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.

[ktchong]

Wow, juicy.

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

[mesh1]

there was nothing called the xbox ultimate only made up by sony trolls no 1 ever mentioned any thing about this product haha ps3 has 3 exclusive coming otu this year and only 1 of them may get above 90% while the 360 has too human aaa/alan wake aaa/ng2 aaa/warhound aaa/fable 2 aaa/ gears of war 2 aaa/yes there is reason why sonytrolls have gone into fulll swing as they know this fact and are in defense mode 20087 another eyar for the 360

[sonarus]

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...

[mesh1]

name this AAA ? TITLES TROLL STARTING FROM MARH NAME ALL OF THEM?that have been confirmed for a 2008 release and that has been shown with full gameplay ?

[sonarus]

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

[consolewar]

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

[BrianC6234]

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.

[ExLivingGhost]

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

[Bubble Buddy]

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?

[mullet]

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.

[TANOD]

I have a feeling too that MS cancelled the announcement of new X360 SKU after HD DVD's defeat .

However i could be wrong

BUT i do BLU

[Expy]

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

[The_Engineer]

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

[Gazman]

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

[mighty_douche]

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".....

[SL1M DADDY]

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.

[DARKKNIGHT]

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.

[ChaosKnight]

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

[THE_JUDGE]

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

[BrianC6234]

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.

[blacsheep]

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.

[heyheyhey]

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

[Lord Cheese]

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.

[BrianC6234]

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.

[WafflesID]

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.

[Lucreto]

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

[nn]

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?

[blade206]

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

[solidt12]

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.

[revsnake]

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

[MaximusPrime]

this is the time

[mullet]

But this is funnier.

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

Lol.

[mistertwoturbo]

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.

[WilliamRLBaker]

mind you they say MAYBE it could be the reason...speculation, or there never was an ULTIMATE.

[bourner]

will xbox get nlu ray or is their pride to strong

[Shadow Flare]

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

[dazreah]

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.

[Shadow Flare]

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

[Nameless]

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.

[Shadow Flare]

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

[titntin]

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. :)

[Legion]

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!!!

[riksweeney]

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.

[Nameless]

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.

[Salvadore]

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

[tatotiburon]

a droid rumor, nothing more

[titntin]

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.

[Nevers]

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

[Shadow Flare]

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

[hardmetal]

%100 correct!

[player911]

There was never a 360 Ultimate. MS isn't supporting Blueray.
Microsoft isn't even really pushing HD-DVDs (aside from having a add-on player).

Their core focus is Direct Download, which IPTV is the future of everything. I work for a communications company that is partnered with lots of big name coporations that are really striving for TV over IP.

Yea I own a DVD collection and I enjoy watching them and owning the physical copy and box art. But that is an expense to corporations. If a corporation can bring you HD content without all the added expense of making discs, cover art, cases, shipping, storage, etc then they would be stupid not to jump on it, or at least have a hand in it.

The 360 is pushing to replace your cable box/satellite receiver and have it be your all in one media center (an Internet browser would be nice also).

[DJ]

The contracts that Microsoft has been trying to set in place involve exclusively releasing HD content on their Xbox Live/Windows Live service. They did spend a lot of money on HD-DVD, but it's mainly because they wanted an entire disc format to themselves, and rightfully so; there's a lot of money to be made there.

But now with HD-DVD essentially dying, they're definitely going to push Digital Distribution over Live a lot more since it's their last hope to cash in on HD Content. The content creators are more than willing to release content online, but doing it exclusively through Live is just way too risky. Sadly though, there aren't very many options.

We know Sony is trying to open their own Digital Distribution platform through PSN, but I want to see other companies try to do it as well.

[Doctor Strange]

I don't think MS plan for any 360 with an HD-DVD drive in it. I stated before that putting the drive would just drive up cost and nobody likes a new costly version do they.

This was a rumor that one sited stuff.tv created and people just bought into the rumor creating hype don't shouldn't have really existed.

[zonetrooper5]

I really don't think that Sony will be willing as MS to open its own Video Marketplace tbh, they don't want to hurt Blu-Ray sales which could (maybe) prolong the format war for longer. The war is still not over and many of you guys think it is.

Broadband is getting faster and over the next few years you will be able to download huge content for a price of course with ease. Plus, hard drives are getting bigger, laptop's are getting fitted with 100GB to 400GB (laptop hard drives are expensive though). I found a 1TB hard drive for a desktop PC for £160, man thats an awesome deal and I'm not sure if I want to have a DVD/CD combo and also have a 2x Blu-Ray drive in my upcoming PC to build hehe. =P

[tk]

Ultimate was most probably dropped at the last second due to the Warner announcement. One of those things. Move along. It is not as if it is rocket science to add the HD-DVD drive to the XB360.

The drivers are there, the space is there, the drives are there. Just slot them in, and the firmware have standard support enabled. They could have it ready in a week. Most probably the same for a BR model. And they would have made prototypes for both. The tricky thing would just be to make it cost effective - meaning finding a good enough drive that could be bundled and not cost too much.

[wallace1000]

The 360 Ultimate was just a rumor right, no one actually ever confirmed that a protoype was in existence? I agree with the author though, if warner had gone the other way it could have been HD DVD on top. Warner is definitely the decision maker, it must be nice to have that kind of power :-P

[pshizle]

spice things up^

[misterssippi]

Microsoft stated several times that there is no such thing. People need to drop it.
Lets start a new rumor: Nintendo is releasing the WII Hardcore, complete with 80gb hard drive, dolby digital sound, and 1080P HD with inputs for HDMI.
See, how easy it is?

[chrno6]

One thing to keep in mind is that MS denied the ultimate rumor only after Waner bro's annoucenment, even though the rumor has been floating around for a few days already.

[darthv72]

If MS were to make a bluray drive for movies/games or convert the existing hddvd drive for games it wouldnt do anything to improve the power of the system. You need to understand the discs are just storage. It isnt like adding games on a higher capacity format will double the cpu/gpu power or triple the memory in the system. You still have the hardware specs to contend with.

I can see some advantages to using a higher capacity disc in that it would prevent the disc swapping that goes on. Yet does swapping a disc really hampre the gameplay? I didnt have any issues swapping back in the ps1 days so I dont have an issue with swapping today. You are looking at convenience more so than anything really necessary. I hate to bring this up but sony ONLY uses bluray discs for the games because of piracy. NOT because of the added capacity. Look at warhawk or any other game that could likely fit on std dvd and ask yourself why are they putting it on bluray if it isnt really that big to begin with?

Piracy is the answer to that. Sony knew dvd was cracked and wanted something better for their own protection. It may come to a point when the capacity of the disc will come into play (mgs4??) but keep in mind that even ps2 had some great CD based games as well as DVD.

If Ms were to make a bluray addon I think it could benifit the developers to great lengths. Imagin a multiplatform game where the dev can have both versions of the game on a single disc. Because the power of the 360 and ps3 are so much closer than the days of the ps2 and xbox it would be like pc games today. The devs create the game and have it play based on what it detects the hardware it is playing on. A pretty big wish but one that is very possible and only capable if ms were to adapt bluray.

[midgard229]

disk size does matter, when it comes to fighting games and stuff and some others, creator of DOA4 cut stuff out because of the disk space and is ditching tag team mode all together because of disk space, so yep it matters, what idiot puts HD on a normal dvd anyway? MS

[midgard229]

who needs 360 ultimate anyway im sure us guys who got the premium dont feel like upgrading and that MS shuda included all that stuff in the first place, its not a freakin PC we dont need upgrades, MS is dissapointin me, i wudnt even need a 360 if it wasnt for ninja gaiden 2 and halo 3

[name]

Wth? When was HD DVD close to a victory? Stand alone blu ray players outsold hd dvd each week after black friday.

[darthv72]

marketing of bluray had a great advantage. Sony is a mfg of the tech. Sony is a game developer. sony is a movie company. Sony had all the right stuff this time around where as back in the beta days, they only had hardware. Times have changed and if sony were a software developer (OS) company I bet they would only use their own OS in their computers.

For now they rely on MS to do that for them because it is only a matter of time until they make teir own. Look at the original playstation. It originally started out as an addon for nintendo but then they went their own direction and look how that turned out. They rode the backs of other companies to get into the right position to take the lead.

They arent the first company to do that nor will they be the last. MS (for who they are) are at a big disadvantage in that they don't own any hardware facilities or movie companies or music studios. Yet they have managed to create a great gaming system and that is what they marketed it as first and foremost. I think with sony going the mediacentric way first over the games threw MS off track. Last gen it was all about the games for sony and ms was trying to say the original xbox was much more. They saw how sony did and decided to try the same tactic for the 360. Sony did their own thing this gen and MS is scratching their head wondering why they didnt think that far ahead. MS has tried all the same things that made sony a success with the ps but cant get out of their own software company shadow.

But no matter. I will not let something like hddvd/bluray keep me from enjoying gaming on all sides.

[macalatus]

Interesting read. Bubble for you!

[Jazz4108]

Let me state this fact DVD is the preferd format and outsells all other formats and will for a very long time. I thing that that if BlueRay hangs around for another 3 or 4 years then they may have a market but I figure by then there will be new formats far superior and there will definitly be a new Xbox with the format of choice. You see the majority of the world still does not have Hd in there home and if they do they dont understand it and for the movies the new DVD's are plenty enough for them!

[HondaSIRowner]

2008 so far from what I heard and read: Warner Bros followed by Newline Cinema (little brother following big brother)lol

BR has 80 something percent of the Hi-Def market, a great lineup of Promising games, the option of swapping in any size of Hard drive, a not rushed gaming library, aka 360.

BR smashed out Toshiba at CES and the Toshiba person had no words to say, basically speechless.

Apple and BR are now friends leaving Toshiba in mass panic.

Hollywood wants this format war to end and Warner and Newline Cinema just made it impossible for HD-DVD to make a come back.

2008 is Sony's year.

[HondaSIRowner]

I don't know why it was canned. It could be because of Warner and Newline going Blu.

It is obvious though, HD-DVD(360) was canned because only two remaining studios support it.

Toshiba screwed up and Paramount got smacked around like a dummy lol.

Its funny how news about "WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED" in the HD market if.....You know what I mean?!?

BR won, Paramount got played and after the 18 month deal they WILL go Blu!

Universal and Toshiba have their heads stuck in the past with the VHS and Beta max wars.

Universal sounds like they will fight till the Bleeding end, Paramount is just like a celebritys small ugly pet dog, just being dragged along.

Blu-ray all the way baby, 2 more studios left, finish them off,

I know their hungry!

[aiphanes]

There is an escape clause for Paramount...and Universal just has to go blu...they will since warner is not blu.....Money is money and universal will make more money going blu.... You might actually see universal go blu before June 1, 2008...

[jack who]

spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin

[zslash]

The Xbox Ultimate was never going to happen period. Therefore it wasn't canned.

[zag]

I wouldn't believe half the crap they come out with.

It's not hard to tell that HD-DVD was dead months ago, as a format it doesn't even exist in some countries where as Blu-Ray is all over the world.

And those insiders the one talking about Blu-ray factory bloody burning disks lol, that'd take years to make up a batch, shop disks have allways been pressed anyone in the Biz would know that.

[The_Engineer]

history will show that in their insane fear of Sony and the Playstation brand MS developed a strategy of basically beating Sony out of the gate in the second round of their console war. In doing this they sacrificed adequate quality assurance time while sticking a last gen storage format in their console in an effort to cut cost and "always be cheaper" than Sony.

Many of us argued that this was a flawed short term strategy to gain early market share in an effort to steer it and developers away from the Playstation while those in the MS camp said it was "game over" for Sony, they had "screwed up this time" and "MS will finish them off with the release of Halo 3 then Mass Effect".

NOW here we are at the beginning of 08, the PS3 is still here, stronger than ever. Showing great attach rates for AAA titles, with all the major players yet to release and will do so this same year. A MAJOR blow has been dealt to MS's HD-DVD strategy effectively killing off the "ultimate" which itself was the result of MS's shortsighted approach to this generation and nothing but a weak attempt at comepting with the PS3.

The first iteration of the 360 with bad hardware,analog only video output, noisy and disc scratching DVD drives was CRUSHED as soon as the PS3 released and showed it's impressive array of NEXT GEN features.

The band aid ooops I mean "elite" that came out right after the release of the PS3 proved without a doubt that MS was already reeling and going "oh sh1t" mode with the arrival of the PS3.

next came the completion of the royal shafting to early 360 adopters started by the elite with the release of the 360 "premium" now with a slapped on HDMI port standard in all consoles.

NONE of these have been the answer to the PS3 and it's durability into the future and neither would the ultimate have been either. IMO Warner got sick of MS's tactics and made this move to prevent them from further fracturing the market.

[Auron]

It was never confirmed so stop believing it that Microsoft was doing it.

[Madbrain]

Xbots smell the sh1t coming... but never expected that will be so f*ckin much! PS3 won the xmas battle, now the HD-DVD buried 6-feet under.... Hilarious!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA