>> I honnestly have no idea what's up ... but the last few days several sites posted an article about the HD-DVD drive being confirmed by Bill Gates for later ('after launch') versions of the Xbox360.
Several of these articles seem to link to an article on softpedia.com as source. Not only is this article over 1 months old (28th June - see bottom of article - back when Bill Gates was in Japan), it's also a bad interpretation of what Bill Gates said that day. I did not really plan to post anything about it, but now the story is even on slashdot (causing a mass amount of people submitting us this story).
On the 27th of JUNE, we reported here on xbox-scene that the Xbox 360 Might Incorporate HD DVD Drive. 'Might' is the essential word here. The HD-DVD is NOT confirmed for the Xbox 360. Bill Gates' exact words were:
"The initial shipments of Xbox 360 will be based on today's DVD format. We are looking at whether future versions of Xbox 360 will incorporate an additional capability of an HD DVD player or something else."

Does this mean the Xbox 360 will never have an HD-DVD? No of course not, it means what Bill Gates said: they are still looking into it and future builds of the Xbox 360 MIGHT include a HD-DVD drive OR another next-gen format (blu-ray for example).
What if later versions of the Xbox360 will have a next-gen DVD drive?
First of all I think (not confirmed or so ... just common sense) that Xbox 360 games will always be available on DVD9 discs, so the hardcore gamers that bought an Xbox360 the first day will always be able to play all games. I can't really know this for sure, but it would be a real bad marketing move from Microsoft to suddenly put games on HD-DVD discs, and f*** all early "hardcore" 1st-day buyers.
If there's ever an Xbox 360 with a next-gen DVD drive it'll be only to play High Definition movies I'd guess.


http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEkklkAlEuvylaSaef.php"