More CES Xbox Rumors Continue

Plenty of rumors are flying around about what Bill Gate’s big Xbox announcement at this year’s consumer electronic show could possibly be. The Seattle Times has chimed in with their take on the matter, particularly new SKU’s with built in HD-DVD drives or potentially a DVR to combat the PS3 as a home media solution.

“In particular, Microsoft could work with Toshiba to develop a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive and Xbox gaming capabilities. They’re already allied against Sony and other backers of the Blu-ray DVD format, and Toshiba could help Xbox finally penetrate the Japanese market.

Microsoft could also make a splash by announcing plans to give the Xbox 360 an internal HD-DVD drive, putting it on par with Sony’s PlayStation 3 that has a built-in Blu-ray drive.”

Others are speculating that some sort of collaboration between Netflix and Microsoft may be in the works, to get a much needed TV service up and working.

“According to a pre-CES press release, Netflix is working with electronics giant LG to produce a set-top box capable of receiving rented movies over the internet. Console support for the company’s direct download service may not be far behind.

On the other hand, Hastings is a member of Microsoft’s board and their extensive library of titles could further bolster the existing offerings. With rumors of Bill Gates making a big Xbox-related announcement at CES, we can’t help but wonder if this is in any way related.”

Make of the rumors as you will, but we can only for the moment hope that after all the speculation, the announcement actually is as big as they are leading us on to believe.