Yeah, I get where you're coming from.  I know MS makes money everytime anyone sells a PC with windows. Is there much choice involved there though?  Sony needs windows on the viao, and I dont' think MS is allowed to refuse the sell it to them.

MS has plenty other choices available to them other than blu-ray, why use it if they don't have to?

And I'm pretty sure there's some rivalry going on between Sony and MS, they're always making digs at each other.

In the 6th generation, Nintendo researched a new disc format and had someone produce 21 million of them. By predicting the nextbox being unable to use hd-dvd, you are predicting it will sell less than 21 million.

As for the movie market, dvd and downloads/streaming will likely be sufficient. If blu ray ends up taking over from dvd, then each house will already have at least 3 blu ray drives in their house by the start of next gen. If blu ray doesnt take over from dvd, then who cares.

@heedstone

"blu-ray will be superceded by the time the next gen comes around anyway."

This one made me laugh! What rock do u live under, dude? BD is on fire! Sales are increasing at an amazing speed. It reached mass adoption last year and is well on it's way to replace DVD. In 3 years time we will have a BD market that will be very close to complete market share of all physical media sales.

Funny, it seems like it's always the people who have never bought films on physical media and file share etc, etc their movies instead who are against physical media and claim that DDL will take over next. I wanna know how having only DDL would be more benificial, cause I cannot see how. I do know it would give companies more control over us consumers and give us less choice over all. BOTH WILL EVENTUALLY CO-EXIST. Is this so hard to see?

@SpartanFX

"It would alinate the next box owners from the movie market..."

Well, BD is looking to overthrow DVD. When, (not if) this happens then yes, it would. M$ has always used DVD, it would be silly of them not to use BD for the same reason next gen.

Do I think they will, tho?... No. I see this being a positive for SONY if they don't. And to those that say they will continue with only DVD9 for physical media, well, good luck to them if they do. It is already causing problams for M$ using them for this gen.

If I were Microsoft I would. More storage capacity for games combined with the ease of use for developing would be a win-win situation, we'd get longer, more graphic intensive games and all that. Plus we wouldn't need to worry about regions. It makes the Xbox the complete media center, taking away the Sony marketing point that only their console does Blu-Ray as well.

It boils down to a thing call pride, since HDdvd lost the format war, M$ might think twice of using BD in the future one thing for sure BD has Sony written all over it.

Like zune which provides HD quality movies we may see games similarly in that kind of format in the near future.

Developers now a days are complaining on how limited the dvd is, take for example recent Capcom game lost planet 2. because of the limitation developers have to resort to DLC's.

iam sure in the developers stand point the BD is more beneficial on how much content they can add with out the need of DLC.

what HanzoThe Razor said, the market of BD is growing, soon enough we'll see BD taking over DVD anytime soon as a physical format.

Iam sure by now RnD for M$ and Wii sees how much potential the BD has too offer.

Are you sure about that cable? Last i heard it was nearing completion

I don't think at this point, this is a likely option for M$'s next format, but it very well could be for many reason, with cost being Numero Uno.  If M$ was to use this as a format, it would drastically cut down on the cost to make disc for it's next console, while allowing the new console to be fully compatible with people's current volumes of DVDs...personally, I've got over 200 DVD movies, and have ZERO plans to transition them over to a costlier format. 

The other issue addressed is one of space, and this format would very cheaply allow M$ to provide the optical media option for a new console, and there is already a industrial base to support the demand for drives.  Needless to say, this would all but guarantee that the nextbox would have a solid start in China, since the government would smile on this decision by M$. 

@Joeorc, the article link you provided is from 2008, so I there has been developments since then that counter those opinions, such as China’s HUGE push to get CBHD promoted in the Olympic Games, which it did successfully.  Since that time, several foreign studios have cut deal to support the format in China at least, from Warner Brothers to Universal Studios and Paramount, so considering that as of last September, it had a 3-1 edge over BRD…chances are it’s going to gain more momentum. 

I’ll say again, I doubt M$ is looking at this as an option at this moment, but unless they can get strong concessions from the BRD consortium, they are likely going to look at other options, such as a larger HDD for each console, flash or even something like CBHD.  Heck, I can see them providing M$ with a sweetheart deal to get them to use CBHD as a way to break into the market outside of China, and they will have huge cost advantages over brd.

Piracy is a major concern now, and BD is the answer, jus take the PS3 from the time it was release till today its yet to be cracked. with the exception of the BD movies, if you dont know pirated BD movies are selling now however theres a catch they use DVD9 and is lowered down to 720p or even worst lower of 576p