretty likely that they will add it, but knowing microsoft, it won’t be cheap.
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