Just recently Peter Moore, Microsoft’s marketing VP, told Japanese website ITMedia that if necessary, they could release a Blu-Ray disc drive to cater for demand – if the Blu-Ray disc was a bigger hit than HD-DVD.
The comment came after Microsoft announced that an external HD-DVD drive was in production to be released later this year for the Xbox 360.
Microsoft today decided to official “cover their backs” as Moore’s comments were misinterpreted and taken out of context by some.
A statement that went out today said that there is no Blu-Ray disc drive in production at this time and that Microsoft fully support the HD-DVD format. Quoted directly from the statement:
“It is important to understand the context in which that statement was made. Microsoft firmly stands behind the HD-DVD format as the best choice for our consumers. As we’ve said before, we’re confident that HD-DVD will bring the excitement of high definition movies to the consumer faster and at a greater value. We believe that consumers have signalled what format they want to enjoy high definition DVD and we’re going to follow them down that path.
The question of whether Xbox 360 has the flexibility to adapt to consumers’ needs is a different issue entirely. Xbox 360 is a future-proofed system — one that allows us to add features as consumers demand them – as evidenced by our offering of the HD-DVD drive as an accessory. Current reports indicating that we have a back-up plan, which includes Blu-Ray support are incorrect. At this point, we’re fully committed to HD-DVD and have absolutely no plans to support other optical formats”
