In the battle of the video game consoles there's also been a second battle playing out in the background: Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, which are the competing next-gen, high-def disc formats. Sony's Blu-ray is supported by the company's own PlayStation 3, which can play Blu-ray movies right out of the box.

Microsoft's Xbox 360, meanwhile, supports the HD-DVD camp, but makes it optional, so you have to buy a separate drive an plug it into your console if you want to play high-def discs. So far, it's kept down the price of the basic console. Now, according to some supposed insiders, the company may be rethinking its tune, working on a media-centric Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD drive.

The supposed new Xbox 360 will not only support HD-DVD playback, but may also include a dock for syncing your MP3 player and dual HDTV tuners, meaning it could act as a Tivo-like DVR (digital video recorder). While this news is attributed to an unnamed Toshiba executive (Toshiba is the creator and largest supporter of HD-DVD), it goes against earlier statements by Microsoft executives who said the Xbox 360 would never come with an internal HD-DVD drive.

Whom to believe? We certainly don't know for sure, but you can be sure we'll bring you updates when that becomes a bit more clear.

Since the high-def disc war is still far from over, you should probably just keep buying your consoles based on the games you want to play rather than the movies you want to watch.


Article from http://www.switched.com/2007/10/22/media-focused-xbox-360-with-hd-dvd-coming/

I would have to agree with this statement:

Since the high-def disc war is still far from over, you should probably just keep buying your consoles based on the games you want to play rather than the movies you want to watch.

I haven't jumped on board yet to any of the new consoles just because of price. But when I buy one it will be for the games/availability. At first I wanted to go PS3 because of the Blue Ray drive. And more than likely Sony will win this war just because of their market presence. But we shall see.