Rumor: Lite-On manufacturing Blu-ray drives for the Xbox 360?

True, or April Fool’s Joke? According to DigiTimes, Lite-On is currently producing Blu-ray  drives for the Xbox 360 gaming consoles, despite Microsoft‘s previous comments about not having any plans of using Blu-ray technology in its gaming console. Quite a sudden turn of events, and nicely timed, too. Hit the full article for more details on this intriguing piece of news.

Is this true, or is this an April Fool’s joke? According to the sources of technology press release site DigiTimes, optical drive manufacturer Lite-On is currently developing internal Blu-ray disc drives for Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 console. The sources also mentioned that Lite-On is already well into the manufacturing process and are set to ship the first batch of Blu-ray disc drives in the second half of this year.

Despite previous reports of Microsoft dismissing the idea of integrating HD DVD’s rival technology into the Xbox 360, the sources were quoted as saying that Microsoft already decided to use Blu-ray technology for their next-gen console. This was after Toshiba and HD DVD’s accepted their defeat in the heated format wars.

Another alleged reason for the Xbox 360’s use of Blu-ray is the supposed benefits the console will have upon the switch: the next generation Xbox 360 units with Blu-ray were purported to be smaller, and will use 170-watt power supplies instead of the 210-watt power supplies currently being used by Microsoft’s gaming console.

It’s certainly a very interesting tidbit, but let’s treat this news with a pinch of salt and a dash of humor for now, unless it persists two weeks after April Fool’s Day. If you have something to say, you know what to do folks.

Via DigiTimes