08-22-2007, 11:32 AM
Quote:Also, MS paid the money for HD not for direct download, but to try and bury Sony as a console maker. MS has produced an add on HD drive for the XBox for around $100. If they can get enough of the XBox crowd to use the HD drives to play movies, this could tip things their way as well since XBox is around 10 Million people and PS3 is still trying to scrape up 2 Million people. If MS can get the XBoxers to spend $100 on HD drives so they can watch HD movies, that's more money in MS' pocket.
If MS wanted to pump their console, they could offer an HD-DVD ad-on AND a Blu-Ray add-on. Sure, the Blu-Ray drive means a few buck going to Sony for the rights, but it's attached to an XBox, so MS wins anyway. So I don't think that's their strategy here.
In any case the strategy of using consoles as market drivers for HD movies doesn't seem to be working for either side, as few people use them as movie players. I doubt it stands much chance of working the other way. Of course, for Microsoft, either an HD-DVD win or a continued muddle both serve their purposes.