Xbox 360 Blu-ray Drive Rumours Persist – 360 Blu-ray Drive Available by September, According to Press Article

We’ve been here before, of course, what with Sony’s Stan Glasgow indicating, back in March, that talks between Microsoft and Sony were underway with respect to developing a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 – something that was consequently denied in a somewhat unequivocal fashion by Aaron Greenberg (see ‘The man From Microsoft, He Say No’) - but now, if a report in the Chinese language Economic Daily News (EDN) is to be believed, then when the man from MS said ‘no’ his nose perhaps gained just a few millimeters in length.

Is a Blue-ray drive for the Xbox 360 coming? At this point it’s hard to know who to believe but what cannot be disputed is that someone is telling ‘porky pies’ and the report just featured in the EDN, whilst hardly serving as a definitive answer in terms of the Xbox/Blu-ray farce (for that is what its rapidly becoming), certainly adds that little extra fuel to the fire.

According to EDN, who seem sure enough of themselves to name names, Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, has not only secured orders from MS to assemble an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive but has been advised that shipments of the drive are expected to begin in the third quarter of ’08.

Obviously quite who you believe is very much down to your personal preference, but (and it’s a big but), you won’t find us betting against this report being factual. After all, a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 just makes commercial sense in the long run being that we don’t doubt that the Xbox 720 will have little choice but to embrace the medium – unless Toshiba come up with an ace in the pack out of, excuse the expression, the blue.

[Via DigiTimes]