Why can't Microsoft or any other company make a blu-ray of their own?

Question

Why can't they just make like a 51gb disk and call it something else? I'm clueless in copyrights laws and stuff like that.

Answer 1

well blu-ray is owned by sony, hence the ps3, if microsoft owned and had the rights to it then i am sure it would be on xbox rather than hd-dvd which went bust!

it is copyright lol, they own the company and rights

Answer 2

the technology is patented so no other companies can make them

Answer 3

They certainly could make their own different standard - and for the most part that's what HD-DVD was.

The problem is, how do you convince people to use your format instead of someone else's - which was what the format between blu-ray and hd-dvd was all about.

Normally, having choices is a good thing but in this case, it was just annoying.  Neither blu-ray or hd-dvd really had any true advantages that the other didn't have.  Both played movies in 1080p, both did surround sound, both provided more storage than plain old DVD.  For the most part, it's like asking "coke or pepsi?"  Some will have a preference, but most just won't care.

Worse still, the two formats weren't compatible with each other (if they were, why have 2 formats in the first place?)  So this meant if you wanted to watch, say, The Transformers movie which was only released on HD-DVD, you MUST buy a HD-DVD player.  That player, however, could not play blu-ray movies, so if you wanted to watch Spiderman 3, you were out of luck...or you had to buy a separate blu-ray player.

The technology behind blu-ray is detailed in a number of patents that are collectively held by the blu-ray consortium.  This is a collection of companies that helped develop blu-ray and includes Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic and some others.  Other companies not part of the consortium (like Microsoft) can still use those patents to create blu-ray products, but they would have to pay a licensing fee to the blu-ray consortium first.

I'm sure Microsoft does have its plans for supporting blu-ray, although whether we'll see any sort of blu-ray device for the current Xbox 360 is uncertain.  To be honest, I really don't see a need for one.  First off, it would either raise the 360's price by $200, or cost that much to purchase it as an add-on.  The hd-dvd add-on for the 360 didn't sell very well at all (I think under 5% of 360 owers at the time bought one?)  Even if Microsoft released a 360 with a built-in blu-ray drive it would only be used for movies anyways.  Microsoft has stated repeatedly that we will never see a 360 game on anything but DVD (or maybe a handful of DVDs).

Now, next generation is a different matter.  I'm pretty sure we'll see the next Xbox coming out with a built-in blu-ray drive for both movies AND games.

Answer 4

Microsoft is not a member of the Blu ray association and was part of the HDDVD association and put thier efforts and moeny in supporting the HDDVD format with Toshiba. They have the HDDVD add on for their Xbox 360 and most of their computer peripherals supported HDDVD. Now that blu ray is the satndard for HD discs, I think Microsoft will eventually support and manufacture bluray equipment.

Microsoft CEO: "We'll Support Blu-ray"

- March 10, 2008 8:42 AM

http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+CEO+W...

http://www.qj.net/Microsoft-we-will-supp...