Xbox 360 Exec Says Lack of Blu-Ray on 360 One Key to Systems Success

Posted by Adam Larck on 03.16.2010

UK director says no plans for Blu-Ray drive in future.



The Xbox 360 Blu-Ray rumor has come up many times before, and it's been shot down again.

While talking to CVG, Stephen McGill, Microsoft's UK director of Xbox and Entertainment, said that there are still no plans to adopt a Blu-Ray drive for the system.

"In fact, the future of home entertainment started last autumn when Xbox 360 became the first and only console to offer instant-on 1080p streaming HD movies," McGill said.

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg supported what McGill said, saying that Sony's bet on physical discs comes with costs.

"The fact that we're able to offer a console starting at $199 is a benefit of not being burdened with that cost," Greenberg said.

He went on to say that "being $100 cheaper [than PS3] is part of the reason we're nearly twice their installed base." He later clarified this as relating to the U.S. only, as the install base is 20 million units compared to the PS3's 12 million. In Japan, the PS3 leads, and in Europe the 360's lead is smaller.

Another reason for the increased install base is the almost year head start the system had over the PS3.

"For us, our bet was on digital distribution, that was the future -- the ability to [play] 1080p movies with no disc, no download required; we have the largest movie and TV library, the largest HD library of any console," Greenberg said.

Source: 1up