It appears that Microsoft continues to refuse backing down on their rejected stance on Blu-ray disc. Microsoft’s UK boss, Stephen McGill, is willing to turn a blind-eye towards the dominant success of the standard HD format, and shrugs it off as a passing format.
In spite of Sony’s HD format taking over the HD market, Microsoft tries to play down its success by essentially calling it a fad. McGill had few words to justify their stance on the matter.
“I think people may have spoken about [Xbox’s lack of a Blu-ray drive] originally, but that’s long gone. I think people now recognize what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?”
I can tell you who, Mr. McGill. Over 37 million people not only need, but want Blu-ray. And that’s not including movie sales either. Perhaps its me jumping the gun on this, but I think Microsoft would’ve been singing a much different tune had their format (HD-DVD) became the standard for HD.
In my opinion, Microsoft needs to embrace Blu-ray and start figuring out a way to make it work for them. Developers have already praised Blu-ray and the storage space that has allowed them a much larger working capacity. Continuing to show stubbornness over the period of 3 years is starting to look ridiculously childish and is holding back the rest of the industry from progressing forward.
[Source]
