No HD-DVD For 360 In The Near Future

While IGN originally reported that the 360 would see a HD-DVD update in 2006, they quickly released a response from Microsoft saying that as of the moment there are no plans for such an update. From the article: "Microsoft, in both America and Japan, has not announced anything regarding the possibility of a next generation DVD drive being placed in the Xbox 360 ... There are currently no plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with a next generation DVD player."

Comments

Well, duh...

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Noone wants to buy an Xbox 360 now if they know a better one is coming soon...

Re:Well, duh...

[AuMatar]

PS3 will support online, but it won't have a massive Live like service.

ANd you heavily overestimate online play. Only 10% of Xboxes EVER used Live. That doesn't even count the number of people who subscribed once and then quit, or who only used free months that came with bundles. Online is used only by a small percentage of gamers, the vast majority of us really don't give a fuck about it.

This is a surprise HOW?

[WidescreenFreak]

Take a lookat the whole buzz around the 360. Not having an HD-DVD upgrade is a no-brainer.

Look at it from the consumer's side. Why in hell would anyone want to buy a 360 *now* knowing that there would be a "better" version in the future? I'd wait a few months as well! Not only is it possible that prices would drop due to increased inventory, but there will be more games out and probably some bug fixes. So, even though I'm not one of those morons (I say that unapologetically) who feel this inexplicable need to be on the bleeding edge, waiting for a few months after something this new comes out is a good idea anyway.

Now, look at it from Microsoft's side. They already have millions of 360s in circulation. They will kill their sales of existing systems if they announce an upgrade because people will wait. So, they could always offer an HD-DVD upgrade to systems that are out there, waiting to be purchased. But, then what about the bleeding edge people who just HAD to have an 360 NOW? They'll shout "unfair" (and rightfully so) and demand a retro-fit. Both of these situations are compounded because Microsoft said that they made the unit as compact as possible excatly to prevent people from getting into the unit. So, a certified shop (or Microsoft themselves) would have to do an HD-DVD refit. That would cost a huge amount of money.

Either scenario would end up costing Microsoft a ton of money in both revenue and PR. Besides, this gives Microsoft the excuse that they needed to rush to market the Xbox 720 -- comes with HD-DVD! w00t! And as proven by the last craze, there are clearly millions of suckers who will buy it as soon as it's released just because they can. So, delaying HD-DVD on the Xbox will just produce yet more marketing and potential revenue from "re-purchasers" in the future because they now can use HD-DVD as their excuse to call the Xbox 720 the "next generation" console.