In an interview with Reuters,
Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, said very clear that the
"Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," Greenberg said.
He is the same guy that during this year CES, after Warner Bros announce their support for admitted in an interview with Reuters that the company could consider a BluRay drive for Xbox 360, if the consumers will demand such a feature.
In addition, at Mix 08 Steve Ballmer admitted that the company is working on device driver support for Blu-ray drives in Windows. “Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense", Ballmer said.
But it seems that Microsoft doesn’t feel like adding an internal unit to its Xbox 360. Despite being one of the supporters of HD DVD format, Microsoft unveiled only an external unit and its decision is cited as one of the reasons of the failure of HD DVD.
Right before CES, there were rumors that Microsoft is working to unveil a new Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD unit, but Microsoft downplayed the rumors.
It seems like instead integrating an optical unit, Microsoft will promote its Xbox Live Service as a download hub for high definition content.
"We're the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content," Greenberg said for Reuters.
However, until the problem with the high definition unit
will be sorted out, Microsoft has slashed the price of its Xbox 360 in
Starting this Friday the Xbox 360 standard version, which
included a 20 GB hard drive will cost only 269.99 euros/£199.99, which is means
that the console is now with 80 euros/£50 cheaper. The Xbox 360 Elite, which
comes with a 120GB hard drive, will have a price of 369.99 euros/£259.99.
The big surprise is the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade console which costs now
only 199.99 euros/£159.99 and is now cheaper than a Nintendo Wii.
Tomorrow, NPD Group, the research company which tracks the
gaming sales will release its report for February. According to the latest data
released by NPD Group, in January in the