In response to an inquiry about Blu-Ray, Chris Lewis states that (go figure, now that HDDVD' s dead) Chris Lewis states that the key shift in optical vs. digital distribution will occur in the next 12-16 months.

The console war intensified this week, with senior Xbox exec boss Chris Lewis branding disc formats a thing of the past as Microsoft slashed the price of 360 in Europe – with the entry level model now half the price of Sony' s Blu-ray supporting PlayStation 3.

With the entertainment format stand-off ostensibly ending last month - when Toshiba, creator of the Microsoft-backed HD DVD, pulled out of the market - analysts are predicting a significant boost to PlayStation 3 in its wake.

As speculation continues on whether Microsoft will now move to support Blu-ray as the industry standard, however, Europe boss Chris Lewis has re-emphasised the US giant' s commitment to digital downloads, dismissing the significance of Sony' s format victory.

" Going forwards, digital downloads is really where it' s at," Lewis told GamesIndustry.biz. " More and more people' s ongoing and ever-increasing downloading of music and movies is becoming the de facto. I think that' s going to happen in very short order; people want to consume that way. Before very long we will look back wistfully at shiny discs as something that was somewhat a historic phenomenon in a way that we kind of think about vinyl or VCRs today."

While Microsoft' s belief in the long term potential of downloadable content over physical storage media is well documented, Lewis claimed that, despite Blu-ray' s victory, the shift away from discs will happen " sooner than any of us think" .

" That' s the future direction, and I think that' s going to be the case in the next 12-18 months," he predicted. " I think we' re going to be talking much more about that than anything else. Do I think that this Christmas will somehow be defined by DVD playback? I genuinely don' t think that will be the case. I do not think that [the demise of HD DVD] will have any material impact on our console velocity. And I think other factors, specifically our architecture around downloads, is far more advantageous and important for the future."

He added: " We are best placed to offer that, we already offer that, our online pedigree is such that we will offer the best and most seamless experience."

Lewis' s comments follow remarks made earlier this week by Xbox 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg, who said in repsonse to speculation: " Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience. We' re the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content."

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had previously suggested that the firm was considering supporting Blu-ray with its Windows platform.

Microsoft this week cut the price of all three of its 360 SKUs in Europe, with the Arcade pack now retailing for GBP 159 and Premium for GBP 199, with Elite at GBP 259. Xbox 360 currently offers downloadable HD movies for rental via its Video Marketplace Store.

Following Toshiba' s withdrawal from the market last month, SCEA president Jack Tretton said: " The emergence of Blu-ray as the de facto high-def standard is one more reason why PS3 is a great value to consumers. The combination of strong sales, Blu-ray dominance and widely-anticipated games all point to 2008 as a breakthrough year for PS3."

GI.BIZ

Yes, because it' s so user friendly to download a 10gb game into your puny 12gb hard drive

He' s a moron, even DVD is better than DLC.

If the xbox 360 hard drives were priced like real hard drives ($130 for a 500 GB drive) I would download all of my 360 games instead of buying them at the store. They chose to make money by overpricing the hard drives. They need to make the hard drives a lot cheaper and larger if they want people to download full games and 1080p movies.

I' ve downloaded several PC games on steam. It is nice because you can pre-load it by downloading part or all of it before it is released then it finishes downloading unlocks the same time it is released. I end up putting the whole game on my hard drive anyways. If the game forces you to use the disk I just make an image of it and store it on my hard drive anyways. Discs are a hassle, you have to swap them in and out, and they load slower than using a hard drive.

I suppose 1080p movies can fill your hard drive up pretty fast, but xbox live keeps track of licenses so if they let you buy the actual movie instead of renting it you could delete it and redownload it.

I think you' re on to something there, Loco. If MS focused their efforts into making money off the downloads as opposed to those ridiculously priced hard drives, they actually could make some progress.

You' re right about the ability to buy instead of just renting as well. I like to own a movie, myself. Personally, I like to have a physical disc, but a lot of people nowadays don' t care, and would probably readily buy a downloadable movie.

I just want a Blu-ray/DVD changer that can hold 1000 movies! It would load the movie info off the disc when you first insert it, and then you could just browse your movies in an Apple Coverflow style! You could sort by genre, actor, or whatever.

Microsoft only offers 720p movies and they are usually smaller in file size than their SD-DVD counterparts. Same goes for Apple' s DLC thingy. These guys are having a hard time getting movies for their services. I' ll take a real Blu-ray instead of a downloaded movie, and a real disc instead of a downloaded game. I like to touch what I own.

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

I like to touch what I own.

eWWWW

personally I like to have a disk in my hands too - unless they can give us a bigger hard drive at a very cheap price this plan is a complete non-starter.

Didn' t Michael Bay say a while back that he believed the only reason HD-DVD was around was to give MS time to develop movies for digital download? He never believed that MS was very serious about HD-DVD at all, and now with this statement his words are coming true.

ORIGINAL: canadagamer

Didn' t Michael Bay say a while back that he believed the only reason HD-DVD was around was to give MS time to develop movies for digital download? He never believed that MS was very serious about HD-DVD at all, and now with this statement his words are coming true.

Yup . It was pretty clear from the start that MS supported HD-DVD to try to slow down the Blu-ray . HD-DVD died much before MS would have hoped for .

If you really think about it though, HD-DVD was technologically better prepared than Blu-ray is even right now.

HD-DVD offered everything right from the get go, where as Blu-ray is still riddled with firmware updates even though the first Blu-ray players with an Ethernet port are not set to come out till later this summer.

That is why the best Blu-ray player out on the market today is the PS3 hands down. And just for you 2pac, just another reason why sales for the PS3 are going to spike.

Thought you might like that!!!!!