They chose not to include an HD DVD because they didn't want to be stuck with an albatross around their necks. For Microsoft the physical war was one they wanted to string out as long as possible but not one they wanted to be a casualty of.
Thus they let Toshiba take most of the hits and offered token support via an add-on but no way were they going to taint the 360 with an internal drive in case it became a casualty too.
It seemed at the end that MS might have agreed to an internal HD DVD model (possible branded Toshiba but "powered by 360") but clearly it was provisional on studio support, and since that didn't happen, neither did the console.
Now the war is over, such objections no longer apply. The main issue now is that the 360's main rival that features high definition movie playback for not much more than a 360 costs and Microsoft have to do something about it. They either have to slash their prices or they have to bundle Blu Ray into at least one model because there is precious little chance that downloads are going to take off any time soon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DrXym @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:56AM
They chose not to include an HD DVD because they didn't want to be stuck with an albatross around their necks. For Microsoft the physical war was one they wanted to string out as long as possible but not one they wanted to be a casualty of.
Thus they let Toshiba take most of the hits and offered token support via an add-on but no way were they going to taint the 360 with an internal drive in case it became a casualty too.
It seemed at the end that MS might have agreed to an internal HD DVD model (possible branded Toshiba but "powered by 360") but clearly it was provisional on studio support, and since that didn't happen, neither did the console.
Now the war is over, such objections no longer apply. The main issue now is that the 360's main rival that features high definition movie playback for not much more than a 360 costs and Microsoft have to do something about it. They either have to slash their prices or they have to bundle Blu Ray into at least one model because there is precious little chance that downloads are going to take off any time soon.