Microsoft: Xbox 360 Not Having Blu-ray is Good

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Microsoft pats itself on the back for not having a high-definition optical storage medium such as Blu-ray Disc.

During infancy of the current console generation, there was much debate regarding Sony's inclusion of the Blu-ray Disc format with the PlayStation 3. The blue and violet lasers did drive costs up, but it was hard to argue with the value of a 50GB storage medium for Sony's console.

Fast forward ahead years to today, and we're still on the same argument but on a different scale. Xbox product director Aaron Greenberg told CVG that the Xbox 360 lack of a Blu-ray Disc drive has allowed it to take a massive lead against the PS3.

"Being $100 cheaper [than PS3] is part of the reason we're nearly twice their installed base," Greenberg said, referring to the North American market, according to CVG.

PlayStation 3's added investment in Blu-ray Disc, while it does cost more, pays off with games such as Final Fantasy XIII, where it ships on one disc versus three DVDs for the Xbox 360.

"The fact that we're able to offer a console starting at $199 is a benefit of not being burdened with that cost," Greenberg said to Edge magazine."For us, our bet was on digital distribution, that was the future - the ability to [play] 1080p movies with no disc, no download required; we have the largest movie and TV library, the largest HD library of any console."

Ironically, Microsoft's $199 version of the Xbox 360 doesn't come with the accessory that is needed most for the company's bet on digital distribution – a hard disk drive.

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Marcus Yam

Marcus Yam is a technology evangelist for Intel Corporation, the latest in a long line of tech-focused roles spanning a more than 20-year career in the industry. As Executive Editor, News on Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, Marcus was responsible for shaping the sites' news output, and he also spent a period as Editor of Outdoors & Sports at Digital Trends.

131 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jn77
    Why do they justify being $100 cheaper because they do not offer blu-ray...

    I think the last time I saw a video tap was at the thrift shop, or at the mission when I donated them to some one that could use them more than me.

    DVD's are not quite there yet, but they are also on the way out.

    With the D TV revolution, most people have 16:9 tv's now. If the console does not support 1080p it fails.

    Also like they said, 3 DVD's for one game, vs. 1 blu ray... Have fun switching out discs part way through the game, I think the last time that happened, I decided it was time to upgrade and donate.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    $199 starting price. True , but you have to buy a hardrive which is a 100 plus dollars and the controllers are 10 dollars cheaper but you have to buy the $20 play and charge kit. I'm not even going to go into the wifi adaptor. But the 360 is ALL hidden fees. Red Ring anyone? I had 2 360's RR in 2 months and i could never finish devil may cry because it scratched my disk so bad that it wouldn't read it. Now i game mostly on my pc but i bought a ps3 for final fantasy and i haven't had one thing to b$tch about. If theres a game i want and its on pc i'll get it if its not than its probably for ps3.
    Reply
  • ds1495
    Somebody's a little jealous....hehe :P
    Reply
  • hakesterman
    Sir, you are on crack Cocain. Your system isn't even in the same League as a PS3, your mind has
    left your body. You do not own the streaming video in which you are talking about, you are simply redirecting it to your system for a $ 60.00 a year prescription plus monthly Netflix Fee's. Last but not least your not streaming true HD video through your system, your streaming an upscaled 480 video to 720P which is a far cry short of Bluray quality which is 1080P * 1920P. Further more Netflix and any other streaming video company that you maybe talking about only offers about 20 percent of their lineup in streaming Video. So please go see a doctor and get your head re-attached to your body, then maybe you can think straight.
    Reply
  • dogofwars
    The main reason why they sale so many console it's because they let themselves hack, they knew which console to ban a long time ago but decided to ban in mass. It's just to boost up their figure and it's the reason why they sale more console than PS3.

    Wii is hackable and cheap, they make great sale, XBOX is hackable and relatively cheap and make great sale, PS3 is not hackable and does not have a great network and they don't have the sale because of that.

    Now they have ban more than 1 million XBOX consoles people will buy new one so is one of the reason for the bigger figure than Wii and guest what Microsoft seem to catch up with Wii console but Wii even they try to circumvent hacking they are not playing the same game as Microsoft which make them lag behind.

    All in all they should not pats themselves in the back because of the blu-ray thing but because they let their console get hack and ban them later. Microsoft as always played like that and they are mostly #1 in the market because of that(in general figure)
    Reply
  • dogofwars
    Sorry for the long rant ;)
    Reply
  • jla0
    Huh, I can buy an Xbox 360 Arcade for $128 canadian @ walmart and $129 @ bestbuy, dell.ca and futureshop...

    Seems way cheaper then the PS3 now doesn't it?
    Reply
  • duckmanx88
    that $200 box comes without an almost necessary hard drive.
    Reply
  • Zenthar
    As many have said, the bare XBox is that ... really bare. No rechargeable batteries for the remotes, no wi-fi, no HDD and you have to pay for decent online gaming. Just adding the 120GB HDD to the Arcade models brings it to the same price as the PS3 slim with same size HDD ...
    Reply
  • Core2uu
    jla0Huh, I can buy an Xbox 360 Arcade for $128 canadian @ walmart and $129 @ bestbuy, dell.ca and futureshop...Seems way cheaper then the PS3 now doesn't it?
    Good job, young one. You've encountered what is called a "sale". A "sale" is when products are marked down from their regular MRSP to a less expensive price at the expense of either the retailer or the manufacturer (in this case, the manufacturer).
    Reply