Oddly enough, Microsoft isn't in the BDA. Not sure why I thought it was.

Sony is one of 20 board members, and 78 contributors, in the BDA, however.

I think it is a definite possibility that xbox720 will have blu-ray. Microsoft can stay behind times forever and Blu-ray will be needed unless they want 5 disc games..

Everyone take a look:

http://us.blu-raydisc.com/

It's not owned by Sony, they are there own company. MS will more than likely take Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is slowly replacing DVD.

Approx $13/ xbox 720 and $0.13 a disc. If it was on the 360 it would be now

40M consoles x$13 = $520,000,000.00
and $013 / every blu-ray game........ Ya, it's a LARGE figure. And Sony DOES get a big chunk of that........

Why stop there? The Sony/Panasonic update allowed for 33GB Blu Ray discs by increasing the number of tracks however if they went for a variant with a lower wavelength laser (towards ultraviolet) they can fit more information in per track at a higher density and thereby increase the overall read speed at any speed the drive spun at. In addition to this it would be impossible to burn a disc in a conventional drive to match.

So for example, the PS3 drive reads at 9 MB/s (72Mbps/8) or 4.5MB/S per 1x speed of the drive. If they had 1/3rd more data per track they could infact read at 6MB/s per 1x and a 6x or 8x drive would read at 36 or 48MB/S which makes it viable again for them to go without a HDD on an 'Arcade' SKU again if they wanted to and enable them to stream off and use true next generation high definition assets far better than current generation consoles.

yes it will have a blu ray as m$ like there consoles to be multimedia focused and if the consumer cant play there favorite movies or music on there console they could lose some sales

ps the big problem is that Sony will know exactly when MS will be putting out the 720 if MS applies to use Blu Ray. Sony won't be caught flat footed. If MS uses Blu Ray, not only are they paying the enemy, but can't suprise the world with a 720 release. There are many other options, Even High speed SD Ram flash would be better than DVD. But too expensive.

Thats only paid if they enabled playback. Do you really think that they wouldn't just make people pay $30 to activate movie playback on the console and therefore turn it into a money maker for themselves rather than a drain?

Btw the per disc cost at present is about $0.10 and it'll probably drop as some of the patent protection expires.

They don't have to 'apply' for anything more than 6 months from release. The BR association isn't an exclusive club, its not a Neogaf forum or anything like that.