I’ve written about rumors many times before, dissecting how and why they get started, but Blu-ray on the Xbox 360 seems to be the Frankenstein of all rumors… pieced together from tidbits here and there, given a jolt back to life every once in a while. I am left scratching my head over this one though, I just don’t see an explanation other than…

…someone being bored and up to no good.

I understand that prototypes are made all the time. I also understand that research and development isn’t something that ever really stops. The latest rumors (well, even the round before this latest round) had news leaking from Chinese manufacturers supposedly “in the loop” on producing these new 360’s. That, in and of itself, isn’t really terribly surprising, but what is surprising is the nature in which Microsoft is handling the rumors.

Microsoft isn’t giving us the standard “We will neither confirm nor deny rumors” that we know and love, they’re instead constantly very vocally against giving any indication that they’d even consider any additional support for optical disc movie playback, let alone the competition-championed Blu-ray format. No, they’re quite vocal it’s not happening indeed.

Believe me… , I’ve seen corporate spokesmen say silly things that would seem at odds with the direction the company is (even if only behind the scenes) headed, but I’m paying attention to the wording they’re using. While they’re very close to crossing the “we will never support Blu-ray” line, they haven’t crossed it, so in a way… they haven’t gone as far as Phil Harrison did with the rumble-less SIXAXIS (rumble is a last gen feature), they’re setting themselves up for a nice huge dose of “some ’splaining to do” if we ever DO see a Blu-ray equipped 360.

Let’s look at what it might take to get a little further into this rumor. I have no idea the breakdown of parts in the 360 or the PS3, but I have to think the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 is fairly spendy (especially to non-Sony manufacturers… there was just an article where Sony was expecting Blu-ray combo drives to drop below $100. If Microsoft could justify replacing their (arguably crappy) DVD drives in upcoming 360’s with a newer combo drive, at some cost premium that they pass along to the customer (ie. if the part costs $50 more, raise the 360’s price by $50), I could possibly see it eventually happening, but at this point they’re firmly in the “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” period. People have already purchased Premium, or Elite models. Most of these truly unlucky shoppers have had several opportunities to miss out on things like HDMI, or larger hard drives by buying too early. Imagine adding Blu-ray playback in there too… some die-hard fans would surely sell the Elite they bought after selling their Premium to get this new Xbox Compromise  (I think that’d make a clever model name Microsoft… you’ve got my vote of approval!)

At the end of the day, I don’t think I’ve swayed much from my original assessment that Microsoft’s not going to touch Blu-ray this gen. If Blu-ray has traction by the time the next generation of machines roll out, you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll be rockin’ a drive that supports Blu-ray playback. Of course the armchair quarterbacks have YEARS to play out all of the possibilities of that happening before we’ll know for sure.

For those of you certain Blu-ray is coming to the 360, take a minute or two and let us know why you think so. For those of you sure it’ll never happen (this generation) tell us why as well. There will be extra points for the best Robbie Bach impersonation (no quoting allowed!)

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