At the onset of the next-generation format war, Microsoft seemed to back Toshiba's HD-DVD strongly. As Blu-ray picks up the momentum, however, Microsoft looks to keep itself at a safe distance from the crossfire.

This was apparent as one by one, Microsoft top executives issue statements that their focus is shifting to downloadable high-definition content over hard media. The latest Microsoft boss to emphasize that position is Jeff Bell, Microsoft's corporate vice president of global marketing for interactive entertainment.

In an interview during the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Bell said that his company is taking a more agnostic view of the format square-off. "We’ll let the market decide how they’re most interested in consuming entertainment," he commented.

More importantly, Bell reaffirmed that there's no plan of building-in an HD-DVD drive into future Xbox 360 SKUs, telling media personnel that they were "absolutely not" planning on doing that.

There were several predictions that a new Xbox 360 SKU was to be unveiled at the CES, but such an event never came to pass. Microsoft instead focused on Windows Vista and other consumer products.