When it comes to the rumors surrounding the possibilities of any kind of Xbox 360 support of the disc that won the format war, the one shred of truth is this: people love to talk about it! You don't have to look very hard to see that there is a great amount of interest in not only reading about, but starting rumors about Blu-ray coming to the Xbox 360. At this point, Microsoft is probably on the verge of going on national television and screaming "It's not happening already!", and yet, that would probably not quell the recurring speculation, or should we say demand?
Going all the way back to the final days of HD-DVD, Microsoft has repeatedly denied rumors that even Sony themselves have started on the possibility of Blu-ray coming to the Xbox 360. Microsoft had been very upfront in their response to this rampant gossip, stating that Blu-ray simply isn't in their interest, and that their concentration is centered on the method of digital distribution. But it seems as though the gaming community just doesn't want to take no for an answer, and maintains a kind of stalker relationship with Microsoft, constantly peering into the window to see any signs of a Blu-ray drive. The hopes are even able to co-exist with the denials, as TechRadar.com's article debunking the rumor has a final section entitled, "Blu-ray not ruled out," where they suggest MS may not want to announce a Blu-ray drive until Christmas.
Of course, the most recent rumor, sparked by DigiTimes concerning the company Lite-On developing Blu-ray disc drives for a new generation of 360 consoles, was killed like all its brethren with the response: "No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available." It's funny that Microsoft isn't content with just saying no to these rumors, but constantly has to justify the reason that they are not putting a Blu-ray drive on 360. This rumor is unlikely to be the last, and MS will have to find better excuses than this.
Why? Let's look at this statement, "Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles." Well MS, the many people buying up PS3's for the Blu-ray drive may think differently. Blu-ray has been credited with the recent increase in PS3 sales, a trend analysts, such as Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, only sees continuing: "Longer term, I think it's a huge boon for Sony, as most retail clerks will be inducted to push Blu-ray along with sales of HD monitors at holiday, so we should see a large increase in PS3 sales year-over-year at holiday." Add in the fact that it plays games, and you have a multipurpose machine with decent value.
One explanation for all these rumors is that they are founded on nearly no truth and are similar to people on UFO documentaries, who complain of alien anal probing, in that the creation of both is meant only to get attention. Now let's remember that nobody would be bothering to post Blu-ray rumors, or in some cases, even make them up, if they didn't feel like the speculation would generate hits, and indeed it has. So MS has proven that they are prepared to state time and time again that they don't care for the format, but how much longer can they say the same about the consumers?
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