Mythbusting: Can an Xbox 360 play BluRay Movies?

Back in 2008, the questions abounded – would the Xbox 360 ever support BluRay? Rumors flew in all directions, but nobody knew for sure. We knew the Xbox console couldn’t read the discs the the way it was, but maybe a replacement drive, or an external device? When word broke that Microsoft, as a company, were trying to stay compatible with BluRay, people seemed to forget Windows was a bigger part of Microsoft than Xbox, at the time. I quashed that rumor myself, and helped to clarify the confusion. Xbox 360 owners ended up getting the external HD DVD add-on drive, which still works to this day. But that was it. BluRay support was never added.

Now, it seemed to me that this was an open and shut case, but I’ve seen the question asked in the past, and I’ve seen it answered and a really untruthful way. A person said YES, but then linked (referral links, no less) to paid software to convert the BluRay movie. It enabled person to put a BluRay disc into their computer (provided it had a BluRay drive), then convert the software, then you had your option of transferring it to a thumb drive or streaming it to the Xbox 360. This doesn’t mean the Xbox 360 can play a BluRay movie, this means the Xbox 360 supports several digital video formats – but it cannot read BluRay discs no matter what you connect up to the Xbox 360.

I just wanted to re-hash this – hopefully there was no more question, but I think people are still looking for the answer, and I wanted to provide it for them. Unfortunately for movie buffs, the final answer is NO – the Xbox 360 does not and will not support BluRay movies. The next console from Microsoft (what I’m dubbing the Xbox “365”) might, but we’ll probably need to wait until E3 2013 to find out.