Boston (TheNextXbox) – The successor to the Xbox 360 is right around the corner, as the Major Nelson countdown has the entire gaming world on alert. One thing that is almost a given with the successor to the Xbox 360, for the sake of this article we will call it the Xbox Next, is that it will include a Blu-ray optical drive. This is due to the fact that next-generation games are going to require a lot more space than is currently available on a DVD. This type of optical format has been utilized by Sony throughout the life of the PlayStation 3 and will continue forward to the upcoming PlayStation 4 in all likelihood as well. What many gamers are missing though, is that there is a real chance that Microsoft may opt against allowing Blu-ray movie playback on the Xbox Next.
The Xbox brand is expanding, as an Xbox mobile game store is opening this coming July where Microsoft will brings its "first-party portfolio."
“Bond adds that they will start on the web”
This will go nowhere.
Nice knowing you Xbox. This is what happens when the house never gets cleaned.
The only this MS is expanding is the amount of feculence it sprays on everyone who just want to enjoy gaming and make games.
The best thing MS can do for the gaming industry is leave and never return.
It turns out that many moons ago, Microsoft once had its eye on the Sony published LittleBigPlanet series.
Project Spark idea was decent but they quickly gave up ..
LBP was wonderful
Microsoft in a nutshell. Always tried to poach Sony employees, games, 3rd party games and devices like the depth camera that was turned into Kinect but was running on PS2 before Xbox 360. Wouldn't be surprised they wanted LBP. Just like they worked behind the scenes pushing the MLB to bring Sony's baseball game to Xbox instead of making their own.
https://www.playstationlife...
They didn't spend years trying to develop their own baseball game. They wanted Sony's game.
They're scum.
Microsoft didn't force MLB on Xbox. MLB gave Sony 2 options either go multiplat or risk losing the license.
Totally ridiculous comment.
The only exclusivity Sony had was to their own creation of The Show. Microsoft could have paid the MLB for the license just like Sony did and made their own baseball game.
Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox. They're worth 3 TRILLION dollars. You think that's not enough money to make their own baseball game? Don't be delusional.
Microsoft spun it like they always do and told the media that they had to trust Sony with their hardware. After they put Sony in that position of not having a choice. Either go multiplatform or stop making one of their successful games. That's a no win scenario.
And what did Microsoft do? They didn't try to sell the game to the Xbox community. They put it on game pass to hurt Sony. Pushing the idea of why buy games that are $70 when you can play them in their cheap service for $10. It was a dirty tactic.
You fell for the Kool aid drink Microsoft served you instead of spitting it out. Hope it tasted good because you were fooled by Phil and the gang.
Being downvoted for speaking facts is crazy. They want to spin whatever fits their narrative of evil corporation.
"Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox."
Take a nap, conspiracies are rotting your brain.
"However, Healey said Media Molecule wouldn't have felt right doing that, adding it would have been "morally corrupt"."
Major kudos to Media Molecule for being an upright studio with principles.
Great, more stories like this please. Show the last of the zombies holding the line what we've been saying for years: Microsoft is anti competition, anti industry and has no interest in making games at all.
But hey, at least there's an Xbox Games Showcase to look forward to, right?
Well considering SONY just killed the series, LBP would've been dead by now either way. Though MM probably wouldn't exist by now either, so I'm glad they stayed with SONY, hopefully they don't get shut down any time soon or ever honestly.
They shut down the servers, that's millions of user created levels gone. That and dead are pretty much the same, it's also been years since 3 and they cancelled HUB soooo.
They shutdown the servers because no one was playing, no one in the community cared about the user created levels so why keep them up? Wtf you guys would never succeed in running a business.
Yea dood no one was playing so they shut off the servers. Cause people with enough common sense can't just Google why they were actually shut of, right?
The full Skewedcast crew back for this episode and Gareth, Justin, Michael, and JoeyZ at Skewed and Reviewed break down the latest entertainment news qith a focus at 40:00 on the Microsoft Studio Closures and how it impacts the game community and what can be done to help offset this negative trend.
As the article noted, perhaps they'll build it in but charge you extra to use the feature like how they pointed out the original XBox had a DVD player, but wouldn't allow you to play DVD movies unless you shelled out for remote.
It wouldn't be the first time, or the last time, we've seen Microsoft charge you extra to access something you've already purchased (much like the extra fees to play multiplayer content developers included on the game you purchased). They'll keep doing it until there's enough push back from consumers. You really can't blame them if people are willing to pay.
They probably will go the same route as Nintendo. They will create their own format based on Blu-ray but with no playback of movies to not pay royalties.
i would hope the Microsoft Company realizes many people have already started adding bluray to their current DVD libraries. that being said, it would be really pointless to have a feature blocking bluray playback when people will still buy bluray movies anyway. i, along with many others have purchased a bluray player. the only thing Microsoft allowing bluray playback does for me, is allow me to choose which room i watch the movie in, either the room with the bluray player or my living room with the future xbox. i certainly do not plan on any device, to build a movie collection by buying digital movies only or really at all, that to me is beyond asinine. sure ill still use netflix and hulu, but that doesnt alter my choices as to if im going to buy a DVD or a bluray movie.
"Instead, Microsoft required gamers to purchase a little DVD playback adapter that came with a remote control. This activated the ability that the system already had to play DVD movies"
They call that a double tax don't they? Wow...how anyone could defend MS at all is beyond me. They nickle and dime for just about anything and users are so willing to give up their hard earned money.
"Xbox Live Gold subscriptions generate roughly $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft every year"
And this is the reason why Live will remain a paid for service next generation.
If MS don't offer Blu-ray playback then it could be a mistake. When Sony first released the PS3, they advertised it heavily as a Blu-ray player because they were trying to establish the format. But now it's an established format, so Sony would have a big advantage if they began advertising the PS4 as a Blu-ray player (and it was 4k enabled).