Xbox Fanatics

We’d already heard about a possible price cut to the Xbox 360, but it looks like that might not be all that Microsoft has in store, as TrustedReviews is now reporting that the 20GB hard drive in the standard Xbox 360 model is about to get the boot in favor of a more spacious 60GB one. That word apparently comes from a "rock solid source," who says that Microsoft wants to get it out the door by the end of its financial year, which comes at the end of June. TrustedReviews also goes into a bit of speculation, saying that Microsoft is "toying with the idea of introducing a new 360 SKU," and that a model with a built-in Blu-ray drive would seem to be "the most logical conclusion," although they say an external drive "makes sense too." While that possibility obviously remains up in the air, TrustedReviews is about as confident as can be with the 60GB Xbox 360 news, saying that you can take it to the bank.

via Engadget and Trusted Reviews

Sony is in talks with console rival Microsoft about offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360, according to a senior executive.

The Japanese electronics maker has until now touted Blu-ray as an advantage its PlayStation 3 holds over Microsoft’s console. Microsoft has backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an HD-DVD drive that can be plugged into the 360.

But after Sony’s victory last month in the high-definition DVD format war, Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics US president, said the two sides were now talking about Microsoft adopting Blu-ray.

A Blu-ray drive in a 360 would make Microsoft more competitive with the PS3, but it would also mean extra revenues for Sony’s electronics division. It would also add further cost to the 360, meaning a premium edition of the console could be necessary.

A Blu-ray drive could be incorporated in its top-of-the-range Elite Xbox, or Microsoft could again offer a drive as a plug-in peripheral.

Mr Glasgow, speaking at a media dinner, added that discussions were also taking place with Apple, which has not offered Blu-ray drives on any of its computers so far and has focused on digital media via downloads and streaming through devices such as its Apple TV.

The Sony president said he did not believe Blu-ray would be overtaken by high-definition content becoming available over the internet. Bandwidth limitations meant it was still available to only a few, he said, and consumers favoured disks they could own.

via Bink.nu

GDC is underway in San Francisco and the physical format war is dead. So what do the two have to do with one another? Well, it appears Microsoft might make an announcement this week at GDC about a partnership with Netflix. Microsoft definitely played their cards right by not including an internal HD DVD drive and downloadable content appears to be the next big thing. Microsoft has been known to drop a few bombs at GDC in years past, but I’m not sure how likely this rumor is going to materialize. A developers conference hardly seems fitting to announce a content deal.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, had this to say about a possible deal.

“A partnership with Netflix gives Microsoft a partner that already streams movies to over 7 million subscribers through their PCs, and encourages these subscribers to sign up for the Xbox Live service in order to stream movies to their TVs.”

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey was quoted earlier as saying,

“Netflix intends to be in a lot of boxes that get into the TV, whether its game systems or set-top boxes or next-gen DVD players. We want to be in a 100 devices to get the Internet to the TV.”

MSNBC via Crunchgear