Rumors float around the Internet questioning when Microsoft will ship a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 or add-on device like they did with the, now failed, HD-DVD. At CES 09 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, says this request is “way down the list.”
Mr. Bach had some great selling points as to why a Blu-ray player has little value in the world of Xbox 360. The primary reason, of course, being the Xbox 360 developers cannot take advantage of Blu-ray as a development platform for games. This was the price Sony, or the consumer, paid to own a PlayStation 3 since all games are printed on the media and are, in effect, Blu-ray “capable.”
We say capable because not all (any?) PlayStation 3 games currently make full use of the Blu-ray media. Many games will reprint the game on the media for optimization purposes, fill the game with international voice overs for all countries or, otherwise, stuff the media with something that will serve a useful purpose. Sony has near-future-proofed their device by giving game developers years of growth in terms of utilizing the Blu-ray capacity.
Microsoft chose to take the smaller old-style DVD format for games and media. Adding the HD-DVD didn’t add a large deal of risk because, as we saw, they can discontinue the model and not change their core gaming demographic. We still laughed a bit at them, but that was where it ended. Bach also said that it’s not really a great economic time to push a new 360 SKU on potential customers with additional cost just for Blu-ray movies playback.
They could add Blu-ray game development support as well but that would just alienate the “28 million Xboxes” they have already shipped.
“OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.” (gamespot)
Of course, the first thing that came to our mind was “well, you did it for HD-DVD, how is Blu-ray different?” The key areas we can think of really come down to Blu-ray is a Sony technology and they are a direct competitor and, to top it off, HD-DVD allowed them to fight against the PS3 at the media level of the industry. They minimized the risk by making the product a secondary add-on device and, if HD-DVD had won, they’d have the winning format already under production (still not for games).
It seems Microsoft has changed their battle plans a little. They started out talking up the media aspects of the 360, using Media Center, renting movies and TV shows and had the HD-DVD as a subproduct. Today, they’re investing in Netflix for media and everything else favors the games.
Which is fine, we like games.
🙂 No, Jonah, I don’t have it (Heart of the Swarm). It’s just that I have a lot of things going against this game: first of all, Starcraft II requires constant on-line DRM. This is a big no-no for me. Big enough to not buy either Starcraft II or Diablo III.
Add to that the fact that I have less and less spare time; so what’s the point of getting a game if I won’t play it? Better leave it for somebody who has the available time.
@Thief to feature “classic mode”, removing all assists
Props to that! I’d love to see that kind of approach used in more games.
@The Witcher 3 confirmed to be DRM-free
Talking about DRM never being an issue, to quote somebody from EA … I know, Jonah, you already mentioned the previous installments last week. Still, I find it amazing that nobody tries the same.
@Bethesda confirms “new version of Doom 4” being worked on, Rage 2 cancelled
Oh man … if only id could remain independent …
Yeah, new Doom 4? What happened with the old Doom 4?
Different kind of flashlight batteries? 😛
Didn’t play Rage; Doom 3 felt a bit stretched – a bit too short of a story for the length of the game. While the choices of flashlight vs. weapon felt artificial, the overall shooting mechanics felt ok.
As for South Korea not having nukes, it doesn’t matter that much, they have pretty much all western countries behind them.
Jonah, get well. Your voice is still … erm … “sexy”?
Hey Jonah, after seeing a Hitler video parody about you that I thought sucked, I thought I would take the time to make you a proper one. I hope you don’t mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH80Mgbt4ss
@Witcher’s great big sword
For those who have not played it, Whitcher is a dating simulator set in the fictional medieval era staring an albino Ron Jeremy. The aim of the game is to have sex with every female species in the world, including (but not limited to) elves,princesses, vampires and sentient plants. To fill the time between plowing the fertile fields of Temeria there is a light RPG mechanic and combat side missions with some sort of a secondary quest of revenge.
@Lucasarts
Pity really. I enjoyed the Jedi Knight series back in the day. Although I didn’t care about their more recent games. Kinect Star wars was a special case. First time people could tell the game was crap just seeing it at E3. On a side note, it’s sad to see all these studios closing. I’ve spent so much time playing THQ and Lucasarts games. Not to mention Midway. Oh well. As long as the talent of the developers lives on and joins another studio it should all be fine. It’s people that count.
@Doomed Rage
Don’t know why anyone cares. Doom was the original FPS. But now we have Halo, COD, Half-Life and all those franchises. Doom 4 has no chance of competing and will most likely crash and burn on day one. Not unless it brings something innovatingly outstanding. Regarding Rage, there is a popular opinion that Bethesda should just stick to Elder Scrolls. Everything else they bring out ends being crap or overlooked (WET, Brink, Rage)