360 Rumour Mill: £100 Price Drop, 100GB Premium Pack, HD-DVD Games?
SPOnG took an interesting call earlier this week from a seemingly non-fanboyish and fairly knowledgeable reader who claims to have spoken to a Microsoft employee earlier in the week, who told our him that a 360 price cut was imminent ("between £50 and £100"), that a 100GB 360 Premium Pack would launch before Xmas and that Microsoft had definite plans to make games available on HD-DVD.
Whoa! Now, whilst the Microsoft employee in question was only a 'mere' customer services rep, and it sounded to SPOnG like he was just shooting the breeze and trying to impress our reader with his 'insider' knowledge, this is clearly how Internet rumours start. Indeed, these particular three mentioned above have spread across the Internet like a dirty virus.
So, instead of printing the bog-standard games website 'ZOMG! 360 to pwn PS3' type unsubstantiated news ('someone called us and told us they talked to someone else and they said it was definite' etc.) we've approached Microsoft in the UK to ask them to comment on all the above rumours. Whilst we have still to receive a reply from their office on all of this, we will literally eat our hats if they say anything other than 'Microsoft does not comment on rumour or speculation'.
However, there has been an official response on the HD-DVD games rumours from John Porcaro, group manager of PR and communications, who clearly states on the GamerScore blog that it's not part of the masterplan: "Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, we've been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD-DVD movies. It will not play games on HD-DVD."
Remember, you read that here first. Should there be a change in strategy in 2007, which many suspect is on the cards if Microsoft is to combat the 'Blu-ray menace', then we will remind Mr Porcaro of his words.
Mr Porcaro also added: "At this point, we haven’t seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD. What we do know is that these formats will bring added cost to game developers, disc manufacturing, and could even result in added costs and longer load times for the consumer, which would negatively impact the game experience. We are focused on making great HD games available to consumers now, and games like “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” clearly show that beautiful high def graphics and huge, immersive worlds to explore are possible on the DVD9 format."
As for the rumours of an imminent price drop and the introduction of a 100GB Premium Pack for the 2006 Christmas holiday money-spunking season, we'll keep you posted as soon as we hear back from Microsoft on those.
