Hot Damn! Michael Bay Uncovers Microsoft's Master Plan

[Early apologies, I am writing this while preparing for a medical procedure tomorrow and am on some drowsy medication. Thanks again for reading my babble! - R]

I love Michael Bay as a director, what can I say Transformers is my favorite movie, and recently it seems that Bay has taken it upon himself to start the tenth Crusade against HD-DVD. Bay has been quoted on his forums stating that, "Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads ... That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios [to] just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray."

And now, giant robot films aside, I'd like to congratulate Bay on uncovering this scandalous act and saving us from a world where media would cost less and we would be able to store/manage it with ease. I am not mocking Bay's attempt to protect the DVD collector, like myself, but instead his conspiracy theory that the big bad MS is out to screw the world. I have not chosen a side on the format war yet, and it's not due to the idea of digital downloading (which I like - more on that later), but because I am not willing to risk money on a format that might become obsolete in less than a year.

As for my feeling on digital downloading ...

As a DVD collector myself, I am not sure if I can just transition to digital downloading if it resembles what we currently have on the Xbox Marketplace. I have always thought of the idea of downloading movies, TV shows and other media on your Xbox as one of the most unique features provided on Xbox Live. But where the service falls short is when Xbox Live limits you of that purchase by restricting you to watch a movie within 14 days of purchase or 24 hours of starting it.

One of my best friends told me once that he believes we'll give up on DVD's and move to just having movies stored to a large hard drive and/or streaming media fed straight to our TVs. Maybe that will be the future of media and consumer entertainment ... or maybe he should jump on the "crazy train" with Bay. Your guess is as good as mine.

- R

image: Courtesy of CNET