Do you guys think the console/format war would have turned out differently if Microsoft had chosen to make their HD DVD drive built into the 360, like Blu Ray was built into PS3? I think it would have.

 I'm pretty sure Americans buy the most DVDs right? (I don't have a source on that so I'm assuming). Nobody wants to spend an extra $150 on a separate drive, so if the HD Drive was built in that's 16 million extra HD DVD players in use. If people already have the drive they're more inclined to actually buy the HD movies, so HD DVD sales would have blown Blu Ray's away. Also, with the drive built in the 360 might have been more appealing to potential buyers and 360 games would use HD DVD discs which store more information.

 So what do you guys think?

The situation would certainly be very different but adoption of the 360 may have been lower due to the higher price.

X-box360 -2005 without HDDVD,with HDDVD 2006/7 ,PS3 with BD 2006

The 360 would've been royally fucked if this had happen. It would've released in Spring of '06 instead of Nov. of '05, and would've been more expensive. This would've taken away the consoles 1 year/9 mil. install base advantage, and many of it's defacto exclusives (Lost Planet, Dead Rising) would have been multiplat ps3/360.

Every reason the 360 is so far ahead of the ps3 right now - 1 year headstart, larger game library, cheaper price, time to get XBL sorted out - would've been removed. The 360 would've had a smaller install base when the ps3 launched, and the ps3 would probably have been outselling the 360 by a lot from launch on.

Of course, the format war would've been much more even as a result, but MS wasn't willing to destroy it's chances in the console war for somebody else's format.

What makingmusic476 said is the truth and nothing but.

So, are any rumors of the XBOX360 "Ultimate" that has been talked about being unveiled at CES with the HD-DVD drive now destroyed because of the recent Time Warner/New line exclusivity announcements?

Either way- good timing to announce exclusivity to hurt the HD-DVD camp

The situation would be a lot different I think. Currently more stand alone HD DVD players have been sold than Blu-Ray players, with Blu-Ray getting its only advantage over HD DVD from PS3 sales.

Thats stupid. If HD DVD had been included then the Xbox would have had an entry price maybe $50 lower than the PS3. If it was within $50 of the PS3 it would have never sold.

NO one wanted the Xbox intially, especially not for $500+ dollars. It was the PS3's horrible launch and price which got the XBox to sell. Then because of install base, it got more third party support in 07'.

HD DVD was never going to win ever while PS3 had Blu-Ray built in, regardless of what Microsoft did.

Blu-ray will move ps3 passed wii.

I think that if Microsoft had added an HD-DVD to the 360 the scene right now would be different. The fact the the 360 price would have been higher, I do think that the sales would be less right now. However, the fact that the 360 had a year head start there would be more HD-DVD players in circulation right now.

Microsoft might have shot themselves in the foot. MS said they were waiting for HD downloads to be the norm. Had MS put the HD-DVD player in the 360 the HD format war might have gone on for years. By MS not doing so and Blu-ray doing so well in terms of sales the war ended earlier then anyone expected. It's not officially over yet but in the words of Marv from Sin City "they are going through the motions anyway". "They" of course being HD-DVD.