According to a seattlepi Xbox insider, MS only opposed Blu-ray because Sony supported it and they hedged their bets by making the HD DVD add on. He believes if Sony cooperate, MS could have an external Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 very quickly, however he thinks it will be difficult as Sony wants to control their technology. He concluded that over the next few months Microsoft will come out with a Blu-Ray player, or they will file suit to force Sony to share their technology.

"Spooling bits to the hard drive at first boot is an intentional thing when the game knows that a HD is always in the system. Xbox 1 did it. The reason is to decrease the load time for some of the game content. That's the main advantage of having a HD in every console, and a gameplay optimization that all devs use. Regardless of how long that takes at first boot. If you all go back and read Xbox 1 blogs, you'll see the same types of comments against Xbox 1 too. They don't need the space per se, they have it to use and would be foolish not to. Hard disk spool time is so much less than optical disc drive spool time, resulting in better games."

"On to HD-DVD v Blu-ray. MS opposed Blue Ray because Sony supported it, plain and simple. I was in the room when the decision was made. But they hedged their bets by making the Media player a plug in. They could very quickly have a Blue Ray external plug in just like the HD, if Sony will cooperate."

"Therein lays the rub. MS, one of the worst co's to get info out of to make products compatible, needs Sony to help a competitor do just that - compete with a compatible product that depends on the competitor's intellectual protocol. Sony knows that they cannot justify charging MS a fee that is larger than any other customer. Sony wants to make Blu-Ray ubiquitous so they have shaved down fees as much as possible. So MS must get the same deal as everyone else."

"But Sony wants to control this technology in the gaming space, and prevent success by a competitor in the expansive entertainment markets of this space. Where much of the cash flow for these kinds of products will lie in the coming years from also using gaming consoles as home entertainment media extenders, central to the digital entertainment lifestyle."

"What would you do now if you were Sony? The same thing MS has done over the years. Make the technology intentionally incompatible, withhold information, withhold support for design input to make it compatible, etc."

"We'll see over the next few months. Either MS will come out with a Blu-Ray player, or they will file suit to force Sony to share, in much the same way many others sue MS for the same reasons on Windows compatibility. It will be interesting to watch this unfold."

"Once again, users are caught watching the battle from the sidelines. Unless you make sure you vote with your dollars and put an end to this nonsense by insisting on unified standards across vendors. Kinda like the Blu-Ray fight..."">Xboxfounder has chimed in the comments on Digital Joystick on the developments of HD-DVD/Blu-ray for game systems.