For people looking into getting Blu-ray the PS3 has more brand attachment to Blu-ray (for many non-gamers PS3 == Blu-ray player).

It'll be hard to get over than mindset, nevermind that buying two separate devices is going to make it more difficult.

I think rather than sell it as an addon it needs to be the primary internal drive if they want to market it against ps3's blu-ray capability.

I'd consider buying an external drive for my xbox 360 over replacing the system. I'm still waiting for some awesome games to be released on the ps3...

I think this move is about allowing the future production and sale of games that are too big to fit on a DVD. With HD-DVD having gone belly-up, Blu-ray is the only remaining choice with large capacity - and while Microsoft have been talking up downloadable content, the internet is still too slow for many people to make it a viable distribution medium.

Its probably a generally better idea to completely ignore the Blu-Ray market this year and start investigating the market beginning of 2009.
Certainly if one wants to use a HTPC. A lot of the latest HD-audio technology does either not work, is halfly supported or partly broken...

With game systems having hard drives, it would be a cheaper move to include an "install" DVD and a "play" dvd. Games are currently downloaded as well, and as soon as high-speed broadband catches up in the US, media will end up being a moot point.

People won't be storing data on BD, the price of such equipment won't come down enough in time before there are better and cheaper storage options.

They wont be releasing this for the use of games because not everyone will have it. The game that comes to mind is Forza 3 because they said that they are having to sacrifice some things in the game because of the two dvd limit that Microsoft has set is not enough. If they release Forza 3 on BD, then it will tank because people are not going to want to spend a couple extra hundred bucks on top of the game just to play it. Especially with the way things are in the world right now.

...but if you've already got an XBox 360, I'd say $100-$150 is much cheaper than $400 for a PS3. There might be some people who really like 360-exclusive games but are tempted by Blu-ray on the PS3, who'd be pushed back into the 360 fold, but I doubt that's a very big part of what's going to play out. Otherwise, Scott's comment fits; they'd need to sell 360s with Blu-ray built in to -really- compete.

I will not show my support with my wallet.
They should invest in something that people actually want and care about, like a more robust live service, dedicated game servers, hell I prefer an add-on DVR over the blew-ray crap.

BOO M$ BOOOOO

who ever thinks its internal or
intended for games is retarded

Why "upgrade" a whole system, which is four years old by the way, just to fit it with BD?
Current owners will not be prepared to replace their current one with it, they'd rather buy a PS3 which also has it, AND be able to play PS3 games too.
Games would not profit from it, since the system isn't optimized to handle games that would profit from that amount of disc space. Hasn't anyone wondered why there are so few fullHD X360 games out? The system may be HD, but not 1080p. The PS3 was made for that.
It would ultimately be more expensive to develop a complete system with BD than just an add-on drive.

In my opinion, M$ took way too long to step over their pride and acknowledge BD as the superior and more popular disc system.
And at the age of the 360, we should be hearing some facts about a successor anytime soon too.

Toshiba(rightfully) is having nothing to do with Blu-ray, and Microsoft has outright denied it many times, I realize fanboys want it, but these false reports are getting tired.

While I agree with you I would be surprised to see any BD games this Gen (for the 360). The next console will be here around 2010 ish and it takes game developers a minimum of a year to complete a game and most have them on the table a year before that. So if you do the math even if the bd drive came out today the games wouldn't even be ready until the end of 2010 if they could even do it that fast.

This is just garbage.

1) they are not about to alienate the (rising) exisitng installed user-base of XBox 360 owners with a switch to Blu-ray discs.

The idea that they might is so obviously a totally idiotic PS3/Blu-ray fanboy fantasy.

2) So that leaves us with a fantasy that they would aid Blu-ray by providing a small minority segment of the XBox 360 market with an add-on to watch some Blu-ray movies on.

Why would they?

Just because the PS3/Blu-ray fanboys are desperate for someone (anyone! even MS) to jump in and help spread their 'faith'.

Wake up, it's not going to happen.

There is no credible reason for this to happen other than the very obvious wishful 'thinking' of the PS3/Blu-ray fanboys.

(and lets not forget the recession which is on the way, if ever there was a time for a serious business not to take a chance & not bother with a product like Blu-ray it is now)

......is still being spread this time next year (but with even more deseperation as Blu-ray continues to fail to impress v DVD sales numbers)

dude you have no idea what you are talking about

"Hasn't anyone wondered why there are so few fullHD X360 games out? The system may be HD, but not 1080p."
wrong, all games are in HD, yes even 1080P, it may be upscaling but so is the PS3, that I am aware of there are no games that run 1080p natively

"M$ took way too long to step over their pride and acknowledge BD as the superior and more popular disc system"
wrong again there buddy, it has nothing to do with pride, the hd-dvd add-on did not make sense, just like this add-on will not make sense, because add-ons do not sell well on consoles, people just want to buy their systems with out having to buy additional accessories for it
and as for BR being the superior and more popular disc system --- HA, yeah right, BR may have a few things over HDDVD (like bandwith) but in terms of features and quality when both came out HD-DVD was superior, additionaly HD-DVD had way better sales if you discount PS3 sales

dude I agree 100% with everything you say
but I think if this does happen (which I think it will not) it will be so that M$ can say that they too can play BR movies and not just the PS3, because as of now that is one of the few (ok maybe only) thing the PS3 provides over the 360

Wasn't the bluray addon suppose to release 3 months ago also?

Sales of the 360 are good because of the games and the price point. People that can't decide between a PS3 and 360 usually don't get a PS3 because it has blu-ray. People have to understand the trade off for the blu-ray in the PS3, is also a lack of a game library. There's starting to be a trend where people do not want anything to do with bluray, because of the price(player and media) and that they perceive that bluray will be a dead format.

Wrong again, TD Daily. Microsoft has said over and over again that they will not be doing this. As recently as today, in fact:

http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/10/10/tgs-2008-aaron-greenberg.aspx

Here's what I think.

1) The reason MS didn't integrate HD drives in the first place was to keep the initial price point of the system down. This was a success as more people own a 360 than a PS3.

2) MS took a gamble with HDDVD and lost. Good thing they left room for external drives so now they can capitalize on Sony's push on making Blu-ray more mainstream.

3) The reason blu-ray hasn't taken off is that most people haven't made the switch to HD. I recently bought a projector (720p) and I can tell a big difference at larger viewing sizes. Most tube tv's are 36" or less. Hook up the 360 or PS3 on a tube tv after playing at 1080i for awhile and you can tell. At 42" and above, 480p reminds me of the grainy look that VHS had. 42" is the future for most people.

4) HD streaming is still too far away to be mainstream in the next few years. Even if the services are available, think Netflix through Xbox live, most people's internet providers do not have the capacity or will allow that kind of capacity to stream without significant buffering.

5) Downloading to a hard drive sounds great, but with game content being stored on a hard drive, you're going to run out of space quickly. This is not so much an issue with PS3s and 360 Elites but for the majority of 360 users, paying for an HD movie to only be able to watch it once and then erase is a bad use of money.

So what does this mean? There is a market for Blu-ray in the Xbox 360 users and I am one of them. Regular DVDs don't cut it on the big screen and if I can turn my 360 into a home music/video streaming device (like I do with music and mp4s vids with 360connect), a tv show streaming device (like I'll do with Netflix in 9 days), and a high def video playing device (w/ attached blu-ray), i will not have any reason to buy anything else for quite awhile. Granted these are things you can do with a PS3 now, but I own the 360 and I am not part of a small demographic.