Microsoft HD DVD Player Exclusively For Movies

Just a few hours back, we blogged that Microsoft could be considering releasing games on HD DVD discs. Call it an official announcement if you will, but word from Microsoft has come out that they will NOT be releasing games on HD DVD.

The latest entry in Gamerscore blog states that the accessory will only be used for playing HD DVD movies.

“I’m seeing lots of speculation about our upcoming HD DVD Player, and whether we have plans to publish HD DVD games.  The answer is no.

Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, weÂ’ve been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD DVD movies.  It will not play games on HD DVD.

At this point, we havenÂ’t seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD.  What we do know is that these formats will bring added cost to game developers, disc manufacturing, and could even result in added costs and longer load times for the consumer, which would negatively impact the game experience.  We are focused on making great HD games available to consumers now, and games like “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” clearly show that beautiful high def graphics and huge, immersive worlds to explore are possible on the DVD9 format.“

Personally, I’m with Microsoft on this one. As hard as Sony might try to convince me that the new games need a lot of space, it’s been seen that games like Oblivion have been doing fine with around 4 gigs of data. Once you take out the HD movies and pre-rendered stuff out of the games, they have difficulty hitting 4-5 GB of data.

The hi-def textures do take up a lot of space, but not nearly enough to fill up 25-30GB discs. Secondly, with all the brute processing power which these consoles possess, the compression can be a lot better, and it still won’t take a lot of time to decompress the data on-the-fly.

Secondly, it’s great in a way to be watching the next-gen media wars from the sidelines. Nobody knows how it will pan out. You have to remember that when the transition was made from CDs to DVDs, it offered a lot more – like 192khz 7.1 surround sound, better codecs to enhance clarity, and so forth. On the other hand, all that these two media have to offer is oodles of space. They’re still not using any revolutionary codec, nor are they offering any better sound. And let’s face it, you can’t go much higher than 192khz 7.1 Surround sound.

Microsoft’s stance into this whole media war is what my stance would’ve been.  The PS3, on the other hand, will pull the consumers into this whole war, whether they like it or not. Couple it with the recent failure of UMDs and you’ll know why watching from the sidelines is much much better.

Just a few hours back, we blogged that Microsoft could be considering releasing games on HD DVD discs. Call it an official announcement if you will, but word from Microsoft has come out that they will NOT be releasing games on HD DVD.

The latest entry in Gamerscore blog states that the accessory will only be used for playing HD DVD movies.

“I’m seeing lots of speculation about our upcoming HD DVD Player, and whether we have plans to publish HD DVD games.  The answer is no.

Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, weÂ’ve been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD DVD movies.  It will not play games on HD DVD.

At this point, we havenÂ’t seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD.  What we do know is that these formats will bring added cost to game developers, disc manufacturing, and could even result in added costs and longer load times for the consumer, which would negatively impact the game experience.  We are focused on making great HD games available to consumers now, and games like “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” clearly show that beautiful high def graphics and huge, immersive worlds to explore are possible on the DVD9 format.“

Personally, I’m with Microsoft on this one. As hard as Sony might try to convince me that the new games need a lot of space, it’s been seen that games like Oblivion have been doing fine with around 4 gigs of data. Once you take out the HD movies and pre-rendered stuff out of the games, they have difficulty hitting 4-5 GB of data.

The hi-def textures do take up a lot of space, but not nearly enough to fill up 25-30GB discs. Secondly, with all the brute processing power which these consoles possess, the compression can be a lot better, and it still won’t take a lot of time to decompress the data on-the-fly.

Secondly, it’s great in a way to be watching the next-gen media wars from the sidelines. Nobody knows how it will pan out. You have to remember that when the transition was made from CDs to DVDs, it offered a lot more – like 192khz 7.1 surround sound, better codecs to enhance clarity, and so forth. On the other hand, all that these two media have to offer is oodles of space. They’re still not using any revolutionary codec, nor are they offering any better sound. And let’s face it, you can’t go much higher than 192khz 7.1 Surround sound.

Microsoft’s stance into this whole media war is what my stance would’ve been.  The PS3, on the other hand, will pull the consumers into this whole war, whether they like it or not. Couple it with the recent failure of UMDs and you’ll know why watching from the sidelines is much much better.