I really don't think M$ has much of a choice in the matter, either they or some other company will (to save face for M$) come out with a BR player for Xbox360.

Currently the PS3 is the "king" as far as a media player is concerned, and I just can't see Microsoft letting that continue forever. Since the "best" of the multiplatform games (CoD4 for example) look as good on either PS3 or Xbox360, if M$ wants to keep it's lead it has to at least allow for options that keep it competitive media player wise.

As far as the Xbox360 + a BR standalone option goes... Unless you own an extremely high end audio system, the PS3 is a far better choice for a BR player. The real problem for MS at the moment, is a standalone BR player is the same price as a PS3 (at the low end of standalones), so if you can live with the current smaller game selection, a PS3 ends up as a great buy.

How about you buy your games console based on the games you want to play and a stand alone player on the HD content you want. 

Believe it or not but the built in capabilities of the PS3 arent so hot compared to a stand alone blu ray player and which do you think is going to keep dropping in price until you can pick up a deal of the week for 50 squid with your weekly shopping?

...Possibly a no brainer for anyone who wants a console for anything other than playing less than a cat's handful of good games.

Cats don't bloody even have hands with which to hold games!

"Why buy a machine that can't play any HD material from the only commercially available source.. Blu-Ray? 
The choice between a PS3 and XBox is now a no brainer."

I buy my games console to play games not to specifically watch movies, tho it is a good feature. There are no good games on ps3. 

Also look at the Wii as a good example of what games consoles should be about.

Of course, why buy a video game console simply because it has vastly better games?

Why buy a machine that can't play any HD material from the only commercially available source.. Blu-Ray?
The choice between a PS3 and XBox is now a no brainer.

One of the things that work against their model is the fact that they've tiered they're systems on the size of the hard drive. While the hard drives are dirt cheap for them to buy, they charge users an arm and a leg for the extra space. So now they have a large user base with 20GB hard drives, which is not nearly enough hd space to sustain the model they are going after.

The PS3 "Hello world" thing is a fake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWy0hNQQCP0

Keep up, inq :)

So no Blu-ray for the 360, then. This official denial leads me to conclude a new MS games console with Blu-ray is in the pipe-line. 

Sure, MS might want all digital content via the interweb but interweb download speeds are not generally high enough for the typical consumer at this time or in the near future.

An MS media centre without Blu-ray? Not a good marketing strategy in my book.