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Xelloss on 26 January 2010
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Twistedpixel said:
Xelloss said:



So why the delay? Well, it is likely a matter of format as much as anything. MS knows that doing DVD again for next-gen is a non-starter, it works well enough for now, but trying to go into the next gen with DVD would cause most devs and publishers to roll their eyes and financial analysts to openly wonder what MS was thinking. Going blu-ray would amount to a loss of face, and paying of royalties to Sony albiet indirectly via the blu-ray consortium which includes many other industry figures... most of whom are at odds with MS in various arenas.

HD-DVD is dead as a general entertainment media, but MS could still use the platform for gaming, likely at preferred royalty rates and though this move seems logical at first glance, many people will openly question the wisdom of using a "dead" platform. After all, to many reasonable people it will seem like petty spite, even though it would actually make sound business sense. But it is certainly better for MS to be able to claim they are using whichever medium they choose next because of its features, not because its simply cheap and they did not want to go with the competition.

Your reasoning for why Microsoft would or wouldn't use either Blu Ray or HD-DVD don't make sense. They wouldn't not use Blu Ray for the same reason why Toshiba are producing Blu Ray players. If it makes sense from an application perspective then they will use the technology. The main pro for Blu Ray is the playback of movies however that costs $9.50 per player to implement. Sony already pays Microsoft a lot of money to sell computers with the Windows operating system. It doesn't bother Sony so why should it bother Microsoft to pay a little of the Windows money back?

 

Because I think Balmer and other MS execs are a tad more spiteful by nature. And its actually not even sony so much as it is other members of the consortium like Sun. You are right that this would likely not, in of itself , inhibit MS from going with blu-ray. However, the other reasons are sound financial ones, and when you combine the loss of face , loss of control of the platform and standards ( which is why they pushed HC-DVD ) with sound cost and engineering reasons, suddenly blu-ray becomes a hard sell.

 If they come out with a cartridge based platform, they will then be able to work their own deals with media companies as well to release product on the platform. It will actually be appealing to the media companies, because it will be an entirely digital distro system. Basically, at Best Buy there will be a Kiosk that has a HDD with 1000 movies on it, all encryped with encryption that requires an Xbox or other MS-media device to play. You will pay and install it on your "MS-Secure-Card", rentals will also be possible via this system. BigMedia likes this idea, because it saves them the overhead of printing disks and up-front royalty, rather they maintain no overhead and get paid royalty.

 Anyhow, I digress, and things arent set in stone yet by any means. If MS had to caugh up a new system this year, it would likely be blu-ray. But they dont, so it probably wont. They will have an opportunity to take control of their own media platform, and they will grasp that opportunity. MS doesnt need a new system out soon, they just need it out before Sony.