Official Toshiba Announcement Tomorrow? - BDA Welcomes MS and Toshiba

[Raptor]

From engadget.com:

Despite Red's inability to make any real public statement, Japanese publication Nikkei has it that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March (as in days from now). Apparently Toshiba will pull its units from retail shelves, but has no intention to give burned early adopters any refunds (no kidding?).


From techradar.com:

Frank Simonis (Blu-ray Disc Association's spokesperson) said: "Of course we have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard. If Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD we would extend the hand of friendship to them, they are always welcome to join,".

"Microsoft could easily put Blu-ray inside the Xbox," said Simonis. "From my understanding Microsoft did an early evaluation and the Xbox has a similar processor to the PS3 so it will be perfectly capable of decoding a Blu-ray disc.
"So technically it could do it. All Microsoft would have to do is acquire a BD licence," he said.

Simonis dismissed the notion that Sony might be uncomfortable with Microsoft joining the Blu-ray camp. Some say that it's unlikely that Sony would want Microsoft to put a Blu-ray drive in the Xbox - because then it would be an even bigger threat to the PS3.
But Simonis said that Sony would not be able to stop such a move.

Full Story: engadget.com | techradar.com

[marcode]

We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard.

liar.

[Anakin]

The last thing I want is 360 games to come on Blu-Ray as means no more backups for me

[evilsatan]

Even if 360 put in a blu-ray drive I don't think it has achance in hell of catching up with PS3 after the sales will rise soon.

I think most Xbox gamers feel let down by M$ releasing a faulty console, then releasing consoles with HDMI forcing an upgrade if you are a proper gamer, then releasing more and more SKUs and causing a fuck up on the format war.

[Billhouse]

I cant see Microsoft making a Blu-ray drive addon for some time still. I think now after this fiasco they will focus on releasing IPTV and more video downloads(which is what they really care about), AAA titles, price positioning and improving the quality of the console. This is going to be a long year for them especially after the brilliant 2007 they had.

[liveseytowers]

Even if 360 put in a blu-ray drive I don't think it has achance in hell of catching up with PS3 after the sales will rise soon.

I think most Xbox gamers feel let down by M$ releasing a faulty console, then releasing consoles with HDMI forcing an upgrade if you are a proper gamer, then releasing more and more SKUs and causing a fu(k up on the format war.

So so true. A faulty console, then a better console with HDMI and if they brought out a console with bluray as well? I'd get a PS3 instead...

[greens117]

lol i bought a xbox 360 hd dvd player last week

[Thrush]

I can't see the xbox360 ever, ever, having any blu-ray based add on. It's not going to happen. Microsoft who are big on pride will not turn tail on this generation of the xbox, maybe the next xbox 'xbox3redlights' will have blu-ray support but not this one.

Toshiba share's went up yesterday on the news that they were going to drop hd-dvd, which is good news for them. No point in having another pointless 10 year war.

HD-DVD = 2 Years of err fun?