Microsoft will be charged at the same rate as everyone else.

1. Blu-Ray players are already available for under $200. By 2011/2012 they will be under $50 Retail. MUCH cheaper for wholesale and even cheaper for a company like Microsoft in mass quantity.

2. CPU/GPU comboes more powerful then the PS3, are already available. In 12 - 18 months they will be so cheap and outdated that you won't be able to purchase them anymore. In 3 years, Tech that is 4 - 8 times more powerful will be super cheap, Let alone what they might put in it which would still be affordable.

3. Your forgetting Duel Players. If SONY wanted to up the charges of the Disks, microsoft could go Duel format... either HD-DVD/Blu-Ray OR HV-VMD/Blu-Ray. HV-VMD is built off of Current Red Laser DVD tech and can hold up to 30Gb of data and are currently not much more expeinsive then DVD's. (with future prospects of going up to 200Gb if blue Lasers are used).

This way, MS can use HD-DVD or HV-VMD (for cheaper alternative) to play games, and the Blu-Ray to play movies, thus eliminating any royalties paid to Sony for the use of Blu-ray Disks used for thei games and only pay Royalties to the BDA for the hardware. If this will be cost effective by 2011/2012 then it's a possibility.

@ Farm -

And I guess the question is that in 2011, how is that licensing fee going to be any different than what Microsoft payed for the DVD licensing on the X360?

1. What's the definition of "beefed up"? We're talking a console that won't have hardware specifications validated for another 3 years, and will be multiple times more powerful than a Playstation 3. Since that's a near-certainty (provided MS doesn't power it ala a Wii), it's going to have plenty of horse power. Blu-Ray, in 2011 won't be a format that exact some sort of demanding processors by 2011 technology. Your argument has absolutely no merit - Any system will need a good CPU/GPU to run games well. Microsoft won't be at the mercy of a next-gen drive in terms of needing to beef up specifications to run the format. Sony already proved that it's not worth it.

2. You assume the new format would be a closed format that would be either alien to current optical formats, or owned wholly by Microsoft. Neithe is likely. If Microsoft picks a format that isn't Blu-Ray, it'll be a holographic drive like HVD. Such formats could easily have DVD playback. Again, it's a goofy thing to think that Microsoft would pick a format that's incompatible with everything else on the market.

Odds are by the time the XB720 is available BluRay will be ubiquitous in desktop computers, and dedicated players will be in the sub-$200 price range, putting them, at worst, equivilent to the cost of putting DVD playback in with the original XBox.

Third time is a charm right? I don't think MS is going to take much loss next gen, even though they want a good head start if possible. However, if the Wii teachs us anything It's that graphics aren't everything. Maybe MS will finally learn that.

I'm guessing they'll go with a larger storage solution outside of Blu-Ray. They do exist you know.

misterd said: Odds are by the time the XB720 is available BluRay will be ubiquitous in desktop computers, and dedicated players will be in the sub-$200 price range, putting them, at worst, equivilent to the cost of putting DVD playback in with the original XBox.

 

 More like Sub $100 and possibly Sub $50.

 

Lets not forget how quickly the Blu-Ray players are dropping.  What was it, 2 years ago they where Well over $1,000.  Cheapest being $1,000.

Now they are $350 with cheapest being $200.

2 years from now $180 with cheapest being $120

A year or two after that $100 with cheapest being $50.

PROPRIETARY FORMAT

dallas said: @Kasz216 -But why would they want to do that and avoid being able to play a dvd on the next xbox? That's a big part of the reason why the PS2 won over the xbox. I don't see why MS and Sony can't work out a deal that they can both live with, although I expect sony to up the cost a bit still ;-0

You really believe that?

By the time PS2 came otu DVD was already dominating in DVD disc sales and stand alone sales were already pretty impressive.

Ps2 beat Xbox because PS2 was already dominating before Xbox got to the market... because of the games.  Not DVD. (Xbox can play DVDs afterall.)

solid state games, legacy dvd drive, cause we still watch dvds, and want bc, external blueray option

Wonder if M$ will go for a proprietary high-capacity disk? In terms of costs, highly doubt it, but if it prevents piracy by a good percentage, I wouldn't be surprised on that option.