Microsoft announced Saturday it would stop making the HD DVD add-on player for its xBox 360 gaming console. The company said Toshiba’s discontinuation of its HD DVD players, and poor market saturation, lead to the decision. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida estimated the HD DVD add-on player only sold 300,000 units.
Microsoft and Toshiba must be scratching their heads, wondering what may have happened if the xBox 360 had been built with an internal player like the Playstation 3. Currently, there is no word on whether or not Microsoft would develop a Blu-ray drive for the xBox 360.
Microsoft was one of HD DVD’s main supporters, along with Intel Corp. and NEC Corp. On the studio side, only Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks still supported HD DVD, after Warner Bros announced a crushing blow to HD DVD on the eve of CES 2008.
