With word already leaking out of Sony possibly set to unveil Skype PSP support at next week' s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas (baby), it looks like we' re kicking off the new year with a bang of news. Not to be outdone, Microsoft head and richest-man-on-earth Bill Gates has chimed in with a little hint of things to come.

Reported by CVG, The Seattle Times pins Gates as set to make an " important announcement" next week in the city of flashing lights. Writer Brier Dudley speculates that the announcement could be an HD-DVD-equipped SKU of the Xbox 360 hardware, harkening back to an earlier rumor that the company was partnering with Toshiba. " In particular," he writes, " Microsoft could work with Toshiba to develop a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive and Xbox gaming capabilities."

Of course, the word " important" is in the eye of the beholder, and so far all we have is two words and some speculative commentary from a columnist. With our limited information, we nerds can now begin the time-honored tradition of rampant and unfounded speculation, setting our expectations so high that nothing could possibly match it. Maybe that will teach Mr. Gates to be a little more specific next time.

If this does happen I wonder how much it will cost.

...and there was no [real] X0 last year...

If they do release said xbox with capability of playing HDDVD xbox games, that would be like giving the shaft to all 360 owners right now. Are they not content with having given us the RRoD?

Games wouldn' t move to HD-DVD. If they released something like this then it' d be 360 as it is but with HD-DVD movie playing capabilities.

1)Something entirely non-related to the Xbox brand.

2)Toshiba brand media hub that does 360 games (not to be confused with an HD-DVD 360 [or with anything remotely like smart or sensible for that matter]).

3)Xbox Handheld.

4)An Armageddon propehcy.

5)Taking windows open-source.

6)Xbox Live Gold service fee removed.

Likelihood, in that order.

That would make more sense.

1)Something entirely non-related to the Xbox brand.

2)Toshiba brand media hub that does 360 games (not to be confused with an HD-DVD 360 [or with anything remotely like smart or sensible for that matter]).

3)Xbox Handheld.

4)An Armageddon propehcy.

5)Taking windows open-source.

6)Xbox Live Gold service fee removed.

Likelihood, in that order.

I think you need to move number 4 to about 2

This makes sense to bundle the hd-dvd drive into the said 360 hardware, to make it more in competition with the ps3 and its bluray. Altough games will remain on dvds, the abailty to play hd-dvds will be nice and give a real boost to the lonely hddvd format..

Altough I dont think MS should be adding more [expensive] hardware to the 360.

..maybe 360 slim amirite?

Maybe a 360 that doesn' t break perhaps?

Maybe a 360 that doesn' t break perhaps?

I dont think they have been breaking for awhile!

My 360 flashed a RroD, then said, wait! I am fiiiine.

It' s an Elite as well. But from what I have heard, the RroD doesn' t discriminate,
it' s like the plague. Or the fire of 1666.

This makes sense to bundle the hd-dvd drive into the said 360 hardware, to make it more in competition with the ps3 and its bluray. Altough games will remain on dvds, the abailty to play hd-dvds will be nice and give a real boost to the lonely hddvd format..

No, it doesn' t. If Microsoft had plans to directly compete with Sony in the HD media market, they would have from the get-go.

Having a 360 with HD-DVD functionality would be far too tempting for Microsoft and game developers to start developing exclusive HD-DVD content, which they' ve already reassured will not happen.

If you can purchase a player attachment for a little over $100 USD, it doesn' t make sense to issue a new SKU with it built in with a $100 or so price hike. They' d lose money. People would get angry, with whichever side they took on the HD-DVD games stance. It' d be bad.

I dont think they have been breaking for awhile!

They have.

But from what I have heard, the RroD doesn' t discriminate,

It doesn' t.