Remember the HD Wars? Yeah, you know – the one where Sony insisted on outfitting their console with a Blu-Ray drive, while Microsoft backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD, even releasing an HD-DVD accessory for the Xbox 360? That worked out particularly well for them, didn’t it?

Since the HD-DVD ship sunk, Microsoft have been heavily punting digital distribution of HD content, categorically stating that in no way, shape or form might the 360 see a Blu-Ray drive add-on. Seems they may have reneged on that a little…

In an interview with Gizmodo, when questioned about the possibility of Blu-Ray showing up on the Xbox, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, implied that such an add-on may actually be on the way.

"Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there-you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories. I think mostly the future of movies is on-demand, actually, as opposed to distribution via physical media," said the sweaty, angry looking executive.

It’s entirely possible that Ballmer’s just misspoken and that there is no pending accessory – which I certainly hope to be the case; If you’re looking for a high definition home theatre experience, at the presumed cost of a 360 plus an external Blu-Ray drive it really would make much more sense to just buy a PS3.

Source : Gizmodo