2 reasons that MS won't release a Blu-Ray add-on:

1. 3% attach rate - not really worth it
2. Required to embrace java for functionality

Here come the "digital downloads are the future anyway" arguments...
Funny how when the BluRay/HD-DVD war was in full swing no one ever mentioned DD....

I feel slightly sorry for MS's position on this one - they've been backed into a corner.
They have always championed giving their customers 'choice', but we all know that theres no way on earth they would dare to release a Blu ray add on. Whatever price they managed to release it at, it would make a 360 sku thats comparable with a PS3 feature set look extremely pricey in comparison and definitely lead to a drop in sales.

This leaves the machine a bit further away from their always cherished 'media hub' aspirations than they may have liked when compared to the competition. Despite claims to the contrary, direct download services are not even close to being a competitive format - they don't even come close to offering the technical brilliance a true HD movie requires for the future. Lets also not forget that even on 360 only 60% of users are actually online with live, so thats a huge chunk of owners who can't even access the compressed low res 'alternative'.

There will never be a Blu ray drive for 360. Technically they can make one, but it just makes the whole product too expensive and MS will simply not do that.

So far there have not been any new ground breaking features announced for geow2, other than what people expected (higher graphics, same story, and more destructible environments).

As far as DESTRUCTIBLE environments, Graphics, and realism go, I garauntee you that Killzone 2 will deliver the best and MOST realistic style of gameplay and environments. Becuase that's what they were aiming for since day one. And they've been working on it for about 4 years now.

in other words geow2's DEs are still inferior.

As far as the shear amount of A.I. that can fit on a single screen and level of intensity, choas and pure @ss-kicking fun, I'm positive that Resistance 2 will RAISE the bar and possibly set the standard for FPSs.

This thanks to Blu-ray and the Superior tech of the PS3.

Its coming all right in a matter of time.

NO NO NO NO THIS IS TRUELY FALSE! M$ DID have plans for BluRay BUT Sony totally OWNED them by saying HELL NO! Sorry xbots but the end for M$ has come SONY FTW

Your an idiot ! Sony "owned" them ? You better just worry about your education jr.

they cancelled blu ray cause the xbox 720 gonna have a vcr inside.nice move it should move consoles.P L A Y AND W A T C H B 3 Y O N D !

They don't need it, only fanboys need blu.

As I've been saying, while licensing would be the first hurdle, the board of directors, two of which have dominance over Blu-ray wouldn't let this happen, not while Microsoft is a threat, Microsoft probably thought purchasing a licence and adding a Blu-ray add on, and why wouldn't they it is a money maker, but they would be shot down pretty quick, and wouldn't want that bad PR campaign.

John Schappert being disappointed of sales of the HD DVD is pretty arrogant, it was a dying format since Blu-ray hit the market, sales were always low with the HD DVD add on, and now he is only expressing concern? What value did HD DVD add to the market anyway, other than there HDi which arguably has also failed.

Point is, Microsoft shouldn't worry about this, if people want Blu-ray buy a PS3, Samsung, or Panasonic Blu-ray player like the rest of the world (Oh yeah Blu-ray players right now aren't cheap, best bang for buck is PS3, I'm not talking about the future,I'm talking about right now, the PS3 is Blu-ray Top Dog end of story).

I'm glad this has been posted, I was almost worried that the daily 'MS has no plans for blu-ray addon' post wasnt going to make it...

</sarcasm>

MS should realize that the attach rate was low primarily because people were wary of the format war, and didn't want to get stuck with the new Betamax (which, unfortunately, some did).

People buying PS3s may have had some of the same thoughts while the format war was raging, but also understood that if Blu-Ray failed as a movie format, it was still viable for games. So buying the PS3 primarily for movies was a less risky move than an optional HD add-on. "Worst case," you could still use your PS3 for games.

Now that we have an end to the format war, with a clear winner, MS should give some consideration to releasing a BR add-on, a peripheral that would likely sell well because people could buy it with the confidence that it's not likely to be replaced as a format for a while. And, it would allow MS to market the system as a viable PS3 alternative, complete with BR support, although some people might prefer their BR built-in, as opposed to a peripheral.

My .02 worth. Take it as you will.

The guys talking out his asss. Of course they're working on a BRD version. They have to do SOMETHING with all the parts from the HD-DVD add-on don't they? Not like they'll just let them sit on a pile in CHINA or something.

His comparison to the poor attach rate for the HD-DVD add-on is completely invalid now that the "format war" is over.

His claim that "We have no plans to announce or anything like that right now," means just that. Notice the qualifier "right now"?... Wait 'till the "BRD winner" stuff is out of the headlines then they'll announce that they are indeed releasing a BRD drive for the 360. If they come out now they'll look like "losers" by association with their ties to the HD-DVD camp..

M$ has no other option.

and two blu-rays.

No one should be surprised. If they did release a add-on it would look really bad on there part. HD-DVD is just another bad investment by MS. Hopefully D.D via XBOX-LIVE will help recoup the money spent on this project.

Ya there was just a dream.

What are Xbox devotees going to say? They argued that MS will cram in a BR add-on and that it would destroy PS3's 'only' advantage. (Despite pathetic add-on HD-DVD sales)

If M$ don't offer a Blu-Ray add-on, i'm going to buy a PS3

HA HA HA HA!

Microsoft will hold out till 2009 with the current xbox. In 2009 or 2010 which ever works better for them they will support downloads (of course) but will support a movable medium (Flash drives).

Don't believe me. Take a look at Micron/Intel's new NAND flash technology due for MASS production second half of 2008.

Article is from InfoWorld (but I'm sure you can find this news anywhere if you don't trust InfoWorld):

InfoWorld article - http://www.infoworld.com/ar...

Here is part of the article

" IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, has developed an 8Gb SLC (single-level cell) high-speed NAND chip that can reach read speeds up to 200MBps and write speeds of up to 100MBps, which could mean faster data transfer between devices such as solid-state drives and video cards.

"With the popularity of digital video cameras and video-on-demand services, high-speed NAND can enable a high-definition movie to be transferred five times faster than conventional NAND," said Kirstin Bordner, a spokeswoman for Micron.

Conventional NAND flash memory from Micron and other players currently transfer data at read rates of 40MBps, with write rates of about 20MBps.

The speed improvements resulted from changes made to the NAND architecture and improvements in the read-write circuitry, Bordner said.

This chip's architecture achieves the speed defined in the ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) 2.0 specification, according to Micron. Micron was one of the founders of the ONFI Working Group in 2006, and other member companies include Hynix Semiconductor, Intel, Phison Electronics, Sony, and STMicroelectronics. "

---------

However, it is interesting that Sony is also a member of this technology so Playstation could see this technology as well (but at least they are not the direct link like blu-ray) This means Microsoft could go through Intel or Micron.

Can't wait need faster need more.

The only spin against this is the amount of storage for flash but the
good could out weigh the bad (maybe 32 GB Flash will be cheap by then). Bluetooth 3.0 (also know as UWB or Ultrawide Bluetooth) USB 3.0 (and wireless USB). These could also keep our hard drives and Removable media out of our cases making our consoles smaller.

Imagine buying a hard copy of a game on Flash that plugs into a controller for power and transmits wirelessly or plugs into a simple external port on the console.

Next consoles are going to be crazy I tell you CRAZY!

As far as downloadable content, unless you vote democrat or live outside the US chances are the Internet is going to suck for awhile (that goes for you too Ron Paul supporters as he isn't for Net Nuetrality and believes Networks have the right to regulate their "Private Networks" since they own everything.)

My town's Cable just upped its bandwidth to 6 Mb/s but it is still considered high end (expensive) and the mainstream is 3 Mb/s (still expensive compared to bigger cities). They just did this so I doubt 6 MB/s will be mainstream for another 5 years and some other speed will be the high end (they could offer more since they laid fiber optic cables in the town to the poles -not to the homes - like AT&T). Got to milk us for every penny. The cable companies never seem to give us what they advertise and ever since using Cable I never achieved any where close to advertise speeds and settle with half or slighly above half speeds. DSL is a bit more realistic but more expensive since you have to have a phone to go with it.

No thank you, Hard copy for me till we stomp Corporate politicians from writing laws favoring them intsead of us.

I smell Netflix!

we should get greenray for microsoft

I would say that the key word here is: yet.

Yes, the hardcore people bought HD-DVD drives without looking back. A lot of us also bought PS3's to ensure access to Blu-ray as well, so we were willing to take a chance. Most other people were either willing to wait on the sidelines to see who won, or they had no idea what all the hubbub was about in the first place. Now that we have a victor, I would think that more people will hear about Blu-ray and want to get it. I think Blu-ray will really start to factor into PS3 sales even more-so than before. If that does happen, then you could see Microsoft market a BD-ROM drive. External BD-ROM drives are down to $200 already, which is about the cost of the HD-DVD drive for the 360.