Microsoft rejects Xbox 360 Blu-ray idea

Microsoft's Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg has rejected recent speculation that the company was looking into adding a Blu-ray peripheral to its console following the demise of HD DVD.

Instead the corporation would continue to invest in digital distribution via the Xbox Live service, he told Reuters.

"Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," he said. "We're the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content."

The HD DVD attachment for the Xbox 360 is no longer in production following Toshiba's withdrawal from the next-generation race.

The news comes just one week after Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, told the Mix08 conference that the company was in talks over possible moves for supporting Blu-ray in Windows.

"We've already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on," he said then.

"Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense," he added, statements which led many to believe that a peripheral similar to the Xbox 360's HD DVD drive could be released later in the year.

However, Greenberg's comments appear to clarify Ballmer's original statements as focusing purely on the Windows environment.

Xbox Live Video Store is Microsoft's bid to distance itself from the need for physical media by offering titles for rental via download, and the company's head of Xbox gaming and entertainment in the UK, Stephen McGill, told GamesIndustry.biz at the launch of the service last year that it was about customer choice.

"For the Xbox 360, from design all the way upwards, it's about consumer choice, what the consumer wants to do," he said last December. "Some will want to do it differently, about personalisation, the user interface, and how they access entertainment."

"HDTVs are phenomenally well-priced at the moment, and a lot will sell over Christmas, so we'll see many more people jumping in the high definition world.

"But then some people don't want to go out and buy a disc or anything, so download rental is more their cup of tea. So it's about choice, whatever you want to do, however you want to get your content."

Meanwhile Sony's PlayStation 3 has jumped in popularity following a price cut last year, and its victory in the Blu-ray stakes could lead to a further 10 per cent jump in sales, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

This week Microsoft confirmed a price cut for the Xbox 360 in response to Sony's recent upturn in sales, making the Arcade model cheaper than the Nintendo Wii.