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Friday, July 29, 2005

360 goes DVD ... and then HD-DVD?

So, the fact that the 360 is going to have an HD-DVD isn't too surprising. I had somewhat expected that the old MS would realize that High Definiton means High Density, and while it would have been nice to see format unity on two of the console to help drive the industry, nobody can be surprised that they snubbed a Sony-back format like Blue Ray.

But, um, the first run 360s will have DVD drives anyway? Is Microsoft completely nuts? They're going to whip all of their early adopters by slogging them with yesteryear's storage medium? Anyone who would seriously buy an early 360 with a DVD drive knowing that HD-DVD was coming around the corner, please raise your hand ... so that it can be slapped. This would seem to either punish those important inital purchasers or chain the console down with a lower common denominator.

2 comments:

Jeffool said...

There 'has' to be something like free upgrades for early adopters. Otherwise I don't see many game companies supporting HD-DVDs, and this is entirely about movies.

Josh said...

That would make some sense, but I wonder what form it would take. Service upgrade at Best Buy? Send to MS, wait two weeks?

This seems to illustrate that MS is releasing it needlessly early in an attempt to underscore the PS3. I had half-considered getting one in lieu of a new PC, but now I'll at least wait till 360.v2