Space inside the next-generation gaming platform may contain a hard drive. Or maybe a HD DVD drive instead.
Microsoft and Toshiba’s cross licensing agreements have spurred speculation on potential products, but none moreso than the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s chief software architect, Bill Gates, has previously told reporters that future versions of the gaming console could contain a HD DVD drive.
Another possibility could see Toshiba products ship with current Xbox technology on-board. Being able to play Xbox games would enhance the appeal of an HD DVD player to consumers in the holiday shopping season, where it seems inevitable that HD DVD and rival Sony’s Blu-ray technology will be squaring off on retailer shelves everywhere.
Team Xbox disclosed a snippet of a Game Informer magazine interview with Microsoft’s J Allard, where he suggests that game developers not get too attached to the presence of a hard drive in the 360. “There may be a scenario in the future where we don’t want to have a hard drive, and in that case, we have to make sure that the games that you’ve created are accessible to the broadest possible audience,” he said in the article.
It is also possible that Microsoft will ship two versions of the 360: one with the detachable hard drive, and one without it. “We’ve said, ‘Hey look, don’t bank on the hard drive always being there,'” Mr. Allard said of comments to developers in the interview.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
