Bluray drive in works for 360

XBitlabs reports that Microsoft has asked manufacturers Samsung and Toshiba to come up with the long-awaited Xbox 360 Bluray add-on drive. It is reported that the unit is intended to sell at a very competitive $100-150 in a laggardly bid to consolidate its huge price-drop with a technological catch-up to the native Bluray facility built into the Playstation 3.

If the next generation of Microsoft's console - known in rumour-land as the Xbox '720' - features a Bluray capable drive, then Microsoft can regain some of the ground it has lost by being reluctant to accept the non-MS specifications in Bluray's extras API.

No doubt Richmond would love to roll that sucker out soon enough to completely obviate the more economical convenience of a Bluray add-on drive, but with prices of both players and media set to drop drastically next year after the 'early-adopters gold-rush', there's just no scope left to wait it out.

The unit is likely to emerge on the market sometime between now and early 2009, though a Christmas release does seem unlikely at this late stage.

Xbit

UPDATE: Fraid not...