Things would have gone much differently if Toshiba would have convinced Microsoft to roll the HD-DVD drive into the 360 in mid to late 2006. Sure early 360 adopters would have gotten screwed but no one had a major cow over the HDMI phase-in as people simply purchased a second 360. Toshiba already invested a boat load of cash in the war with Blu-Ray and should have convince MS to roll an HD-DVD Player into the 360 by helping to offset the cost. The same money they were giving away at retail on the HD-DVD Home Players should have been invested into the XBOX 360. If this would have happened, Warner and other studios would have had no choice but to support HD-DVD putting BLU out of its misery very early on. Now many will say that Microsoft did not want a winner, that is very true. They want to see digital content rule the surface and many of us do to. Microsoft wants to win the console war and that is why they started a year earlier than Sony and now Sony is slowly starting to catch even though the 360's attach-rate is crazy high with MS making more on Software than Sony or Nintendo. But Microsoft could very well lose the console war because LOTS of consumers are going to purchase the PS3 to watch BLU movies. This is a serious issue for them. The recent uptake in PS3 sales is more likely due to new BLU owners than gamers buying consoles and unfortunately for Microsoft the trend is going to continue as the PS3 is the best BLU player to own at the moment. The next year in the console war will be very interesting...
02-16-2008, 11:48 PM
Linear Mode
