Are you gagging for Blu-Ray / HD-DVD in your Next-gen console?

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Why are so many worrying about Blu Ray and HD DVD drives in games consoles?

1) There are no games, even on the drawing board that would require them for storage, as DVD9 is still some way from fully utilised. See http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1132 for an analysis on the current storage situation with next-gen gaming.
2) If you want to play DVD's and you are worried enough about quality to want a HD DVD drive, you would never in a million years play them through the cheapo drives that will appear in the PS3/360. Just as I would never play normal DVDs through my 360 when I can get a good quality player for <£100.
3) One of these formats will be a loser. No way will the market support 4 different formats for movies (UMD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu Ray).Therefore buying an HD drive is bonkers until the market shakes out in a year or three.
4) Are you seriously going to buy all your favourite movies again on another format, which will certainly be 50%+ more expensive than the current DVD format? Especially knowing one of those formats will end up as another Betamax? Bear in mind that many of your favourites won't become available in HD ever, because the original source material lacks the resolution, or won't be popular enough such that it might take 10 years for them to appear.

Seriously, give me a logical reason why I would worry about PS3 having a BluRay drive or Xbox360 getting an external HD-DVD? Especially when I will inevitably end up paying Sony a premium for the privilige of technology I likely will never use?

Or is it that Blu Ray sounds sexy and therefore will become a must have ........
 
But the thing I don't get in MS thinking is that the drive cannot have a use for gaming. It's an external, optional perpheral. No console manufacturer is going to go down the road of allowing games to be released that will work only on some of it's user's machines. Can you imagine the outcry when Unreal Championship 2008 or Fight Night 4 will only work via HD-DVD?

I just can't see a developer being brave enough to bring an HD-DVD-only game to the market before the 360 becomes obsolete in 3-4 years time. The next gen after that would be the time to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon.

With Sony it's a different issue as it will , allegedly, support BR out of the box so the case for bloated games is already made.

The only use a 360 HD-DVD drive will ever be put to IMO is for people to play their shiny new DVDs on.
 
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