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Xbox 360 Ultimate binned because Warner switched to Blu-ray?

Xboxer, by Gary Cutlack on January 7, 2008:

The weekend saw devastating news arrive that's all but killed off HD DVD as a next-gen video format. But insiders over at the AVS Forums - who are proper, actual insiders who work for companies like Microsoft, Universal and representatives of the Blu-ray consortium - reckon the decision could've gone either way. In fact, HD DVD came very close to a victory...

Microsoft's much-rumoured HD DVD-enabled Xbox 360 could be one of the deals on offer to tempt Warner to support HD DVD exclusively. But the prototype was binned when Warner dumped HD DVD, effectively killing the format.

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The Round Peg - contributor
Published: 724 days 23 hours ago | Rumors | Xbox 360 | Industry News | Tech

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The Round Peg - 724 days 23 hours ago

1 -

Wow, juicy.

It looks like both Microsoft and Toshiba had been Murdoch'd!

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1.1 mesh1 | 724 days 22 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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sonarus - 724 days 22 hours ago

1.2 -

sony trolls started the xbox ultimate rumor????????If you are so confident in ur msoft exclusives go play them then. Starting from march for me its AAA after AAA on the ps3 assuming sony can actually get the games out with no delays. Kick march off with GT5 then april with GTA then may hopefully killzone or little big planet would be out by then then mgs4 gets home in june dnt need any other game after that but i'll prob jst pick up the others like socom, infamous, haze, tekken 6 white knight story, resistance 2, motorstorm 2(hopefully with split screen this time), final fantasy assuming it hits this yr and might just cap the yr off with God of war 3 who knows. Meanwhile you can enjoy ur tripple A's like gears of war 2 and...

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1.3 mesh1 | 724 days 22 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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sonarus - 724 days 22 hours ago

1.4 -

haha only 2 games from ur list have been shown with gameplay and confirmed for 08 so wat are you talking about. Your heart is probably still broken cus sony crushed your dreams for an xbox ultimate. poor guy!!!. KZ2, MGS4, LBP, GT5, White knight story, haze, tekken 6 and socom. Thats just off the top of my head though games i have every intention of buying except for maybe haze not so sure yet. Why don't you give it a shot and see what you come up with on xbox side. Try not to search wikipedia too much tho

@consolewar coming to mesh1's aid. Where are these xbox AAA's as well are you referring to the ones i played the hell out of LAST YR. Looking forward to a new yr with new games. The games may or may not hit on time but they are there and GT5 and MGS4 are AAA enough for me. As lons as GT5 prologue is available from march i'm good for a while. Wat 360 game are you looking forward to in the near future? You 360 only clowns can keep deceiving yourselves if you like i'm rolling into 08 looking for new games to play and unfortunately for you sony has more quantity and quality

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consolewar - 724 days 22 hours ago

1.5 - yes, but when are this so called "AAA games"...

coming. Tomorrow?, what about next week?mmmmh. How about next month? Xbox has a least 3. Sadly for you Ps3 is playing Catch-Up. Tell you what, when Sony actually delivers I'll buy one. Happy?

WAIT SUMMER 08 *maybe

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BrianC6234 - 724 days 19 hours ago

1.6 -

I find this story hard to believe. I doubt the Ultimate was killed just because Warner chose Blu-ray. And I doubt the Ultimate would have swayed Warner. If the 360 came out from the start with HD DVD so all 360s had one then the battle would have gone the other way probably. I guess Toshiba can blame Microsoft for killing HD DVD.

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LivingGhost - 724 days 15 hours ago

1.7 - @1.1

WTF is Warhound xbots always bring up games no one ever knows and if u seriously believe Gears 2 is coming out this year then u sound more stupid than a sony fanboy saying Final Fantasy 13 is coming out this year and by the way u forgot about Huxley a double A game

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Bubble Buddy - 724 days 13 hours ago

1.8 -

so a AAA is judged by getting a 90? heh. Judged by other people you don't know? ratchet and uncharted stand at 89 and both was 90 before, what does that make uncharted?

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mullet - 724 days 23 hours ago

2 - They pretty much had to make last minute decisions.

After the unexpected jump by Warner, which explains their laughable presentation. They hardly showed anything that people actually CARE about.

Thank you Warner. The future is Blu.

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2.1 TANOD | 724 days 18 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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Expy - 724 days 5 hours ago

2.2 -

I wouldn't say "unexpected" I'm pretty sure everyone knew it was going to happen, just a matter of when.

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The_Engineer - 724 days 2 hours ago

2.3 - MS just embarrassed themselves

with one of the lamest presentations ever in the history of CES.

It was they who hyped "a big announcement about the future of the xbox franchise" at CES

it was the xbot girls who started peeing their panties speculating about the new 360 super ninja turbo edition.

and now IT IS THEY who are here bitterly denying they had anything to do with the "ultimate" rumor and are actually trying to blame it on PS3 owners.

PRICELESS

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Gazman - 724 days 23 hours ago

3 -

I some how doubt it but if its true its a shame because I would of upgraded to the ultimate no questions asked

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mighty_douche - 724 days 23 hours ago

4 -

Its not been the best week for M$ or HD-DVD, but frankly we (n4g members) predicted Blu-Ray winning over a year ago.

not to be it for us to say "told you so".....

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SL1M DADDY - 724 days 22 hours ago

4.1 - Indeed...

I have been chastised on numerous occasions for claiming BD the winner for the past year but to no avail; their words have all but fallen on deaf ears. It's good to know that HD-DVD is out and BD is the winner. I know they would like to see a comeback but let's face it, HD-DVD died this weekend and it will be a few months of holding on until they finally come to grips with it. And it's a good thing that BD won; now we won't have yet another SKU from MS to further confuse the consumers. That's all we needed, another SKU from any one of the console companies.

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DARKKNIGHT - 724 days 22 hours ago

4.2 -

yeah i agree, hddvd went belly up around october 2007.

titles such as superbad spidey 3, pixar movies, pirates........pretty much killed hddvd. I believe ever since fall of 2007, hddvd was on damage control knowing their ship was sinking.

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ChaosKnight - 724 days 23 hours ago

5 -

Umm... can I ask when the Xbox 360 Ultimate was ever an official product? I thought it was just rumors and speculations.

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THE_JUDGE - 724 days 22 hours ago

5.1 - It was a good rumor

and would have been a good product if they had launched it when the 360 was launched.

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BrianC6234 - 724 days 19 hours ago

5.2 -

But how much would the Ultimate cost? The biggest problem I saw with it was it would cost more than the PS3. Sure it would have a built-in HD DVD player but you wouldn't be able to use it for games. It would be for movies only. Microsoft should have delayed the 360's launch six months and included an HD DVD player in it from the start.

This is why I chose the PS3 over the 360 though. Sure, right now the 360 is selling better but over the next five years having Blu-ray in the PS3 will prove to be huge for Sony. Microsoft can't switch to HD DVD now that millions of gamers have the DVD version of the 360.

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blacsheepxx - 724 days 23 hours ago

6 - B!TCH SLAPPED

what i wouldnt have done to have been a fly on the wall in bills office when the warner news broke, i think everyone knows theres no smoke without fire and toshiba was hinting at a 360 with built in hd-dvd player, i just wish warner had broke the news after bills speech because ultimate 360 was not a rumor thats why all of a sudden microsofts conference was all a mess.

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heyheyhey - 724 days 22 hours ago

6.1 -

yeah that would've been funny- Bill gay standing there not knowing what the hell he should announce next

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Lord Cheese - 724 days 22 hours ago

7 -

Fact is, this really is neither a good nor bad thing. I am one of the few that bought the hd-dvd addon for my xbox, (for bourne ultimatum and transformers) but fact is i've got a ps3 as well, and watch blu-rays on there. The 360 was never billed as a movie player as such and it wasnt like either of the disk-based hd formats being added to the 360 would actually make the game playing experience any different, so it doesnt mean a thing.

I for one am quite glad there isnt another 360 sku being released. I upgraded to an elite only a couple of months ago and have no intention of doing that again. For me, my 360 is my games machine, my ps3 is my streaming media client/hd player which can play games if i chose to do so.

Most people realise M$ are actually (not necessarily publicly) pushing digital distribution ahead of any disk based formats anyway, so the fact that warner went with blu-ray was probably more of a relief for them than anything else - it means they dont have to tie the 360 completely to one of the two formats by building a new console with the drive included. As much as there are definate gaming benefits to having the additional disk capacity (as the playstation fanboys love to point out) m$ did take the sensible option and not tie the console to the success or failure of either format. Sony took a risk and seemingly (for once) it paid off.

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BrianC6234 - 724 days 19 hours ago

7.1 -

I think you miss the importance of having an HD drive in the consoles. I could care less about it for movies myself. I see it more for games. Soon Blu-ray will help PS3 games be a lot bigger. If you want everything to be high def you need lots of disc space. DVD can only go so far. Sure they can compress everything but compression hurts the quality of the graphics and even the audio. In the near future the PS3 will just start to pull away because the games will look so much better and be bigger. As long as third party developers start using the hardware at least.

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WafflesID - 724 days 15 hours ago

7.2 -

I'm with you there. I have the HD-DVD drive (bought it because of the 5 free movies which at $25 a movie was a hell of a deal), and I have a PS3.

Because of the HD-DVD drive's limited support for newer audio formats I bought it just for the hd-dvd exclusives. My PS3 is the main movie viewing device (Even though it also has issues with newer audio formats, like DTS-HD, and it doesn't sound like it supports TRUE-HD in 7.1 only 5.1).

360 wasn't designed around HD movie playback. In fact, was the HD-DVD standard even finalized by the time the 360 started production? Good chance they would have had to delay the 360 if they wanted to include built in hd-dvd.

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Lucreto - 724 days 22 hours ago

8 -

Was it really that close like the article said or was it them being sore losers and just saying that.

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nn - 724 days 22 hours ago

9 -

I don’t understand why the people are still continuing to publish these news. For the start it was only a rumour. And even if it was true and it was canceled …so what? The good news is that a format won the HD movie battle so no more worries in what HD player to buy. Let’s now hope that the prices will continue to drop even the competition will be smaller.
And one more question. Do you think that Microsoft did not know anything about the Warner decision after they just launched the Video Marketplace in Europe only with Warner movies?

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blade206 - 724 days 22 hours ago

10 -

the xbox with hd dvd was real the newspaper here in seattle reported it hd dvd just bomed lol

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solidt12 - 724 days 22 hours ago

11 - Money on the table

Microsoft needs to get some of that money. They need to come out with a Blu-Ray add on for those who want it so they won't potentially by a PS3 or stand along Blu-Ray player.

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revsnake - 724 days 22 hours ago

12 -

no. just no o\your stupid y would u even make this xbox ultimate was never real no.

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MaximusPrime - 724 days 22 hours ago

13 -

this is the time

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mullet - 724 days 22 hours ago

13.1 - LOL man I always get a good laugh from that one.

But this is funnier.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Lol.

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mistertwoturbo - 724 days 22 hours ago

14 -

i've never seen so much crying and whining from the industry. hell, the PS3 was picked on from 90 different angles, yet they held they're heads up high and stuck to a gameplan. "The PS3 will have a 10 year lifecycle, and we will back blu-ray 100%"

they didn't sit around, mope and complain about what they didn't do. they looked on what they can improve, what the consumers want, and project themselves to a successful future. a company has to hold itself in high esteem first before becoming successful.

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15 WilliamRLBaker | 724 days 22 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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bourner - 724 days 22 hours ago

16 -

will xbox get nlu ray or is their pride to strong

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Shadow Flare - 724 days 21 hours ago

16.1 -

Sony would never allow the xbox to use bluray, i dunno why people even think that. They can hope...but they won't get.

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dazreah - 724 days 21 hours ago

16.2 - Shadow Flare

Please stop acting as if Sony are the ones that own Blu-ray they are part of the Blu-ray grp which is made up of different companys and trust me if ms wanted it they will get it Sony would not be allowed to stop them from getting it.

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Shadow Flare - 724 days 21 hours ago

16.3 - dazreah

Out of all the companies behind bluray, Sony is the most prominent. I think their say would count for something. Bluray is one of, if not the biggest advantage ps3 has. And sony doesn't want the xbox 360 to have the bluray label on it at all.

Also Microsoft supported HD-DVD because it harmed sony. Microsoft want digital-distribution to succeed. They don't want to support bluray at all. What makes you think bluray will come to xbox 360? Because it's the winning format? Oh then you're completely right. Sorry for my ramblings

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Nameless - 724 days 21 hours ago

17 -

It has been established that unless a blog or non gaming news web site is by a developer his or herself then posting these kinds of opinions & blog posts is against the rules. Nice one Round Peg & Shadow Flare that would be a mistake on Sony's part. When the contracts are up what would stop Microsoft from not allowing Sony to use THEIR Video Codecs & THEIR Operating Systems on Sonys PC & Lap Tops ? Both companies need to grow some balls & work together. Let the stupidty stay with the fan boys. Sony ALREADY RELIES on Microsoft for plenty of things & like I said keep fan boy stupidity with fan boys only. If Sony said no just to spite Microsoft then THEY ARE NO BETTER then Microsoft.

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Shadow Flare - 724 days 21 hours ago

17.1 -

Windows on Viao laptops benefits both Microsoft AND Sony. Bluray on Xbox 360 benefits Xbox 360 users, but harms Microsoft because they want digital distribution to win, and harms sony because bluray is the biggest advantage ps3 has, and sony doesn't want xbox 360 to have the 'bluray' label at all, you nameless baffoon

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titntin - 724 days 20 hours ago

17.2 -

Only one baffon here 'shadow flare'.

Whilst I'm pretty sure MS is unlikley to adopt any Blu ray drive for many reasons, if they wanted to, of course they could!

Sony cannot block ANY company from paying the licencing rights and using the technology. To do so, would be highly anti- competitive, and so against the compettion laws of most of the world. There's only one of these companies regularly found guilty of endemic anti-competitive buisness practices, and its not Sony. :)

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Legion - 724 days 21 hours ago

18 -

Vapor news, on early vapor ideas of a vapor console coming out. And who ok'd this as news??? Wasn't even a legit site from what I could make out.

Idiots!!!

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riksweeney - 724 days 21 hours ago

19 -

Most likely, I can just see Steve Balmer dancing around with rage before picking up a chair and throwing it out of a window, followed by the Ultimate itself.

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Nameless - 724 days 20 hours ago

20 -

Money can change everything Shadow Flare. If a company like the WB cared so much about ending this Format War they would have from the very beginning chosed a side instead of playing both sides & Sony does not have final say in Microsoft using Blu-Ray. They might have some say but not final say. Money will decide that & not Sony.

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Kareem - 724 days 20 hours ago

21 - No sh1t

Announcing the Ultimate would be like attempting a suicide mission both from a financial and public view point.

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tatotiburon - 724 days 20 hours ago

22 -

a droid rumor, nothing more

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titntin - 724 days 20 hours ago

23 -

This article is a good example of the very worst of BS news from biased sites, and has little to nothing to do with facts.

The 'Xbox ultimate' was never ever going to happen - if would have been the stupidest move ever made by a company to release such a machine, and I may not like MS much, but they deserve more respect than that. They would never have released such a machine as their marketing men would have been savy enough to see what a PR disaster it would be, and how useless a high storage drive is if your game developers cannot use it.

As for all the rumour mills about which way Warner may have jumped - thats all idle gossip and speculation too. All the insider quotes and comments you can track down on the net for the last 4 months have suggested that warner were going blu - theres never been a sniff of them considering which way to go. The kind of BS stories that a surfacing from disgruntled fan sites now, are pure BS with no evidence at all. If that what it takes for disgruntled HD DVD fans to sleep better at night , so be it, but don't expect anyone with any objectivity to be suckered into such 'sour grape' stories.

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Nevers - 724 days 11 hours ago

23.1 - 2true bubbs for U

I'd like some real news, now. Thanks.

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Shadow Flare - 724 days 19 hours ago

24 - I love this

Yeah, you're all completely right. Money buys EVERYTHING. If Microsoft REALLY wants something, then they WILL have it. Is that right? Cos that's what you're saying. Two things: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. And one more thing, Microsoft does NOT want to support Sony with bluray. Add-ons do not sell enough, add-ons don't sell consoles and unless microsoft can make alot of money out of 360 bluray add-ons, they won't do it. Aside from the fact they don't want bluray to win because they want digital distribution to pull through. Some of you are braindead. Simply said, theres not a great chance xbox 360 will see a bluray drive of any kind, unless microsoft and sony can make enough money out of it to validate the other effects

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hardmetal - 724 days 18 hours ago

24.1 -

%100 correct!

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