Wednesday, June 29, 2005

MS, Xbox 360, and HD DVD -- 9:32 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Bill Gates made a strange comment about the future of the Xbox 360 and HD DVD. Here's what he said:

"The initial shipments of Xbox 360 will be based on today's DVD format," Gates confirmed. "We are looking at whether future versions of Xbox 360 will incorporate an additional capability of an HD DVD player or something else."

There's something just not right about this. The whole point of a console is so that you don't have multiple hardware configurations to deal with. I can only picture one of two scenarios:

1. Bill Gates has lost it. I tend to doubt this theory. While he is many things, he is not stupid.
2. He is lying to try to derail Blu-Ray and to cover over what many view as a deficiency in the Xbox 360.

The big winner is #2. It would be exactly like Microsoft to promise (or at least hint at) some wonderful future technology that only they will be able to bring when their competition is offering something technologically superior right now. Adding an HD DVD player later would be silly since most game manufacturers are going to go for the lowest common denominator. It would allow the Xbox 360 to play these theoretical HD DVD discs, but who would buy a whole new Xbox 360 just for that?

As an aside, the end of that article has something that is false or at least very unclear. It says:

Although Blu-ray Disc can technology hold more data per disc than HD DVD, the lower manufacturing costs and compatibility with the current DVD format makes HD DVD more consumer-friendly.

Manufacturing costs mean nothing except to early adopters. By the time the technology is mainstream, manufacturing techniques have improved enough to drop the price dramatically. Also Blu-Ray drives can play back regular DVDs and CDs so I'm not sure what the "compatibility" thing is all about.

News for 06/29/2005

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