The format wars are reaching their peak, with companies on both sides forging exclusive alliances supporting a particular format. This struggle for supremacy is taking a new front every single day. The end result seems to be taking a huge toll on the actual consumers of the products for they remain undecided as to which format to support.
The Blu-ray has always had a significant edge over its competitor because of Sony’s PS3, and since Microsoft and Sony can’t really be buddies they had to go ahead and support HD-DVD although there was a slight hitch. The PS3 came bundled with a Blu-ray player whereas you needed to buy a HD-DVD to add to the 360.
This pattern may however significantly change with this recent comment to Smarthouse made by Browning, a prominent figure in the Australian CE marketing field. He has not ruled out the possibility of a 360 coming bundled with an inbuilt HD-DVD player.
- “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.”
Although he has given no time frame for this move to occur, I feel this can be sooner than expected. The 360 is growing in numbers and an inbuilt HD-DVD will solve the problem of storage which next generation games are facing when it comes to the 360.
Assassin’s Creed and UT III are classic examples of this dilemma. Developers of both games felt that the content they had created was seemingly larger than a DVD and they were facing obstacles to fit all the content into a miniature disc.
Microsoft on the other hand had made a comment couple of months ago that they would go ahead and support that particular format that the consumers are going in for. So a Blu-ray fitted Xbox 360 cannot be ruled out of the question as well. An Elite coming bundled with the HD-DVD will actually make Microsoft 360 a formidable opponent against the PS3 on the hardware front.
The company might actually hold the key to decide the fate of the wars as well, with the sales of the 360 soaring during the pre holiday season such a move may very well end the question of choice and there shall finally be one winner to rule them all.
–Neelesh Mukherjee