Straight from the horse’s mouth:
“As we’ve said before, Microsoft has no plans to introduce an Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on,” the firm told Edge. “Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.”
Major Nelson sat down with Aaron Greenberg and the Xbox 360 group product manager had some strong words about this rumor too.
“We have no plans to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,” Greenberg told Major Nelson, cementing the corporate response given earlier.
“We believe that we shouldn’t force consumers to pay for things they don’t want. We also believe that the future’s digital, and that’s why we’ve invested in a massive library of entertainment content.”
“No one knows,” he said, “no one knows what Blu-ray will be. It’s pretty clear it is not the next DVD, right? The days of one physical format being the standard are gone.”
“Let’s say right now we’re not sure if it’s the next UMD or the next DVD,” added Greenberg, suggesting “it got Blu-rayed” will be the expression for future products in this perceived grey area.
“I went to Sony’s [TGS] booth, and their Blu-ray presence…It used to be like their whole booth was Blu-ray. It just keeps shrinking down. Now it’s just this little corner and there’s no one there,” he said. We can think of a couple of counterpoints, but we’re not touching this one with a bargepole.