Most of us predicted this weeks ago, and despite the entirely understandable (if not always polite) lamenting of HD DVD, this was virtually inevitable once the studios said "make it so."

Okay, so technically it's still a rumour (go Australian insider access) but word on the street is Microsoft's prepping a standalone Blu-ray player to...I won't say "replace" so much as "complement" it's existing standalone HD DVD player, though I'm betting the latter will only remain available until Microsoft clears stock.

If Sony's sales for January were in fact more Blu-ray video than software driven as I've been speculating, Microsoft releasing a Blu-ray player couldn't be more timely and demographically crucial. Sony's January numbers suggest consumers may be paying considerably more for a PS3 for the Blu-ray capability alone. Thus Microsoft needs to introduce the Blu-ray option it's been silently hedging all along, to take on Sony in a lucrative venue that's finally picked a winner.

Regarding rumours of an integrated Xbox 360 Blu-ray player: Microsoft's argument against integration ostensibly hinges on the HD battle moving online, and to downloadable content instead of physical discs. For casual, streaming, episodic content, this almost certainly makes sense.
But for videophiles like me, who'll probably need terabyte storage solutions and demand nothing less than Blu-ray-analogous HD sample playback, online HD looks like a battle that won't be starting en masse until we figure out how to quickly download or stream video that easily figures in the "dozens of gigabytes" range. Anyone care to guess how long it would take on the average 1.5 Mbps DSL connection to download Season Three of Lost, which ships on six Blu-ray discs?

How long before you can buy the rumoured standalone player? If it happens, sources say three months, i.e. May/June 2008 timeframe.