Microsoft Xbox 360 will not have HD DVD games: Yoshihiro Maruyama

Yoshihiro Maruyama says Xbox 360 will not have HD DVD games

The battle between the two formats under development for the next generation storage format had some potential Xbox 360 users confused. Microsoft is supporting the Toshiba developed HD DVD format while most of the other companies are favoring Sony supported Blu-Ray format. Their were also reports in the media with Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates claiming that some of the later versions of the Xbox 360 might feature a HD DVD compatible drive.

This somewhat generated confusion for the consumer who had doubts on whether that would result in games releasing on unsupported media for initial versions of the Xbox 360. However, these doubts have not been cleared with the Japan’s chief of Xbox operations, Yoshihiro Maruyama confirming that if the company takes such a move, it would be just to support the non-gaming content like high definition movies.

It would be a very bad step for the company to change the gaming media during the life cycle of a single product. And Microsoft is not going to do that. In fact, it is not even sure if a HD DVD version of Xbox 360 will ever be released. It is still in speculation stage with most of the media companies switching their loyalty to Sony’s Blu-Ray standard.

However, with Sony promising a Blu-Ray supporting drive in their Playstation 3… Microsoft has little support but to go for HD DVD in an updated variant of Xbox 360 when it is ready for production stage.