Microsoft is stupid but if they do make games that are on HD DVDs then they deserve to lose this gen. but if anything happens it would be like the PC with the game on CD and DVD.(in other words you would have to buy a 3disc CD game or the one disc HD DVD version.

True - you would need to put the HD-DVD part out loud and clear. In the Crux of Sony's Strategy thread, I do touch on confusing customers. Still, it would be an interesting experiment, konnichiwa.

This is what the 360 elite should have been all along. Its for movies (120g hdd) why not just build in the hddvd it should be cheaper to produce than a add on?

 Seems obvious. They want to push the HD-DVD format and inflict another wound on Sony.

It will never happen.

Guys i think this is just a rumor and thats all its going to be. They already have an elite, what will they call this one, the supreme?

Xbox 360 supreme at least 500 dollars.

We as a community need to fact check more rigorously, and backtrack stories to the best of our abilities. This is the story of out of context, and a less then reliable source. Here is the original article.

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/HD/HD_DVD/C6X4A7H5?page=1

Sony Execs Hit Like "Stunned Mullets" After HD DVD Decision

By David Richards | Thursday | 18/10/2007
Senior Sony executives are according to one senior insider acting like “Stunned Mullets” today following the decision by key Blu-ray partner JB HiFi to drop its exclusive support for Blu-ray and start selling the Toshiba backed HD DVD format.

According to the Federal Government web site on Australian colloquialism, to act like a stunned mullet is described as being "Dazed and confused, someone who will wander 'like a stunned mullet'; in a furious rage, they will be 'mad as a cut snake' and in a state of undeniable anger".

The change of mind by JB HiFi has not only stunned Sony, but the whole CE industry after Scott Browning the Marketing Director decided earlier this year to only support Blu-ray. At the time he was quoted as saying "Consumers don't give a rat's arse about products. They are more about buying an experience and Blu-ray delivers that," he said.

Sony at the time fell at Browning's feet for the gushing support with just about everyone in Sony using JB HiFi's decision as a key marketing tool in their battle against the HD DVD format. Today Sony executives were very quiet.

Normally they are extremely responsive to media questions, particularly about Blu-ray, however earlier today not one senior Sony executive responded to our calls. Among the executives called were Carl Rose Managing Director of Sony Australia, Michael Ephraim Managing Director of Computer Entertainment and the Managing Director of Sony Pictures (and Chair of the Blu-ray Disc Working Group) Michele Garra, who last week ran a Blu-ray press conference where Sony bragged about its exclusive relationship with JB HiFi.

SmartHouse did learn that a joint Sony board meeting of all parties is being held today at Sony BMG where the decision by JBHiFi to support HD DVD alongside Blu-ray is expected to be discussed.

Later in the day Jenny Geddes, Corporate Affairs Manager for Sony Australia, issued a comment on behalf of Sony where she said, "Based on recent media reports, we wish to reiterate that JB Hi-Fi is an important business partner of the Sony Group and we have been delighted with the company's backing of the Blu-ray Disc format since launch".

She added, "We will continue to work closely with them and all of our other retail partners, to support and promote the Blu-ray Disc format".

The decision by JB Hi Fi to support the HD DVD format after openly supporting the Blu-ray format at the recent Blu ray Disc Working Group press conference is a bitter blow for Sony, which last week was telling the media that it and Blu-ray would be the only ones to survive the HD format war between Toshiba the creators.

However Browning, who is one of the most experienced CE retail marketing executives in Australia, disagrees. He believes that both formats will survive and that content will be the driving factor. He should know, as JB HiFi is one of the biggest sellers of music and movie content in Australia.

Said Browning, "The fact that movie houses like Paramount are behind the HD DVD format along with the likes of Universal and DreamWorks is key. I believe that more content providers will get behind the format and that the likes of Microsoft which is a big supporter of the HD DVD format will bring out an Xbox with a built in HD DVD player. This is a given."

"Toshiba is a great company and next year we look forward to working with them across computing, HD DVD and their LCD TV offerings," he concluded.

Talking to Appliance Retailer web site Current JB Hi-Fi chief executive officer Richard Uechtritz said today the move was not a back flip but a studied response to changing industry trends.

"You make a decision one day and you change it the next as different information and facts come to life," he said. "We feel there is a market for high definition and it's as simple as that."

Uechtritz said that while Blu-ray was still the market-leading format for DVD players in Australia, HD DVD has taken the lead in Europe and the US.

"In our minds it is somewhat inevitable for the medium term that there will be two formats," he said. "JB customers will want it and we rather they buy it from JB than elsewhere."

The only way microsoft could pull this off is that if they recall all 360's and replace them with 65nm chips and HDDVD drives...

which would cost them BILLIONS!!

exactly they would have wasted all that money to produce what 13 million consoles just to replace 13 million they are already in what a 6 billion dollar hole + manufacturing costs for the old consoles + adding in HD-DVD drives to the consoles + recoding each one = at least 15 billion dollars. That would make shareholders completely want to remove every exec on the board of directors. They would not want that.

It's not obvious once you realize that MS has no monetary stake in the success or failure of HD-DVD. There's no incentive for them to go after Sony like that, especially when it risks the overall success of the 360.