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Speaking to Famitsu Xbox Yoshihiro Maruyama, chief of Xbox Japan, has confirmed that future Xbox 360 consoles could be manufactured complete with an HD-DVD drive, but added that “it won’t have any relationship to gaming… If the Xbox 360 uses a next-generation DVD drive in the future, it will only be used for watching movies that run on next-generation DVDs.” This of course makes perfect sense. Why would Microsoft release games that would only be playable on new versions of the console, and essentially split the Xbox 360 into two consoles? Some would argue that they have already done this with the Xbox 360 Hard Drive, but that is another matter.
The only way I can see Xbox 360 games being released on HD-DVD is as an alternative to games requiring multiple DVDs, much as is seen in the current PC market with CDs and DVDs. This may, however, provide confusion for gamers unsure which version they need to buy. In all likeliness HD-DVD drives, if they ever find their way into Xbox 360s, will only be used for playback of HD movies.
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