03/06/2008, 7:05pm, EST
Thursday, March 6thSony in talks for Blu-ray for Mac, Xbox
Sony is discussing the possibility of offering a Blu-ray drive for Macs and the Xbox 360, claims Sony Electronics chief Stan Glasgow. The senior official partly confirms past leaks and says that Sony hopes to see the HD disc format as an option for Apple's computers as well as Microsoft's game console. Glasgow does not describe the extent or progress of the talks but says that the likelihood of Blu-ray being eclipsed by downloads was slim in the near future due to the sheer size of HD movies, many of which take up as much as 50GB on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc.
"Downloading will build over time, but this will be over a period of years," he says.
The remarks come as part of the same speech in which Glasgow noted the development of an Apple TV rival and the decreasing costs of dedicated Blu-ray players, which could drop to as low as $300 this year. In turn, a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox would most likely appear as a USB attachment to replace the now-canceled HD DVD add-on. Microsoft has historically said it wants to separate the Xbox 360 from the success of any one disc format and has responded to the Sony official's claims by noting that it wants to build the Xbox's success on games rather than movies.
Microsoft adds that it has made no announcements, but does not deny the Sony executive's claims. Apple has not commented on the statements.
Filed under: gaming
Other story tags: sony, blu-ray, Apple TV, Xbox 360
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Also, there are folks like myself who prefer to own a disc versus a file. It is going to take a while for us "geezers" to make the switch.
MS: "Oh, hey Sony. Didn't know you were home, I was just gonna leave a voicemail". Sony: "What's up?" MS: "Nothin, nothin... just callin' to say hey. Hey." Sony: ... MS: "Heh, some format war with that HD stuff huh? Crazy.... Kray. Z. Huh?" Sony: "Yeah, well it's over now. What's this all about?" MS: Well, um, now that the war is over, uh, we were kinda wondering if youwouldbuildabluraydriveforthexbox?" Sony: "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." MS: "Uh, would, uh, you guys build a um, bluray drive for the xbox?" Sony: "Could you speak up, please?" MS: "WOULD YOU BUILD A BLURAY DRIVE FOR THE XBOX?" Sony: "We'll get back to you." MS: Uh, Ok... no problem. We'll just, we'll just talk later, right?" Sony: MS: "Hello?"
i'd love to see an apple replacement for my series 3 tivo though. they really pissed me off when they basically required a 3 year contract after i bought my Series 3 tivo (even though i already have two other tivos on that account).