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Xbox 360 Blu-Ray Will Cost Microsoft Mucho Dinero
altplusf4.com — As the rumors start poring out that Lite-On will be manufacturing the Blu-Ray drives for Microsoft's Xbox 360, it's becoming clear that in order to keep the price down to where people will adopt the new drive (especially after getting burned on the HD-DVD one...), Microsoft will likely have to sell it at a loss.
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- B1663r, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1I am actually developing a new theory on this. I don't think Microsoft is going to develop a new console at all. I think the new console is going to be the next version of windows, and Microsoft will once again return to clear professional lines and clear consumer lines of product. It is pretty clear to me that the device they want to sell is a tv settop box with all the consumer services deeply integrated into it, and you the consumer make the choice of either hooking it to a monitor at your desk, or to your tv, or if microsoft gets their way, both. Then windows will branch off into a professional/hacker use only OS. Then the particular integrator will decide which features they want to sell on their console. Sony will undoubtedly want to include Blu-ray on their Microsoft console. Although, I think you will see a lot of Microsoft consoles with a standard DVD drive for years to come.
- B1663r, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Oh I should also add, I think is new operating system/computer specification will be directly integrated into a lot of televisions... As we are already starting to see...
- wageslaven, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1THe problem with your theory is that the hardeware has to be able to play the AAA titles of their day. That isnt going to be "minor" enough to be added-on to every TV.
Further, no one is going to want to replace his TV just to get the next console. The TV has a long useful life, but these consoles do not.- B1663r, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Well I don't think the tv will become the game console, I just think tv's will have some sort of microsoft operating system on them. Look at intels recent statments about their Atom processors. Add in 512MB of ram and a 20 gig flash memory device, and you adding Apple tv or MCE to every television sold... for about $40... Even then it is a wash because modern TV's already have CPU's and some memory on them. Microsoft seems to be in negotiations with just about every cable company right now to develop some sort of set top box... While that sort of system would not be able to play AAA games, it certainly could play casuals. While I personally don't care for casuals, I do realize the market for casuals has grown significantly over the last couple of years.... Then you look at the recent statments of Microsoft and Intel execs...
Then in addition to that you would have a game console specification, that would cater to the market of 20 million a year or so console buyers. You just plug it into your tv via the display port specification (very speculative) and feed it some power and it is setup.
- B1663r, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Well I don't think the tv will become the game console, I just think tv's will have some sort of microsoft operating system on them. Look at intels recent statments about their Atom processors. Add in 512MB of ram and a 20 gig flash memory device, and you adding Apple tv or MCE to every television sold... for about $40... Even then it is a wash because modern TV's already have CPU's and some memory on them. Microsoft seems to be in negotiations with just about every cable company right now to develop some sort of set top box... While that sort of system would not be able to play AAA games, it certainly could play casuals. While I personally don't care for casuals, I do realize the market for casuals has grown significantly over the last couple of years.... Then you look at the recent statments of Microsoft and Intel execs...
- wageslaven, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1THe problem with your theory is that the hardeware has to be able to play the AAA titles of their day. That isnt going to be "minor" enough to be added-on to every TV.
- B1663r, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Oh I should also add, I think is new operating system/computer specification will be directly integrated into a lot of televisions... As we are already starting to see...
- alienstout, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1That's an interesting theory but I'm not so sure MS is heading in this direction, maybe they should be, but I don't see it. They love to have a footprint in every market, hence all the different division and products from the firm. They are still predominately a software firm but as Vista has shown, they need to diverisfy. Xbox is a good platform and aside from some hardware issues (cheaped out on the heatsinks in early generations), it's solid and has a strong following. By-and-large, MS has alway created quality hardware, from mice to keyboards, so I do think they should be looking more into this.
The problem with integrating in TVs is the resistance of the TV manufacturers and most importantly the cable companies. Sure cable-card is out there, but cable companies really don't want you to use them and the support is spotty at best if you read all the reviews on the web. I run an HTPC and use SageTV, MSs Media Center just doesn't do it for me. They do have a hood with media extending and that is where the Xbox helps, you can stream to it from an MS powered HTPC so they don't need to be all in one and by trying to do all-in-one they will reach to high an melt their wings.
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