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Microsoft's Greenberg lays into Blu-ray News
PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 News by Robert Purchese
Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg has put rumours of Blu-ray on 360 to bed and had a dig at the HD disc format in the process.
"We have no plans to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," Greenberg told Major Nelson, cementing the corporate response given earlier.
"We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want. We also believe that the future's digital, and that's why we've invested in a massive library of entertainment content."
Despite promising to keep the "gloves on", Greenberg proceeded to question not only sales, availability and price of the format, but also its long-term future.
"No one knows," he said, "no one knows what Blu-ray will be. It's pretty clear it is not the next DVD, right? The days of one physical format being the standard are gone.
"Let's say right now we're not sure if it's the next UMD or the next DVD," added Greenberg, suggesting "it got Blu-rayed" will be the expression for future products in this perceived grey area.
"I went to Sony's [TGS] booth, and their Blu-ray presence...It used to be like their whole booth was Blu-ray. It just keeps shrinking down. Now it's just this little corner and there's no one there," he said. We can think of a couple of counterpoints, but we're not touching this one with a bargepole.
Aside from Blu-ray, Greenberg nattered about the Microsoft TGS conference and how John Schappert nearly lost his voice before the event.
He also touched on the improved performance of Xbox 360 in Japan, where the console has outsold its PS3 rival for the last few weeks.
"Never before have I seen - in the eight years I've been coming to TGS - this sort of shift from, frankly, the PlayStation brand to the Xbox 360 among third-party publishers. We're the platform they're looking to to help grow their franchises around the world," he concluded.
The Microsoft TGS keynote was delivered by John Schappert early yesterday morning, and revealed a 19th November date for the New Xbox Experience, announced the standalone Halo 3 Recon expansion, and confirmed Tekken 6 for Xbox 360.
Following the conference, we caught up with Xbox Live boss Schappert put a few questions to him.
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jack_klugman
10/10/08 @ 15:43
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We can think of a couple of counterpoints, but we're not touching this one with a bargepole.
Don't tease. |
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Halo Jones
10/10/08 @ 15:43
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We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want. We also believe that the future's digital, and that's why we've invested in a massive library of entertainment content."
But you are quite happy to force consumers to swap discs when playing titles like Final Fantasy and other titles that span several discs? Greenberg, you're a dick.
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Blu-Ray will certainly never have the adoption that DVDs have now, but I don't really see the point in him bringing it up. In the next generation MS will have to find some sort of larger storage format than the dual layer DVD, and I really, really hope they don't switch to 100% digital distribution.
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Except ofcourse that digital downloads are full of nasty DRM restrictions (borrow from a friend? Buy second hand? NO) and of signifigant lower quality then disc based HD movies.
Or the fact that I could never fitt my entire movie collection onto a harddisk.
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most recently on 10/10/08 @ 16:52
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"But you are quite happy to force consumers to swap discs when playing titles like Final Fantasy and other titles that span several discs? "
Even if they released a BR addon it still won't mean FF will come on BR as not everyone will buy it, in fact it's pretty clear that not many people will buy it at all. |
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Well, it's not as if Blu-Ray sales as of today aren't backing his point. Last I saw, they were declining. Whether that will continue, I don't know.
"But you are quite happy to force consumers to swap discs when playing titles like Final Fantasy and other titles that span several discs?" Whaaaa? 360 games won't come on blu-ray discs this generation no matter what happens with an add-on. |
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turnget2005
10/10/08 @ 16:04
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What an absolute MUG!!!
no one is forced to buy a bluray, I never had the sales clerk in the shop point a gun at me and say "buy the disk bitch!" Still bitter that HDDVD got PWN3D! Its funny how nearly all the MS execs always take pot-shots at Sony every time they get a bit of lime light while Sony execs don’t really say anything. Look at today’s interview with Yoshida, he even wishes the Xbox well in Japan. I have both consoles and they both have let us all down, I remember the HYPE that both consoles received before they came out, then when they finally arrived they were not nearly as good as we had been lead to believe. Have a bit of dignity you PRICK. If your shit was so good it would sell itself without all the trash talking. WANKER! |
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@Eraysor - You make a good point there. The next Xbox is rumoured to be two or three years away and I don't think at that point that digital distribution will be mainstream, certainly not for 10-20 GB+ games nevermind movies. I think Microsoft will have to include an optical drive and it is very unlikely to be DVD not when a BD drive is backward compatible. If the BD market continues to expand as it's predicted it will, I've absolutely no doubt that the next Xbox will include a BD drive for both games and movies with digital distribution still being pushed as a long-term replacement.
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Good grief I wish these people would just look at the way people currently use the media they've purchased such as DVDs - it's simple then to see that there is just no way that digital downloads are going to replace physical media any time soon.
Think of Joe Public buying a DVD - he/she may lend it to a friend, or watch part of it in the living room then maybe watch the last part of a film in bed upstairs, let alone watch it with parents etc. The point is, the physical media allows so many diverse ways of watching a film - the "viewing experience" as it were, that digital downloads simply can't compete with (and that's not even touching on the issue of allowed download limits for bandwidth etc.) I can just imagine saying to my mother "Oh sorry, I have this great film that I think you'll love, but you can't watch it at your house because you don't have an Xbox 360...." And don't even start with the amount of disc space required to actually "keep" these downloaded hidef movies, especially with the ridiculous price that Microsoft want to charge for the hard drives in their machine. Grrr! |
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Microsoft LOL!!
what an dick this greenberg is, words escape me, im embarrased for him. so what about all the people u tricked into buying the HD drive lol you dont force people to pay for what they dont want? lol! what about the tiny but expensive microsoft only hard drives you have to buy LOL im assuming juding from his statement also that the next console wont use blu ray either since its a dead format and all lol! "We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want" red ring of death, DO NOT WANT! but you made me pay for it LOL! |
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Britesparc
10/10/08 @ 16:11
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But I don't like digital downloads, I like to have physical media with a box that I can stack on my nice shelves and re-arrange obsessively like John Cusack in High Fidelity :-(
Admittedly, I'd like it if I could rip my films to a hard drive so I didn't actually NEED the physical media, but I still WANT it... |
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turnget2005
10/10/08 @ 16:14
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how did this guy get his job? it seems that most of the people on this site most whom are not top earning execs have more sence than this idiot. it kills me when someone opens their mouth and the destink smell of shit arrives!
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@ hedbog
"With Blu_Ray, and any disk format, I can simply take the disk with me and put it in a compatible player - of which there are plenty of alternatives to the PS3 (Laptops, Desktop PCs, standalone players, Multimedia PCs)." Ummmm, you realize that you could buy 10 360's and be able to play your DL'd movies on any one of them, cheaper than you could 5 blu-ray players, right? Can't you also hook your 360 up to a PC and stream DL'd movies through it? That's a question...not a statement. |
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"We have no plans to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,"
With all the noise that the 360 generates, its probably for the best. Plus, it means HD movie buffs wont have their 360's on for as long, so there's surely less chance of RROD money for MS to cough up, no? And "Xbox experience?" WTF? What a pretentious c***! |
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turnget2005
10/10/08 @ 16:32
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@rounds
dont be silly mate, i think you know what hedbog was trying to say. but i will put it into simpleton terms for you: if you download a movie on your xbox you can only play it on your xbox, and lets just say that you never got to finish the movie in your living room cause the kids came home or whatever, if you had a disk, bluray or the like then you could watch it on something else! or say that you wanted to watch the film again at a mates house how could you do this? and dont say bring your xbox to his house cause that would be a bit chorfull for most people. |
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Eighthours
10/10/08 @ 16:37
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Its funny how nearly all the MS execs always take pot-shots at Sony every time they get a bit of lime light while Sony execs don’t really say anything. Look at today’s interview with Yoshida, he even wishes the Xbox well in Japan.
Actually, today's interview with Yoshida is the first time I've ever seen a Sony exec NOT take massive potshots at MS and it was a refreshing change. Don't know which planet you've been living on for the past few years, mate. |
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@ turgent
I know what he was saying, but what he was suggesting is a pretty costly proposition. Most people don't want to buy 1 blu-ray compatible device, let alone one for every room. And if someone could answer my streaming question, it would basically make his point nil - except for the fact that you could bring a movie to someone elses house. With NXE, though, they're allowing people to share movies, which is pretty cool. |
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el_pollo_diablo
10/10/08 @ 16:39
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Blu-ray will start to take off when the prices come down a bit, which I anticipate happening in time for this xmas.
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kangarootoo
10/10/08 @ 16:43
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"We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want"
What, like woefully overpriced proprietary hard drives and memory cards? This kind fo commentary from any company is just yawnsome these days. Sniping is so last season. |
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Anyway, the most verbal complains come from ppl who don't want to get an xbox ever.
That said, I do like the physical media, but industry seems to be ditching storage media which rely on mechanical movement (EMC is pushing flash memory equipped in their high-end SAN devices, for example). Maybe we'll have the next consoles with this and a mem-card reader, and games will be distributed that way ? Well, that's a few years away anyhow, as the current western world economy situation I'd expect to see the next genration still quite a few years away. This same capitalism hicup is not helping Blu-Ray, as well.
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"Blu-Ray will certainly never have the adoption that DVDs have now, but I don't really see the point in him bringing it up. In the next generation MS will have to find some sort of larger storage format than the dual layer DVD, and I really, really hope they don't switch to 100% digital distribution. "
Solid state. Next gen consoles will probably not have optical. Optical will probably be a dying format in 3-5 years. |
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I love buying music CDs... but what do I do when I get them? I rip them onto my PC and/or PS3 so I can listen to them!
So while having a digital copy is a very nice thing to have for the sheer convenience of having, say, my entire music library immediately to hand, I still like to have the original product on a disc. Not only does it make it feel like I own the thing I paid money for, it also serves as a backup (a DRM-free one at that) should I need to re-rip them. I think if my only option was to download stuff at a price - and I've said this before and I'll keep saying it - I'd have no second thoughts about downloading stuff illegally without DRM as digital distribution feels like one step away from that. I'm pretty sure a lot of other people wouldn't either. |
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It's pretty clear it is not the next DVD, right?
Why is it clear? Comparing blu-ray sales with DVD 2 years after release gives very similar figures. Never before have I seen - in the eight years I've been coming to TGS - this sort of shift from, frankly, the PlayStation brand to the Xbox 360 among third-party publishers. That maybe because the 360 has been released for 3 years? So 8 years ago the 360 probably didn't have as much attention? We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want and if they do, we will charge them as much as we can get away with (hdd, wireless) Fixed. Becasue HD-DVD lost we believe that the future's digital, and that's why we've invested in a massive library of entertainment content." Fixed. |
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@Dizzy - So you're suggesting that the next PS and Xbox won't be able to play music CDs, movie DVDs or any of our old games that we already own and digital distribution will take over just like that?
I can't see it myself... I'm pretty sure the next Wii, PS and Xbox will have an optical drive but maybe their followups won't in 10 years time. |
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deathdealer619
10/10/08 @ 17:26
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We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want.
Yeah like the three xbox 360's I have had to buy due to faliures of the hardware, good one tosser. Also Blu ray is a great format for dvd look at the sales figures I have both hd dvd and blu ray and blu ray is the same quality i feel in a visual sence. Ths would be offering the consumer more variety,This is not forcing people to purchase one if they did a stand alone extrenal blu ray drive for 360 owners, that comment in short is utterly stupid.
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Everyday you make these little sarky comments about the PS3, and here you are talking about adult conversations?
Optical drives are not going to obselete by the time MS releases its next console, which will probably be 2010. Plus, after all the fuss made about BC this generation, it will be a big issue next one too. |
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If you've got nothing to counter you have to knock.
Sorry MS you dropped the ball on HD DVD and as HDTV ownership grows (and Hollywood output quality improves - finally) the BDA (and PS3) will reap the rewards - eventually. / hugs his blu (as well as fire sale HD DVD) and pokes his tongue out at video marketplace |
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"Everyday you make these little sarky comments about the PS3, and here you are talking about adult conversations?"
Vic 10-Oct-08 18:11:00 Well Gears' got 8/10 from EG, so I guess Wipeout HD is the superior game :D. And for the record, Killzone 2 will be the best looking console game released this generation, ahead of GT Prologue. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an assclown :D. ignore poster Vic 10-Oct-08 12:54:30 Other than Gears what else is there? COD4 is there for my FPS needs and is better than Halo, then you have R2 and Killzone 2 dropping. Next year, there is a unique squad based shooter in MAG coming out, whereas 360 boys get...more Halo. Fable 2 might be good, might be shit. And then err, Too Human and Banjo :D. Vic 09-Oct-08 23:47:15 Alan Wake in another game which will be out on PC, when its finally released. Banjo looks crap anyway, so that just leaves the likes of Lips which is a Singstar rip-off. Infinite Undiscovery looks like it was made with the 10-year olds in minds, so I'll leave that out for me. |
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