Toshiba is one of the companies that has invested the most in the new optical storage format HD DVD and a market worth billions is at stake here. Sony and the competing format Blu-ray’s perhaps biggest advantage with Blu-ray is the video game console PlayStation 3, which will sport the format and is expected to become one of the cheaper alternatives for those who wants to invest in a Blu-ray player and Toshiba knows that Sony might have the upper hand with PS3. That Microsoft has already announced that it will launch an external HD DVD player for its console, Xbox 360, so that Xbox consumer will also be able to enjoy high-res movies, is apparently not enough for Toshiba.
Mark Whittard, a man of a high position at Toshiba, has namely claimed in an interview, that Microsoft is most likely working on a version of Xbox 360 with an integrated HD DVD player. A model that would be launched before the end of the year according to Whittard. This would of course be a true dream scenario for Toshiba and the HD DVD format, but it’s hard to imagine what Microsoft has to gain from it. Apparently Microsoft was thinking the same thing as it has officially denied this claim.
“We feel that offering the drive externally is the best way to give consumers the ultimate choice to create their own high definition experiences. We have no plans to release the Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD drive.”
If Toshiba will see its dream come true or not remains to be seen, but Microsoft seems to be less enthusiastic about it.
