Microsoft Could Consider Blu-ray Support For Xbox

In a shockingly frank admission, Microsoft's senior group marketing manager, Albert Penello, has said that the company could consider Blu-ray support for Xbox hardware.

Asked whether Microsoft would consider Blu-ray support in Xboxes if the HD-DVD format failed, Penello said, "It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider."

Penello doesn't believe, however, that Warner Bros' defection to the Blu-ray camp will affect 360 sales. "I fundamentally don't think ... this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus PlayStation 3", he said. He doesn't feel that movie format is as important to the console wars as is sometimes indicated. "With the PlayStation 2, DVD was a big part in the beginning, but over time, people were not buying it as a DVD player after first year or two" he opined.

"You can't say it's not a bummer, not a setback, but I've seen this battle declared over so many times", he said of Warner's decision. "I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out."

Microsoft could, of course, release a Blu-ray peripheral tomorrow if it so chose. All it would have to do is re-tool its HD-DVD peripheral, release a firmware update and... license the technology from the Blu-ray camp. That shouldn't be a problem, however. Sony's executive vice president of advanced technologies, Don Eklund, has already said that Sony "would love to have Toshiba and Microsoft on board" with Blu-ray.

This isn't the first time that Microsoft has hinted that it could support Blu-ray. Back in March, Neil Thompson, head of Xbox in the UK, said of the HD war, “Whatever format wins it is highly likely we will offer a solution.” Of course, that was promptly followed by an e-mailed statement to SPOnG backtracking on Thompson's comments. Perhaps someone should have told Penello...

In addition to Warner Bros' defection to the Blu-ray camp, it has also been suggested that Paramount has a get-out clause that would allow the company to jump from the HD-DVD bandwagon.

Whatever the final outcome of the Hi-Def DVD war may be, Microsoft publicly admitting that it could support Blu-ray certainly doesn't bode well for HD-DVD.

^{Source: Reuters}