You really need to be careful with high tech product future speak ;-)
Here is the link
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=18977
What they have said is they have NO PLANS.

At the point there is a version of Xbox 360 or a follow on with a HD DVD drive standard, then the PLANS might change.

Re running the Xbox 360 hd dvd drive on a PC there is nothing illegal about it, and Microsoft has said they have done nothing to prevent it being done, but they have not added the support and it is expected if it comes to come from third parties. I think Microsoft is trying to leave space for other developers to provide the solution and at the same time leave some space for HP for instance with their drive. People just need to check out the avs forums and there is quite a bit of discussion.

At this point, the current software will not allow you to display on your pc in full HD resolution, It is highly likely that you will be mandated to get a HDCP compliant video card.

Personally I think it is only a matter of time, and if Vista was not being launched at the same time, and all the work on codecs in the HD DVD group and the online hd service, we might have seen more. IMO the HD DVD product came along when the Vista code for beta had been too far along.

Sharyn

Here is a very good review of the XBOX360 HD-DVD add-on from IGN
http://gear.ign.com/articles/746/746074p1.html

Also, have you taken a look at Gears of War? It looks amazing and I doubt the PS3 games will look much better.


Resistance: Fall of Man looks very close to the visuals of Gears of War but the one game the will truly show off the graphic capabilities of the XBOX360 is Halo 3 and it will be up against the PS3’s Killzone 2. The previous version was made to tackle Halo but it just couldn’t compete and this time around Sony is working overtime with this game. It will be very interesting to see how Halo 3 and Killzone 2 are going to look because both will push the boundaries of the XBOX360 and the PS3. As for the Wii, the one game to look out for is Metroid Prime 3 Corruption because the previous versions pushed the Game Cube to its limits.

As I already mentioned I’d much rather get Virtua Fighter 5 because Sega is making sure that it’ll be the most visually impressive fighting game on any system and sadly Namco won’t give to much details about its upcoming Tekken 6.

the point that the gear review missed is that most displays do not support 1080p but 1080i and over component the hd dvd addon does support 1080i. Where the vga connection comes into value is upscaling standard dvd's, which can be done over the vga connection.

It looks like the ps3 has its own set of issues over hdmi, for instance if your tv does not support 720 it will not upscale to 1080,

IMHO HDMI is still a bit early, the 1.3 chips have just started shipping so waiting for 1.3 or beyond could make sense.

The article is wrong when it states that people have been removing the drive etc. The people playing with the drive have used USB, and the drive is recognized by WINXP, combinations of hd playback software have been tried with mixed success, Basically the add on card in the drive adds the acss support and I believe that when the software is released IF you have a HDCP compliant graphics card it will be able to work. I think that analog or vga output will probably not work in a pc setup.

There is a lot of activity on the AVS forums re all this

If you look at the 40 dollar coupons at Circuit City, and the included KK Hd DVD the package is pretty inexpensive.

Sharyn

IMHO HDMI is still a bit early, the 1.3 chips have just started shipping so waiting for 1.3 or beyond could make sense.

What do you mean by that? The PS3 does have version 1.3

Jeff Kilgroe,
You must have some new information that I haven’t read yet because Microsoft made it clear that the HD-DVD add-on will never be used for games. Unless Bill Gates is lying on purpose knowing that information like that can kill future XBOX sales which would be a big advantage to the PS3 and your right about such a unit having the same fate as the Sega CD because that would indeed be devastating for Microsoft. Another good example is Sega’s 32X. I’m still a fan of Sega Games but releasing an add-on for the Genesis to prepare people for the Saturn was probably Sega biggest mistake they ever did.

Well, Sharyn posted a good link... So far Microsoft is just not approving games on HD-DVD media until they know the HD-DVD unit is going to be a viable product. But they have no definite future plans and I'm not sure where you got the info that the HD-DVD add-on will be for movies only. That's not the intention here, well it is for only a short time until they sell 100K units or so. Oh, and the developer docs have all the updated info on producing games using HD-DVD and various forms of data / video storage and integration... Or so I'm told. ;)

Though unscientific, most people in line at Wal-Mart last night (I was there hanging with my friend who bought a PS3) said they were probably going to sell their Xbox 360. Asked why, they said they like Playstation better. I have both an Xbox and PS2 and enjoy both equally, but like HD DVD and Blu-Ray, I'm sitting this one out until the dust settles.

One thing I don't like is that I can buy both for basically the same amount of money, but I'll forever have an additional add-on HD DVD player with the Xbox 360, but built-in Blu-Ray with the PS3, though the unit is heavy.

heath

The thing is, I wanted the XBOX360 more than the PS3 because I loved my XBOX more than my PS2 but when I found out that Sony is going to use Blu-Ray, I was starting to change my mind because I knew for a fact that if the Dreamcast had a built in DVD player at that time, the PS2 would have struggled severely since the Dreamcast did have a lot of momentum and Nintendo also missed their chance because of a lack of DVD drive as well. If Microsoft was smart, they would have obviously delayed the XBOX 360 to include the HD-DVD drive and I guarantee you that Microsoft would have had a very good chance of defeating Sony if they did that.

As for the HD-DVD add-on, if Microsoft does end up using it for games within 2 years from now it would only prove that the XBOX360 as is wasn’t a match for the PS3 just like Sony knew that if the PS3 didn’t have a Blu-Ray drive, not only would Blu-Ray have failed but the XBOX360 would be in a very good position to destroy the PS3.

Now it can be argued that the extra space isn’t necessary and yes Gears of War is extremely impressive but like I said, there were a lot of people saying that the GameCube’s 1.5 gig discs offered plenty of space and that proved to be wrong.
Here’s a quote from a Best Buy magazine written by a GamePro editor concerning Blu-Ray being used for games.
“The result should be games with more high resolution textures, longer HD cut-scenes, and more extended use of surround sound than the competition”

I’ve noticed that most people in the Sony Stlye Store 2 days ago and people at a Best Buy store yesterday didn’t know that Sony’s sixaxis controller has motion sensing technology and surprisingly the one thing that I see as impressive about Sony’s controller is that you can be playing a demo of Moto GP on one hand and doing something else with the other hand. That’s what one guy did while talking on the cell. That makes game players more lazy because now you can use your other hand to eat snacks while your playing video games.

Though unscientific, most people in line at Wal-Mart last night (I was there hanging with my friend who bought a PS3) said they were probably going to sell their Xbox 360. Asked why, they said they like Playstation better. I have both an Xbox and PS2 and enjoy both equally, but like HD DVD and Blu-Ray, I'm sitting this one out until the dust settles.

It may be unscientific, but I think that's fairly typical. Many people only own one game system and a lot prefer Playstation due to the backward compatibility and, well, they like Sony products because they do. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the Playstation controller, my hands get sore if I play to much... But I don't really prefer any game system over another. I'll probably buy a PS3 at some point, but that's nowhere near the top of things on my Chirstmas list. As for my XBOX360 I'll keep it. In some ways I kinda prefer my xbox and my GameCube over the Playstation line and the 360 as they tend to have more exclusive games. For the most part, PS3 vs. XBOX 360 are going to offer the same games and while PS3 does have the BluRay advantage, many games will still be delivered on DVD... Just as many PS2 games were still delivered on CD.

One thing I don't like is that I can buy both for basically the same amount of money, but I'll forever have an additional add-on HD DVD player with the Xbox 360, but built-in Blu-Ray with the PS3, though the unit is heavy.

I haven't lifted a PS3 myself, but it looks pretty chunky. Not that it's an issue, unless you're taking it with you everywhere you go.

The thing is, I wanted the XBOX360 more than the PS3 because I loved my XBOX more than my PS2 but when I found out that Sony is going to use Blu-Ray, I was starting to change my mind because I knew for a fact that if the Dreamcast had a built in DVD player at that time, the PS2 would have struggled severely since the Dreamcast did have a lot of momentum and Nintendo also missed their chance because of a lack of DVD drive as well.

Good reasoning really... If the Dreamcast had a DVD drive, it would have potentially stole the market from the PS2. It was just slightly less powerful, but easier to develop for and had a 4 month head start. I really liked my Dreamcast... Too bad its market and games died so abruptly, I still have mine if anyone wants to buy it. :-) I think both Sega and Nintendo under-estimated the demand for DVD playback on their consoles. So many people looked at the PS2 as a way to buy a $300 game system that could also play DVDs instead of buying a $250 DVD player, which was going rate for a decent player at that time. Once again, Sony knows that for BluRay to succeed (because BD disc sales right now are in the toilet and HD-DVD is outselling them 3:1 according to current Toshiba propaganda). Sony needs the PS3 to catch on. Toshiba has only shipped about 300K HD-DVD player units world-wide. With the PS3 launch, Sony will have triple the installed base of BluRay players. ...And this is why BluRay will most likely succeed.

I've read reports that Microsoft originally intended to include HD-DVD drives in the XBOX360, but Toshiba couldn't deliver the first units in time or on budget for final consideration. ...Microsoft should have learned from their own success from the XBOX and from the PS2. I can't believe they didn't wait. And while they were waiting they could have spec'd a better GPU and possibly the next revision IBM PowerPC chip (oh wait, that's one of the "Cell" processors).

surprisingly the one thing that I see as impressive about Sony’s controller is that you can be playing a demo of Moto GP on one hand and doing something else with the other hand. That’s what one guy did while talking on the cell. That makes game players more lazy because now you can use your other hand to eat snacks while your playing video games.

...And I thought kids were fat now. ;-)

I feel my Xbox is better than my PS2, but the problem is, I barely play videogames anymore. Don't know why, but maybe because I love losing time playing Resident Evil, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction or Halo/Halo 2, and I just don't feel like I can do that right now.

heath