Blu-Ray Drive for Xbox 360 Will Be Obtainable as Accessory – CEO of Microsoft

From X-bit Labs: Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., said in an interview that owners of Xbox 360 game console will be able to acquire external Blu-ray disc drive (BD) for the system as “accessory”. The add-on BD drive for Xbox 360 has been rumoured for over a year, but this time it looks like Microsoft is serious about supporting the format.

“Well, I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there – you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories,” said Steve Ballmer in an interview with Gizmodo web-site.

The comment by Mr. Ballmer does not seem to be truly surprising. While competing Sony PlayStation 3 game console does support Blu-ray and high-definition video downloads, Microsoft only supports downloads and plans to enable streaming of full-HD videos (1920x1080) later this year. Moreover, the price of Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite and Sony PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB is now equal – $299 – but Sony’s machine features Blu-ray, Bluetooth and integrated Wi-Fi controller. Even though wireless accessories can be obtained from Microsoft, Blu-ray still remains an exclusive feature of the PS3.

In fact, Blu-ray Xbox 360 add-on will hardly become something completely extraordinary for Microsoft. Even when Microsoft released HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 it implied that it could create a similar player supporting Blu-ray. Moreover, a year ago industry rumours emerged that Microsoft did have an add-on BD drive for Xbox 360 in the roadmap (Microsoft later denied the information). Windows 7 operating systems also supports burning of Blu-ray discs and recognize their file structure. Finally, in a recent TV advertisement Microsoft said that Blu-ray support is one of the advantages that certain Windows-based computers have over Apple Macintosh systems.

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