Shane Kim at E3: 'No Interest' in Adding Blu-ray to 360 Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Shane Kim at E3: 'No Interest' in Adding Blu-ray to 360 Posted by XanTium | July 15 23:49 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From forbes.com: [QUOTE] Shane Kim, vice president of strategy and business development for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment business, tells me that the company has "no interest" in adding Blu-Ray functionality to its console, opting instead to focus on digital distribution. "I can categorically say that we're not working on a Blu-Ray player for Xbox 360," says Kim. "To my knowledge, we don't have any intent to do that." Kim, though, says the company is more interested in pursuing digital distribution as a method for building its non-gaming audience. [/QUOTE] Full Story: forbes.com

[DMAddict]

I believe this to be a wise business decision. I just don't think Blu-Ray will be around for long, IMO. Aside from that, why support the competition.

[BulkySam]

News is supposed to be stuff we don't know. These are like the news reports on American obesity. We get it, we Americans are fat. We get it, the 360 is not getting a Blu-ray player.

[ausmods]

So, people are finally starting to beleive that the 360 is not going to get a blu-ray player? Even after M$ saying months and months ago they had no intention of making one for the 360...

[sabbath_dude]

The new dash with its ass load of extra advertising space and a Netflix section built in backs up what they say about targeting the non-gaming audience and pursuing digital distribution. A Blu-ray player would directly compete with that.

[bucko]

Netflix aint in Europe though, and we don't have TV Shows...and les regular movie updates to USA, I know there is publisher rights but come on stop screwing with us or Blu-Ray will blow MS outa the water in Europe.

[Martinchris23]

So due to the demise of the HD-DVD player, the only way to watch HD content via the 360 will be from either self or commercially encoded WMVs or by downloading from the MarketPlace.

Neither can really compete with Blu-Ray in terms of quality, so why are MS leaving this sector of the market open? Being dependant on download-only HD content (in their eyes) has a lot to be desired, especially when there's still DRM issues when playing content from another 360 and Xbox Live happens to be down!

Not only that, but there's no way to offload the stored movies you've purchased to another medium, meaning that it won't take that long before you'll need to think about purchasing ANOTHER 120GB HDD.

The acquisition of a Blu-Ray player for the 360 would only complement the current configuration and I'm not sure where people get the idea it won't be around for much longer!!!

[chronno]

News is supposed to be stuff we don't know. These are like the news reports on American obesity. We get it, we Americans are fat. We get it, the 360 is not getting a Blu-ray player.

We get it but apparently no one else douse.

Not only that, but there's no way to offload the stored movies you've purchased to another medium, meaning that it won't take that long before you'll need to think about purchasing ANOTHER 120GB HDD.

Don't worry about that. The videos expire after 1 or 7 days and delete themselves. The odds of you running out of space in 7 days are slim. (this is why I don't use the video marketplace.)

[tutu]

The acquisition of a Blu-Ray player for the 360 would only complement the current configuration

I agree. Microsoft are idiots.

[luther349]

what are you talking abought cannot compeat the sold movies use the same codec as blueray. if there selling you a h264 encoded wmv then guess what it will look the same as a blueray. tv qualty depending of course gold can look like crap on a crap display. h264 even highly compressed will not lose any qualty if any. the entire hd this and hd that and dvds are just to small for moves where all sales pitches to make you buy a ps3/blueray player or hd-dvd player. sad thing it works.

This post has been edited by luther349: Jul 16 2008, 03:43 PM

[vicious6969]

Hang on, M$ digital distribution is a paltry 720p and compressed to only 4.5gb file size where as Blu-ray is a full 1080p.

And before anyone says there is no difference, I watched I am Legend in 720p from the market place (my first and last experience of using it) the download took 4.5 hours and kept getting interupptions, and I had to clear off loads of room from my wholly inadequate 20gb hard drive. No matter what I do I can only seem to have 11gb free. Each demo I have is over 1gb as well so there's not even enough room for 2 films at a time. If you want to watch two films over the weekend it's a pain.

As a test, I got a WMV copy of I am Legend in 1080p and was 8.5gb in size, and I could definitely tell the difference in quality and sound on my Panasonic 1080p television.

So if I'm going to pay to rent a movie I want to get the best possible quality. Therefore at the moment, this is Blu-Ray.

M$ are a joke and are clueless.

If it wasn't for acheivements, I'd be straight on the PS3 ship.

[HotKnife420]

Frankly, I just don't care for how MS runs the marketplace. I refuse to patronize movies from it, as I can't own them. I really like Sony's idea for the PSN, which will also allow you to port the movies you buy to other devices (like the PSP).

Still, I'd rather just get the Blu-ray for a 1080p version of whatever film. I'm curious as to how they'll look when the UHD/SHV (Ultra High Definition / Super Hi-Vision) sets surface. Considering the difference in image from a 120 Hz set versus a 60 Hz, I'm sure they'll still look great, but I can't help but think that movies are going to be re-released in 2160p, and again in 4320p. This would be an excellent reason in why HD-DVD would not last as a format and Blu-ray would (both for storage and necessary bandwidth, though I'm not sure what the bandwidth requirements for a 4320p source would be - perhaps "the next thing" will be necessary by then).

[steveju]

I bought my PS3 ages ago, it's a very nice Blu-Ray player that comes with a game console. Seriously, it was way cheaper than any Blu-Ray player.

P.S. DMAddict, plug in your AV-cable (referring to your sig), will save you those $$$.

[Tiuk]

A few months ago I actually still thought they'd release a Blu-ray player. Now it's pretty clear though, it's not going to happen. Maybe a few years down the line if Blu-ray is massively successful and an add-on would cost like $50, who knows.

[kowrip]

M$ are a joke and are clueless.

If it wasn't for acheivements, I'd be straight on the PS3 ship.

Achievements ? Are you serious ? That seems like a pretty silly reason to stay with the Xbox 360. I can see doing it because of the game selection or XBL or whatever, but not something as silly as achievements. Who the heck cares how many gamer points you accumulate ???