If people want Blue-ray support or HD-DVD support get a DVD player that supports it.
Players are launching this year at prices between $400-$500. I don't tend to sweat money much at all, but dropping $1600-$1800 to get one of each(player and console) is certainly less appealing to me then dropping $800 to get one of each. Although, with MS's failure to back HD-DVD they have handed Sony an easy victory for Blu-Ray.
I'm pretty sure it will play 720p/WMV9. Not sure what you are referring to.
On what, DVD9? To get acceptable quality levels that would leave them very little for game code, and that is with minimal FMV clips. It isn't really viable on the XB360.
It's not about movies at all.
The Matrix movie on DVD was the PS2's launch app of choice. It had backwards compatability going for it, and it was a DVD player- the deman was shattering for it. This was largely due to the fact that DVD players at the time cost as much as the PS2 did and couldn't play games. The XB360 ships with HD-DVD support alongside HD-DVD players costing the same and it's a bargain @$400- as it is now it has either no or limited backwards compatability(depending on the model) and a
very weak launch lineup. They have no killer app, nothing worth launching a platform with. Sony got away with it last gen mainly because of DVD playback- MS has nothing to fall back on. They will certainly sell through their launch hardware without problem- but they aren't looking good to build anything resembling momentum heading in to the PS3's launch.
Blu-Ray can hold anywhere from 25GB (single) - 200GB (eight) in comparison to a dual layered DVD which can hold 9.4GB. (around 8.7 of which is data).
Which would you rather design your games around?
Obviously that is going to be a major issue- some developers are already complaining about the lack of space with DVD9. HD-DVD would have at least doubled their capacity(slightly more), that would have had them in a much better long term position.
More space is always nice, but my whole Steam dir is barely over 6gb so I think DVD9 will do fine.
A two generation old gaming engine with no FMV- I'm shocked it takes as much space as it does honestly. We aren't talking about very dated technology here though- we are talking about titles far beyond what they are currently shipping on PCs.
Blue Ray and HD-DVD, pfft please.
HVD is where its at.
PS4 maybe, MS may decide to go with CDs for that gen to save a couple dollars
Making it non-standard is a bit of a problem, though, because it discourages developers from using it in their games (in order to maintain compatability with the $299 non-hard drive versions).
Emphasis mine- it is a requirement as of now that devs not use the HD according to MS.