Microsoft: Blu-Ray Is Old News
European Xbox suit Chris Lewis has some choice words for Sony execs thinking that they’re all high and mighty with the recent victory of Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Mr. Lewis doesn’t think too much of Sony’s victory or the imporatance of disc based media at all saying:
“Going forwards, digital downloads is really where it’s at, more and more people’s ongoing and ever-increasing downloading of music and movies is becoming the de facto. I think that’s going to happen in very short order; people want to consume that way. Before very long we will look back wistfully at shiny discs as something that was somewhat a historic phenomenon in a way that we kind of think about vinyl or VCRs today.”
Mr. Lewis goes on to talk about the time frame for when this digital distribution is supposed to take over.
“That’s the future direction, and I think that’s going to be the case in the next 12-18 months,” he predicted. “I think we’re going to be talking much more about that than anything else. Do I think that this Christmas will somehow be defined by DVD playback? I genuinely don’t think that will be the case. I do not think that [the demise of HD DVD] will have any material impact on our console velocity. And I think other factors, specifically our architecture around downloads, is far more advantageous and important for the future.”
Hear that, its the wind being taken out of Sony’s Blu-Ray victory sail. This is smart for Microsoft to focus on digital downloads and not disc based media. Now they just need to put their money where their mouth is.
Source: Gameindustry.biz