Home Gaming Is the Xbox about to break the mould?

Is the Xbox about to break the mould?

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The rumours are circulating about what it is that Bill Gates is going to say in his last speech at CES this year and most of the rumours are around the Xbox 360.

The most popular rumour is the following…

In particular, Microsoft could work with Toshiba to develop a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive and Xbox gaming capabilities. They’re already allied against Sony and other backers of the Blu-ray DVD format, and Toshiba could help Xbox finally penetrate the Japanese market.

If you are unsure what that is then let me explain, basically you would go to the shops and see 100 different types of PVR devices that can record live TV and that you can store pictures and music on.

They would be made by all different companies and would be competing against each other, the one thing they would all have in common though is that they would all be able to play Xbox 360 games.

Microsoft has always wanted to be the center of the living room and with this idea they may well become that. Why would you buy anything else if you can buy a single device that does everything.. for a low cost due to competition.

If they pull it off this would be one step closer to the single gaming machine that EA games, and others, have been asking for.

Business & Technology | Visions of Gates’ keynote swan song | Seattle Times Newspaper

Last Updated: January 2, 2008

12 Comments

  1. Max0991

    January 2, 2008 at 12:36

    I hate it when people call it Blu-ray DVD, its not a DVD dammit

    Reply

  2. Lupus

    January 2, 2008 at 12:50

    The acronym DVD has stuck in peoples mind, when and if Blu ray takes off people might start saying BRDs

    Reply

  3. XennoX

    January 2, 2008 at 13:21

    “I hate it when people call it Blu-ray DVD, its not a DVD dammit”

    Really? Correct me if I am wrong, but Blu-ray stores video and data just as DVD & HD-DVD do, correct? They (HD-DVD & Blu-ray) both use the same laser, they are both disks of the same diameter. They both full under the meaning of DVD which is Digital Video/Versatile Disk. Therefore Blu-ray is a DVD, though it isn’t named so.

    Reply

  4. JimBob

    January 2, 2008 at 13:28

    This sort of thing has been attempted before, with the Panasonic Q, and even this time around, I can’t see it working (presuming this rumour turns out true).

    It would be very good for Microsoft, considering that the hardware is nothing more than an expense, but very bad for hardware manufacturers, especially if they can remember how this all worked out in the personal computer world! Indeed, it seems most cellphone manufacturers understand that.

    Reply

  5. doobiwan

    January 2, 2008 at 15:29

    It all depends how the pricing goes. Personally I don’t think it’s going to happen but considering IPTV is suppossed to be MS’s big push this year it would make a lot of sense to attack the potential users from the “TV/PVR” angle rather than “game console that does TV”.

    Reply

  6. Max0991

    January 2, 2008 at 16:00

    If we gonna go with the way you’re describing it then Blu-ray is HD DVD but still not DVD as Blu-ray is high-density.Blu-ray and HD DVD are almost the same but there’s a big difference between Blu-ray and DVD.

    Reply

  7. scotty777

    January 2, 2008 at 16:50

    lol… this could get fun… But i was wondering… what happens when the updates come along? I mean, what if some games just don’t work on the toshiba xyz because of updates… also, it seems like there might be some conflict between the manufactures…
    and 1 more query, why use the xbox 360? why wouldn’t you wait for the xbox 3/720/xbox triple etc???
    I mean, why would you, as a manufacturer want to sell a product that seems a tiny bit out dated, and mix it with HD-DVD and other things.

    But, the one thing that confuses me is, whats stopping sony from doing the same thing, I mean, what it stopping sony from telling all the good lil BRD supporters to make the same thing only with BRD?? I mean, Sony does have more BRD support, and since the ps3 has Blu ray already, they just need some companies to support…Hmmm… this could be Nvidia vs ATI thing, as they just get other manufactures to make there stuff… and they funny thing is that the ps3=Nvidia and xbox =ATI

    Reply

  8. Max0991

    January 2, 2008 at 17:54

    I don’t think Sony will do that, for one thing its where they make their money is with electronics and the PS3 got to be the best blu-ray player and the blu-ray profile can easily be updated as all the hardware a blu-ray player could need is there.
    The idea is pretty stupid, sure to have everything you need in your living room all in one device is great but to let it play console games just don’t sound right.So then when you buy one of these HD DVD players will you get a 360 controller along with it.It could just be a way to improve hardware sales as people will buy the HD DVD player for an HD DVD player without ever using the 360 capability’s as its main things is the HD DVD player and not an console, so the hardware sales will go up as the HD DVD players can play 360 games then they will count as 360 sales.

    Reply

  9. scotty777

    January 2, 2008 at 18:23

    no no no… the idea is to sell as many GAMES as possible, as thats where the money is! so buy selling as many xbox’s, more software will be sold

    Reply

  10. doobiwan

    January 3, 2008 at 10:28

    Scotty, you smoking gilly weed again? 360 is tagged as Microsofts gaming platform till 2011 so there’s no “going out of date”. Oh and is it such a bad idea? Sony already did much the same thing with the PS2 called the “PSX” except it was way overpriced and never took off. Sony would never contract out to 3rd parties, their whole brand is built around their name.

    Did you know this was the initial plan with the first Xbox? They couldn’t get hardware manufacturers onboard because of the subsidy issue.

    To do it now would make sense – The 360 has cost reduced to the point where MS are not making loses on the hardware, so they’re cost effective to integrate.

    Here’s the other side of the rumour from Stuff magazine – it’s not a “Toshiba” device it may be the “Xbox 360 ultimate” http://stuff.tv/News/BIG-IN-2008-Xbox-Ultimate/

    And it does make sense it’d silence all the “doesn’t have all the features” critics.

    My guess if it does launch is that it’ll replace the Elite.

    Reply

  11. Homer Urbano

    August 19, 2010 at 12:38

    Accomplishment.

    Reply

  12. Bobby Kotick

    August 19, 2010 at 13:02

    Wonders how many poor deluded fools bought an HD-DVD drive for their xbox 360s? :blink:

    Reply

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