Well, talk about stating the obvious. I don't actually know anyone with the HD DVD add on. The only reason I bought my 360 was to play games. I would consider buying the add on if it was about £40, but the death of HD DVD is stupidly insignificant, I can't quite comprehend how bored people must have been to start rumours of the 360 failing because of the unfortunate end to Toshiba's media.

Oh they're right that it will have no impact on the 360. Why should MS care about the consumers that have wasted their money on an HD-DVD drive for their machine? But it may affect future MS sales of their next console - which if we're to believe what we read is only a couple of years away...

A decent piece of hardware - be it a games console, TV, DVD, video, HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player, sound system etc. should have a life-span of 8 - 10 years and during that time should spend more time being used than back in the repair shop. Unfortunately Microsoft are a software company (that's what the SOFT in their name means) and so are not too good when it comes to building electronic items - they lack vision, innovation and above all reliability. They need to start getting it right soon or it will be game over in the console building world as consumers are starting to rightly get p*ssed off with having to buy a new console after only a few years (the gap between Xbox and 360) and the console breaking down. Extended warranties are no good if you can't use the thing for more than a week at a time!

Typical fanboy drivel.......

Erm, I brought a HD drive for the 360. I also have a friend who has got one. Nice tea cup holder now.

If Microsoft made a version of the Xbox360 with the HD drive built in, they would have had a direct competitor against the PS3. They didn't bother to even try and release that. I'm sure some people are buying a PS3 for Bluray as they would have with a HD360. Thanks for helping to kill this format off Microsoft.

The fact that the 360's software delivery media would have been HD-DVD and HD-DVD is being phased out (hardware/support), WILL effect the console in the future.
A next-gen console with a DVD drive is hardly cutting edge, given the image quality and data storage BlueRay can offer.
If there is nothing else available Microsoft WILL have to switch to Sony's product (if they can).

I'm a retailer - not a fan boy Mr T. I don't personally own any console. I'm the one that has to face customers on a regular basis when their Xbox console doesn't work. I'm the one that has to try and offer impartial advice to consumers on which games console to buy - and weigh up pros and cons of all three major consoles and feed back to the potential buyer. Sometimes it's hard to try and convince people to spend their hard earned cash on something that's going to keep breaking down or needs replacing after only a few years.

Why did Microsoft go to the trouble and expense of manufacturing, packaging and marketing a product (the HD-DVD add on drive)? Because they identified a market, knew they could sell units and needed something to combat Sony's PS3 and BlueRay Combo. Presumably they thought there console would increase HD-DVD sales and balance the battle between the 2 medias, it didnt and thats now a big problem for them.

We are forgetting several things:

i) Digital downloads - some speculation is that the only reason MS supported HD-DVD in the first place was not because they wanted this format to win, but instead to prolong the format war as long as possible while they work on improving digital downloads as a medium. Make your own judgement on where MS are with this...(or whether this theory is true)

ii) If people are only buying Sony PS3's for the blu-ray player, this will not necessarily help Sony win the console war. Developers will continue to develop for the console with the better attachment rates, and those that sell the most on a certain console - if alot of Sony's are being bought for the blu-ray only this will not necessarily translate into increased game sales. Good games sell a console, but if the console doesnt sell games then no one produces for the console. Or something like that....

iii) 360 Blu-Ray attachment ??? This is also possible.

iv) How many people really have a HD TV yet - no use having blu-ray or HD-DVD without such a TV. I think the overall percentage is small - HD is yet to make the impact DVD's made or VHS for that matter.

v) If there is a new MS console in 2010 as some predict, this discussion is almost irrelevant anyways, as it is probably around this date that HD TV is more widely used and such factors may have a bigger impact.

I think this war meant alot more to Sony than MS - at the end of the day most people do buy consoles for games, although the add on of a bluray player is also an added appeal for some (especially guys convincing their ladies that if they buy a PS3 they will have a blu-ray player). MS are most likely banking on their download service (however this is of a lower quality than blu-ray or HD-DVD).

I agree with Mr Retailer, although I'm not one myself. I can appreciate that it's difficult to sell something that you know is being withdrawn tomorrow or, as in this case, will fall over frequently.

Generally speaking, MS had an opportunity to help make HD-DVD work, by including it in the X360.

You cannot upgrade a console mid life because you break the GOLDEN RULE that consoles are built upon: Consistency in the CPU, RAM and media delivery device. These 3 can NEVER change. If they do, you might as well release a new console altogether. And this is why MS will NEVER put HD-DVD or Blu-Ray in the X360 as standard.

What they could've done was win the media storage war, not because they like HD-DVD (they only chose it because they wouldn't want to be in the same camp as Sony), but because having the winning optical media storage device in your console seems to win you the console war as well.

Sony proved this last time with DVD in the PS2, so why on earth didn't Microsoft include HD-DVD in the X360 as standard, I don't know. It's useless and futile as an add-on.

Sony won the optical storage device war over Toshiba because they proliferated it as a trojan horse in the PS3; 10.5m Blu-Ray 'players' versus 1m HD-DVD players...simple numbers. Of course sales of BD would then be higher than HD-DVD.

Finally, analysts are predicting that PS3 sales will double this year and this will obviously surpass X360 (there's no way Microsoft will be able to shake the RRoD and HD-DVD debacles this year and those will be the X360's undoing) quite easily, simply because people WILL buy the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and possibly even get enticed by the games at some point. This is apart from those who have been buying it so far.

Blu-Ray has not only saved Sony's skin in the consumer electronics market but today, with Toshiba's admitted defeat, it has saved its third games console from certain doom, too.

Microsoft could of course buy the rights to HD-DVD and have a dedicated format for their console, but the drive would have to be dual format in order to stand a chance in my opinion.

Just wondering...if the Sony PS3 is future proofed for the next 10 years (or 9 now I guess), what would have been the implications for such future proofing if HD-DVD had won this war instead.....just a thought - irrelevant I know.

@ scottmpamp:

Future proofing of HD-DVD, had it won, would've been down to its supporters.

If Microsoft included it as standard in the X360, they might have had the potential to keep it going for some time, but not longer than it would've continued in the consumer market; just look at how long DVD has lasted and continues to do so, and so much so that Microsoft thought it would be enough as a storage medium for the X360.

So, it's not down to the technology or the consumer, it's more down to whether the company that advocates it has the long-term VISION and Sony has that for Blu-Ray, they just went about it in a COMPLETELY wrong way altogether, in my opinion.

@ ZedZee

and your comment links directly to my initial comment on whether MS ever really were committed to this format war or were just prolonging it to support the end goal of digital downloads (as some theories have it) ie did MS ever really have a long term vision for HD-DVD anyways ?

“Microsoft has said that it doesn’t believe the decision will have any impact on the next-gen console battle.”

What a load of rubbish! Blu-ray sold off the back of PS3’s which trounced the HD-DVD user base! It has already had a massive impact for Toshiba and unfortunately poor Microsoft customers who have shelled out for a HD-DVD drive!

I personally feel Microsoft is stepping on thin ice! A path once crossed by Sega with endless catch up’s with add on’s that made your console look like a Big-Mac of obsolete devices!

I own a 360 Elite and a HDDVD add on. (I never had any problems with my device fyi) My TV is a 55 Inch HDTV. While I like watchind HDMovies, these HDDVDs (and Blu Ray) cost $30 on average, while most movies on 'regular' dvds cost $5-6. I still buy most movies on regular DVD, or I rent HD movies via Xbox live marketplace. (the quality of most movies being released dont warrent a repeat viewing in most cases) Mostly, i just play games on the device. To say Blu Ray is gonna make or break a console is nonesense. In several years most media will probably be digital downloads anyway.

I doubt Microsoft are too worried when it comes to next Xbox as I'm sure that's the time when they'll finally push digital delivery. Even if broadband speeds are still low by then, MS c****e some sort of Steam-like drip-feed of delivery in the weeks or two up to release. Then the game can simply be activated on release day.

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