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Sony Pushes Back Release For Blu-Ray Players
Sony has announced that their first model of Blu-Ray player will release in August, not later this month as originally announced. The BDP-SP1, retailing for $1000, will now ship on or about August 15th. Bad news for fans of the new format, and even worse news for the PS3. Since Sony's lackluster E3 showing, a string of bad news has seemed to conspire against the company's next-gen console. From the Gamers with Jobs article: "With the PS3's high-end model coming it at a whopping $400.00 less than a stand-alone Blu-Ray player, Sony needs to release these players as soon as possible. If they wait too long, the PS3 will begin looming on the horizon, causing even devout early adopters to question the intelligence of buying a stand-alone Blu-Ray unit. Sony also needs the largest possible installed base, come launch-time for the PS3. For the Blu-Ray player to be the PS3's version of the PS2's DVD player, casual technophiles need to be able to see the virtues of the Blu-Ray format. If there are few players, and few titles, this might not happen."
While this seems apparent to you or I, for some reason those in the marketing departments of major companies really do think that more is more. I agree with your sentiment, and will second the right is better notion.
Check post history.
Known paid for Microsoft astroturfer.
Is it just me, or could this be a plausible marketing ploy? Sony wants the biggest install base of the PS3 as possible to make some money, and have better market penetration than the 360 or Wii. What if they're releasing a high priced player closer to the window of the launch of the PS3 on purpose? If you had your choice between a box that did Blu Ray for $1000, or a box that did Blu Ray + lots of other stuff, for $600, a lot of non-elitist consumers are going to go with the cheaper bargain. It's entirely possible that sony is releasing an over priced blu ray player now (btw, $1000? I can get a HD-DVD drive for under $200!), to increase adoption of the ps3 by the "I love HD, but my pocket book hates it" crowd.
Of course, as even the linked article admits, Samsung's blu-ray player is still due out at the end of this month, at the same time the first round of blu-ray discs are.
Since unlike UMDs and other failed "Sony" formats of the past, Blu-Ray is not propreitary, it doesn't matter when Sony gets their player out. The Blu-Ray does not succeed or fall based on Sony alone; Sony delaying their personal player for six months makes no difference. While surely having two blu-ray players out at format launch would have been better than one from a consumer perspective, Sony's delay means effectively nothing except that early adopters interested in blu-ray will be buying a Samsung instead.
But hey, Zonk's never let little things like facts get in the way of his constant proclamations of doom and death for Sony and everything connected to them. So whatever. Rootkit rootkit rootkit $599 lol.
Sony shouldn't have any problem recovering from a delay. The XBox 360 has already been out for 6 months, and by the time the PS3 comes out, the XBox 360 will have been out for at least a year. The buzz around the XBox system itself will have fizzled out, as the "new" novelty of the system will be gone. Nintendo has long been 3rd in the console rankings, and that probably won't change here. It has gotten a lot of buzz coming out of E3, and critics seem to love the system. It will come out around the same time as the Playstation 3, so Sony won't be hurt too bad from that standpoint. More importantly though, the name "Playstation" carries more weight than arguably any other system out there. Game consoles are not necessarily for the tech-minded. As cool as the Wii seems right now, little kids do not care about the blu-ray vs. HD debate, or how fun it would be to use a remote control to play games. These kids, the ones that drive the console industry, will be the ones who determine which console takes off. And they have the name "Playstation" engraved in their heads. It has long been at the top of the class, and reputation alone should be able to get it through these rough patches.
Also there are very few titles availabe for HD DVD. Maybe they do this on purpose because people cannot see yet that there are a lot of other 'big releases' missing, not all studios signed up for hd dvd.
"A few" is more than ZERO releases of BD movies, which I guess doesn't matter since there are ZERO BD players available to consumers for another couple of weeks anyways. Even with all the studios signed up for BD the loss of "first-mover" advantage presents a great challenge, and despite the number of studios jumping on the BD wagon, they didn't EXCLUSIVELY jump on that wagon so it means little to nothing.
I think that sony is waiting to have more titles available, so they can make a big release.
And what will motivate those releases, when the captain of the team is late for the game? Perhaps there will be double the releases when the player finally comes out than there was for HD-DVD but two dozen vs. one dozen is still pathetic...and the longer it takes for BD players to filter into the market, the larger the library of HD-DVD releases gets, and once the reace really begins they'll be about equal.
Does the Playstation 3 record BD's? No, so stop comparing it to 1000 dollar players, you noobs
My understanding was that the $1000 standalone unit won't record either (that will cost even more), and I think that early-adopters would be more inclined to use a PVR to record so it would not be a killer feature. Furthermore, Sony could have a bit of a problem with the PS3, not only because it would undercut most of the 1st-gen standalone BD players, but also becasue Sony will lose money on the PS3--it is cheaper not because it costs less to make, but rather becasue Sony has amputated the profit margin because its computer entertainment division (like Microsoft's) sells consoles as a loss leader and tries to make money on the content.
Unfortunately this has the hallmarks of becoming "Beta: The Sequel"--a technically superior technology being out-priced and out-marketed by the more "primitive" yet still adequate and practical competition.
Nintendo isn't thrid anywhere but the US. Its second everywhere else, with a higher profit than MS or Sony.
You put way too much value in the PS name. Nintendo made the same mistake with the N64, and look what happened. THe big dog can lose. Meanwhile, SOny is now putting out a $600 console. You're right- kids are one of the drivers for games. No parent is going to pay $600 for a gaming console. Even the 360 at $400 is high priced. At 1/3 the cost of the PS3, the Wii is going to wipe the floor with Sony.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
For $499 you get a PS3 from Sony that:
*Plays 1080p HD BluRay movies over component cables... Until they implement HDCP...
*Plays 1080p games (which has been possible on PC for years)
*All the same exclusive games that 103+ million people bought Playstation 2s for (so why not just play them on that)
*Complate backwards compatibility with 8000+ Playstation games (when it decideds to work properly)
*Complete backwards compatibility with 8000+ Playstation 2 games (see above)
*Free online play for all non-MMORPG games. Nothing new here
*Linux. To what end? I'm sure it will be just as huge a success as Linux on PS2 was.......
*Webbrowsing in 1080p on your HD TV monitor and other desktop apps that you run in 1600x1200+ (higher than 1080p) on your PC
*Tilt controller that they copied from Nintendo
Compared to the 200-250 Wii which looks to be fun at parties and can produce graphics that are more than adequate, all the while maintaining an aura of FUN vs just being eye-candy.
Or the XBox 360 which will end up costing you over 700 bucks for the non-worthless version over four to five years, vs a system that will cost you well over $2000 up front to use it to its full potential ($600 for a non-crippled PS3, $200 for a few games, $1200+ on the low end for a TV that supports HDMI so you don't lose 1080p playback when HDCP is implemented). And that doesn't include a keyboard or mouse to actually USE the "other desktop apps" properly. Or the overpriced accessories.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
This is causing me to lose even more respect for Sony (rootkit anyone). I was a loyal PS2 user but if its not one things its another and Sony is really going downhill in my book. Continued delays. Backing losing mediums (I'd rather go with HD-DVD). etc, etc. If I can no longer support Sony and god forbid I buy an Xbox where can I console-game? I guess I should just dig out the old-school Nintendo. I can't use Xbox or Sony anymore on principle.
after all, in addition to a new disk format noone sees a need for, and a price way too high for not enough games, you also get wonderful DRM and region-coding to make your life even more meaningful.
I'll be using my inexpensive, less than $250 USD Wii, in the meantime, playing all the really cool games that knock my socks off.
But, on a good note, PS2 sales are still beating the xBox and xBox360 combined, after E3.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Whenever I've seen it used, "Schadenfreude" has implied pleasure in the suffering (or just difficulties) of others -- independent of whether those others deserved to suffer.
Wanting a company to fail because its actions are objectionable is far less amoral -- uh, more moral? -- than that. We're not rooting against Sony because it'll make us feel better about our own failings if they belly flop. We want them to fail because they're behaving in a way that actually offends our sense of how companies should act. Maybe that "moral" thing was real after all: we think they way Sony's acting is wrong. Not illegal, no -- just wrong.
This isn't just a case of wanting to see the bully stumble, either. If Sony had taken Nintendo's approach this time around, I'd be lining up to buy.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Have you been living under a rock?
0 0.asp
http://fuckbluray.com/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114850,
I stopped buying Sony's crap after discovering that a normal memory stick (which was a STUPID, unnecessary format to begin with) wasn't good enough for my sony mp3 player, I needed a more expensive, DRM encumbered 'magic gate' stick. I also had no choice but to use Sony's buggy software to put music on the darn thing.
This isn't FUD, Sony just keeps shafting and screwing customers when it comes to the content market. They've been doing it for years, and will continue to do so.
"You're wrong because xbox 360 games coming out for Christmas are likely to look as good or better than the launch PS3 titles that haven't had the extra year to improve in development"
That is so sad that you probably actually believe that latest bit of damage control for the crappy looking 360 games.
Last year it was the 'beta devkit' excuse.
Then it was the 'not enough time before launch' excuse.
Then it was the '(pc) developers getting up to speed with teh scarry multi-core developement' excuse.
Then it was '(pc) developers are about to finally now use all three cores' excuse.
Nothing is going to save the crappy 360 graphics system. It was never even intended to run at anything greater than 480p. No amount of developer time struggling with the system is going to fix the fucked up graphics system ATI botched in the 360.
Oh, and no one is stupid enough to spend over 400 bucks on something they don't want(360) just because they can't find the product they do want(PS3)...
Rootkits on CDs? DRM? Proprietary format afrer proprietary format (memory stick, ATRAC, UMD)? Consoles that are more expensive because they are using them as a trojan for their new media format and not just as a game system? The attitude that consumers should feel lucky for the chance to pay $599 for a console?
There is a lot to dislike about Sony's strategy at the moment. The main thing dissuading me from buying a PS3 is the price. I just won't buy it at the announced price. I don't play games enough to justify it. Even though I can afford it, there are other things I would use more for the price. Once it comes down in a year or two, I'll probably pick one up. By then there will be a strong library of games for it, as well.
* All the same exclusive games that 103+ million people bought Playstation 2s for
* Complete backwards compatibility with 8000+ Playstation games
* Complete backwards compatibility with 8000+ Playstation 2 games
I fail to see why people tout this as a reason to buy a PS3. Yes, I love my exclusive PS2 games...and I can continue to play them on my PS2, as I do now. That's not going to convince me to buy a PS3. I'm gonna buy a PS3 when there are games out that I want to play enough to justify the price of said games + the console. Not a moment sooner.
Other than the fact that they have been assholes with their rootkit? Nah, nobody really wants Sony destroyed. All we want is a more balanced market for videogames. Monopolies are bad. Nintendo, which is so beloved over here, did awful things while they dominated with their NES and SNES. We do not need to talk about MS, do we? I will be happy if this gen all three consoles get a marketshare around 30%-40%.