Neither of these were even hinted at during E3, and the idea of a Blu-Ray 360 has been denied by Microsoft reps on several occasions.

How would you rate their chances of coming out this generation?

Has this changed since before E3?

X-mote, hopefully (For RE5). Blu-Ray? Never expected it.

The rumors were so strong about the Xmote before E3 that I was expecting them to announce it at E3, but now I don't think it will happen.
The blu-ray360 has always been 50/50 for me, and I still think this option is open if MS decides to make a more mediacentered machine.

I believe in both.

- BR : if MS doesn't go BR then Sony PS3 value will continue to increase over the time because BR will become more and more mainstream, increasing the overall value of the console. This is particularly true if MS doesn't drop the price of the Xbox360 (which I doubt)

- X-mote : well, we will see. Same go for Sony. It is easier for them to release a new controller than for Ninty to upgrade the hardware. But Ninty is performing "great" (no need to change) while MS/Sony are just "good" and need to reach the casual market with their own "gimmick".

Personally, I don't see how Microsoft could add the XMote into their strategy ...

I could see Microsoft releasing a Blu-Ray drive to their system next year when the cost of adding the drive is small enough to not impact the price of the system.

I think it's a little too late now for the the copy control scheme now. The past years have shown large percentage of Sony/MS fans are anti Wii controller. Unless of course they will take a blind eye to hypocrisy. Announcing such a controller to this audience will have the least impact. E3 was the media impact for the controller. Since it didn't happen It seems reasonable that they may instead focus the controller next generation.

Sometimes companies make things just so that they can say that that they haven't lost any advantage from their competitors regardless of how inferior it is. That's what sixaxis is and that's what a Bluray player or bootleg Wiimote would be on 360. M$ got smart real quick and used their resources to get FF13 on 360 which will have 10 times the impact that bootleg bluray or Wiimote would have.

Who ever made up the blu-ray 360 rumor is a dumbass.

Blu-ray will never be the dominant format.

Movies will always cost 25$ or more.