Microsoft has officially denied that it’s working with a Taiwanese manufacturer to develop a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.

On Tuesday Register Hardware reported that the software giant had inked a deal with Lite-On for the development of Xbox 360 Blu-ray drives. It was claimed the drives would be integrated into a smaller and less power-hungry Xbox 360s.

But a Microsoft spokeswoman has since told Register Hardware that the company has denied any such rumours. In a statement, Microsoft said: “No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360”.

The company added that Xbox 360 sales are driven by games and that the Redmond-based firm “remains focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available”.
Related stories

Microsoft also claimed it has the “largest library of on-demand HD content available” and the ability to “play back DVDs in high definition”. The company recently canned production of the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive, following Toshiba’s decision to step back from the next generation format.

Although Microsoft may have denied it’s working with Lite-On to develop an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive, the statement doesn’t rule out the possibility of a Blu-ray drive for the console altogether.

When Microsoft recently denied it was in Blu-ray talks with Sony, the software giant didn’t explicitly state that it isn’t considering the format. So, thanks to some careful wording on Microsoft’s part, a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 could still be a possibility, just not with Sony or Lite-On.