Xbox 360 Ends Blu-ray DVD Speculation

By: Steven Chu
Staff Writer
Published: Mar 14, 2008

The speculation surrounding the Microsoft Xbox 360 has been confirmed by its product manager that the Blu-ray DVD format will not be coming to the video game unit.

According to Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Geenberg, who released a statement Friday, the Sony Blu-ray disc will not be coming to the Microsoft game system.

Following its win against Toshiba's HD DVD format, Sony has been pushing Blu-ray as the new DVD format standard, and everyone including Xbox 360 gamers strongly thought that Microsoft would finally make the expected move towards the new format.

However, there's another trend happening with the video game consoles, as digital downloads seem to be more convenient, if not more popular, then using a DVD disc to load data. Xbox 360 consumers can still access high-definition content through Microsoft's Xbox Live service, which could explain why the international company has ended all HD DVD production for their game console.

Xbox 360 itself is currently in last place for next- gen video game consoles. Microsoft sold 254,600 Xbox 360 consoles in February, in comparison to 587,600 for the Nintendo DS; 432,000 for the Nintendo Wii; 351,800 for the Sony Playstation 2; and 280,800 for the Sony PS3.

The Xbox 360 was also in last place in January, falling behind Sony's PS2 game system.