Steve Ballmer on Xbox 360

At Engadget they’ve had a chat with Microsoft’s frontman Steve Ballmer and his colleague Robbie Bach, Chief Xbox Officer. They chose to focus on Microsoft’s gaming console Xbox 360 and the result is massive interview with quite a lot of interesting information on Microsoft’s plans for next generation of gaming consoles. They discuss hot subjects such as backwardscompatibility, Sony’s Playstation 3 and Xbox 360’s place in the living room as a multimedia unit. Another interesting question is where Microsoft stands on the issue HD DVD vs Blu-ray in Xbox 360.

 

“Yesterday Sony unveiled the PS3, and at least on paper it seems to outclass the Xbox 360 in terms of teraflops and support for 1080p, and it’s going to have a next-generation optical drive which the 360 isn’t going to have—

No… we just haven’t announced anything yet. Sony may have announced a non-standard drive last night. We just haven’t announced anything.”

Steve Ballmer says at several occations that compability with a HD format will be available for Xbox 360 sooner or later. The problem today is that noone knows what format, Blu-ray or HD DVD, that will be the winner. And for now none of them will be available. It’s insinuated that an updated version of Xbox 360 will arrive later on with support for an HD-capable optical format. The question is how you as an early Xbox 360-buyer should reason so that you won’t be left hanging. It’s getting more and more obvious that Microsoft needs the support for a HD-capable format pretty much already at the launch of Xbox 360, the question is whether it is technically and financially possible.

:: Read the entire interview at Engadget