Within the next three months?
Following the news that Toshiba is planning to halt production of HD DVD compatible equipment, the rumour that Microsoft is now looking to revert to ‘plan b’ and release a standalone Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360, has hit the net.Australian online technology magazine, SmartHouse, claims that ‘insiders at Microsoft’ could launch the Blu-ray within the next three months.
Microsoft has always said that they’d be prepared to release a Blu-ray player if it was what consumers demanded. Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware recently told the Guardian that "It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider".
In the SmartHouse article, Michael Ephraim, MD of Sony Computer Entertainment has said that they’d welcome Microsoft on board. “In fact it is quite logical for them as the PS3 has been very successful in driving consumers to Blu-ray. In fact we believe that it has done more to win the format war than traditional Blu-ray players,” he said.
We'll have to wait and see whether the Xbox 360 Blu-ray player materializes, but following the Toshiba news, it's now looking very likely indeed.
Source :: SmartHouse
