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Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the self-serving-prophets dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the high-def format war can officially be declared over. With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1 Blu-ray discs are being declared the victor over rival HD-DVD by Blu-ray supporter Sony. 'And yet while all agree that it was a strong month for Blu-ray, opinion is split on whether the surge in sales is an indicator of stronger user adaption of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD, or simply a reflection of the larger number of new Blu-ray titles that hit the market over the month -- 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD for the same period.'"

44 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. Number of movies by SnarfQuest · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aren't the number of movies available related to the popularity of the format?

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    1. Re:Number of movies by ngtvtw13ve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If that was true then wouldn't we still be buying vhs tapes?

    2. Re:Number of movies by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If thats the case, divx avi movies rule the world ;)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    3. Re:Number of movies by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Number of movies released in a particular month != total number of movies available

      I believe that prior to this particular month, HD-DVD was consistently ahead of Blu-Ray. Declaring a winner based on a single months' worth of statistics (especially at this early point when both formats are in their infancy) is utterly idiotic.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    4. Re:Number of movies by SnarfQuest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But, how many new VHS movie titles were released last month?

      --
      Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    5. Re:Number of movies by Babbster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Aren't the number of movies available related to the popularity of the format?

      You're absolutely correct, and that would be a good measure of a particular format's success. Here's the problem: The number of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles currently available is a virtual dead heat. The last time I did a count (about 2 weeks ago) via a popular website that sells both formats, the numbers differed by less than 10, with the total being in the mid 100s.

      As regards the most recent numbers, it's pretty obvious that more Blu-ray titles have been released and purchased in the last two months because a) Sony finally released the PS3 and there is nothing else to do with that hardware other than playing Blu-ray movies and play Resistance and b) they're trying to catch up with HD DVD which had a significant lead in available titles prior to the holiday season.

      It's obviously way too soon to declare a winner, but I'll give Sony props for trying to turn lemons into lemonade...

      I should note, as I often do, that I don't care who wins. If Toshiba and company stand pat and don't push their format then Sony could indeed win the thing because the PS3 is going to sell as time goes by, even if it doesn't become the dominant game console that the PS2 and PS were. The HD DVD folks need to get a standalone player out ASAP for under $400 and by Christmas they need to have players under $300. If they don't, then they'll have to rely on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to compete with the PS3, and that's a dangerous road - not because the HD DVD add-on is a bad deal (it's actually a pretty good one), but because 360 owners already have what they need and want to play games without the bonus of an HD format, while PS3 owners are "forced" into possession of the HD format as a consequence of desiring PS3 gameplay.
    6. Re:Number of movies by DesertBlade · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you look here. A majority of the Blue Ray movies are older. I counted 15 that are about a year old. For Example:
      Resident Evil
      Scooby Doo
      Hitchikers Guide
      Courage Under Fire

      HDDVD has a a few too (counted 6), but I think blue-ray flooded the market with older movies.

      --
      Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
    7. Re:Number of movies by Dorkmaster+Flek · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sony doing something idiotic? Naw...

      --
      I like to think of online DRM as something akin to a college -- you pay for lessons until you learn something.
    8. Re:Number of movies by oh_bugger · · Score: 3, Funny

      you hit the nail on the head when you said it's too early to tell. Sony can't decide at this point which product is the winner. That's like Al Gore saying he's the president just because he's got the most votes. (yes bad analogy, I was going to say something serious but that came into my head)

      --
      Go home and shave your giant head of smell with your bad self
    9. Re:Number of movies by pluther · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the problem with this is, that most people don't know there's a format war going on.

      Those that do are the ones paying attention, and they probably won't be fooled by the marketing hype declaring Sony the winner.

      25 titles release in a month, compared to 11 for the competition, is far too small of a number to actually draw any kind of conclusion. Sure, it's more than twice as much, but with numbers this small impressive-sounding percentages are easy to come by.

      --
      If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
    10. Re:Number of movies by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I agree with TFA. Blu-ray has won the format war.

      I'm also ready to declare Tom Vilsack the winner of the '08 presidential election and the Chicago White Sox the winner of next year's World Series.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    11. Re:Number of movies by compro01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Interesting... *ahem* I hereby declare myself the sexiest man alive!
      Now all I have to do is just repeat it often enough that everyone starts believing it... ;)

      well, if you repeat as much as sony's marketing budget would allow, it's likely that a number of people would start believing it.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    12. Re:Number of movies by Babbster · · Score: 3, Informative

      With the HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 available for about $200, it should be possible to have a stand alone HD-DVD player for $250...

      Unfortunately, that's not quite correct. While the pieces making up the drive itself (such as the blue laser) are indeed a large expense, the hardware permitting 1080p playback from such a drive are similarly expensive - CPU, audio/video decoders etc., all handling more complex work than similar hardware in a DVD player. In other words, it would take more than $50 of additional hardware to turn the add-on into a standalone device. Add in the mark-up so that both retailers and manufacturers make some dough on the deal, and the price increases quite a bit.

      Still, the HD DVD prices aren't that bad compared to DVD prices at a similar point of only one year (actually, a little less) from introduction. This (and upcoming price drops, which I expect to reach $300 or less by Christmas) is most likely due to the competition in formats. While the early adopters may get hosed by the two competing formats (if their chosen format "loses"), the inevitable price war will probably greatly benefit the rest of the consumers down the line.
  2. cool. by President_Camacho · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

    Are they also going to market their laptops as the winner of the battery war?

    --
    Wizard Needs Food, Badly
    1. Re:cool. by Reverend528 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are they also going to market their laptops as the winner of the battery war?

      They blow the competition away!

      --
      Badass Resumes
    2. Re:cool. by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not?

      "Sony lithium batteries smoke the competition!"
      "Sony is on fire with these new batteries!"
      "Put a Sony battery in your laptop and witness an explosion of power!"
      "Sony lithium: Taste the Apocalypse!"
      "Sony lithium batteries: Your laptop will never be the same!"
      "Sony batteries keep burning long after the competition has gone out."

      The marketing material just writes itself.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    3. Re:cool. by SCPRedMage · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's funny, because when I read this the first thing that crossed my mind was, "I wonder if they're going to hold a press conference on an aircraft carrier..."

      --
      My sig can beat up your sig.
  3. Head Sony Exec: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

  4. Sure.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And these are the same people who already believe that the PS3 is the winner of the console wars against the 360 and the Wii, even though sales numbers in the US and even Japan say otherwise.

  5. Will they say the same about the PS3? by vjmurphy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the next gen console war can officially be declared over. Looks like the Wii and 360 are the winners."

    Perhaps they shouldn't be gloating.

    --
    Vincent J. Murphy
    Spandex Justice
  6. Nice of them .... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nice of Sony to declare themselves the winner. Now we can all get on with out lives.

    Seriously, is this the same Sony who last week said the fact that they're being outsold by Nintendo doesn't mean they're losing, it means we shouldn't be counting Nintendo.

    I'm fairly confident a company can't unilaterally declare themselves the winner in a 6 month old format war. It doesn't work like that.

    Oh well, it's their Kool-Aid, they can drink it all they want. :-P

    Cheers

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  7. Re:Why? by ack154 · · Score: 3, Informative

    PS3 = BluRay

    Other than that... who knows. Maybe they're still relating to the BluRay "dominance" to PS3 sales - hence games.

  8. because.... by President_Camacho · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why is this article here in the games section?
    You don't think a corporate pissing match is a game?
    --
    Wizard Needs Food, Badly
  9. In other news by TinBromide · · Score: 5, Funny

    HD-DVD proponents throw up arms and say "That just about wraps it up for us". They began packing up the manufacturing plants and began work on other projects.

    In other news, Apple declares victory over vista because of the ratio of new apple ads to new microsoft ads.

    --
    Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
  10. Numbers?? by Kelz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    25 new Blu-Ray releases and 11 HD-DVD releases in one month?

    Beta was still around for 27 years. I have a feeling that the two sides will be able to co-exist for quite some time (especially with the duel-format players that are close to release).

  11. Two major advantages by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The two major advantages that Blu-ray has right now is
    1. EXTENSIVE marketing. It's almost impossible to watch an HDTV cable network and not be innundated with Blu-ray ads (they should rename "HDnet" the "Blu-ray channel"). And Best Buy and other retailers all have blu-ray kiosks touting the glories of blu-ray. I've yet to see a single HD-DVD ad or kiosk, by contrast
    2. Studio support. HD-DVD just doesn't have the support to turn out enough titles. Warner and Universal alone just aren't going to cut it.

    Oddly enough, what everyone THOUGHT was going to be a big advantage for blu-ray--the PS3, hasn't really been that great, as so few people are buying them. Conversely, the supposedly big HD-DVD advantage of price (both HD-DVD players and media are cheaper) hasn't really helped it, apparently.

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Two major advantages by Pojut · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow, way to make it clear to everyone that you're just another idiotic fanboy.

      Hey dipshit, the PS3 is selling at a faster rate than the 105+ million selling PS2...


      Anyone wanna get in on this one?
      --
      Living With a Nerd
    2. Re:Two major advantages by laffer1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The gamecube didn't do that well.. now the Wii sales show Nintendo clearly ahead. Why don't we compare to the newest consoles and to the predecessor... next you'll compare sales to the Turbo Graphix 16 or perhaps the Sega CD....

      http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=Wii &name2=PS3&type=2&align=0

      --
      MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
  12. Alien Technology by ngtvtw13ve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course Blu-Ray is the winner, it is by far a superior format. HD-DVD is nothing but DVD with 2 extra letters who wants to buy something unimaginitive, but Blu-Ray thats new and exciting. Its "blue" wich means advanced cause aliens are blue, and ray makes me think of an awsome ray gun from all those sci-fi movies. Its friggin advanced alien technology that Sony got its hands on hundreds of years before any other company. How could it not be the leader.

  13. My thoughts exactly by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How many coaches at halftime ever say they're going to lose the game?

    That being said, IMHO this won't be a VHS versus Betamax thing. There is too much manufacturing set up for both sides to simply abandon one format. What I'm hoping happens is that one of the two becomes the dominant format (which it almost certainly will), and the other one will become the "ghetto" HD format.

    The loser in this format war will still make money, but it will have to do it by underselling the winner. Lower prices, bigger numbers. When that happens, the loser will most likely wind up as a cheap burner you can stick on an IDE cable. And I'm really looking forward to that for data storage.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
    1. Re:My thoughts exactly by Not_Wiggins · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When that happens, the loser will most likely wind up as a cheap burner you can stick on an IDE cable. And I'm really looking forward to that for data storage.

      More likely, it'll wind up like the format war between DVD-R and DVD+R: you'll get a player capable of reading both formats, so it won't matter and the prices of the movies will be roughly equivalent.

      If anything, consumers will pay for the war indirectly through hardware costs that integrate both solutions transparently.

      --
      Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
    2. Re:My thoughts exactly by Pluvius · · Score: 4, Informative

      DVD-R and DVD+R are nearly indistinguishable from each other, unlike BD and HD-DVD which are very different. It's a lot cheaper to make a dual-format player for the former than it is for the latter.

      Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option.

      Rob

  14. Problem with Ratios by flynt · · Score: 5, Funny

    With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1

    Unfortunately, he forgot to mention that those were also the actual numbers of discs sold.

    1. Re:Problem with Ratios by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      So does that mean only 2 Blu Ray discs were sold?

  15. Free Movies, really sales? by Innova · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also to note...All PS3's came with a coupon for a free Blu-Ray movie. How many of those were included in the strong sale numbers?

    --
    See my Home Theater
    1. Re:Free Movies, really sales? by powerlord · · Score: 3, Informative

      All PS3s that were part of the initial "launch" (what was it, 200-600K depending on who you believe?), included a bundled in copy of Talladega Nights.

      Considering those PS3s sold in November, and no other PS3 included a Blu-Ray movie, I don't think it affects the December or January numbers much.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  16. whichever sells first $99 player is the winner by u19925 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i ain't gonna buy till price drops to $99. so 4 me, whichever one sells first for $99, is the winner.

  17. Yeah, we trust them by GweeDo · · Score: 5, Funny

    This coming from the same company that owes me $9,600 for all the PS3's at my local walmart! source

    --
    Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
  18. Actually yes, all over but the shouting by DumbSwede · · Score: 4, Informative

    The first week of January it was 2 to 1 for sales of BD
    The second week of January it was close to 3 to 1 for sales of BD

    The HD-DVD camp Shot back that there where more title released on Blu-Ray the first two weeks (11 vs 21).

    So what to make of this weeks releases? 12 titles to 1
    It seems the distributors have decided for us.

    HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 13th, 2007

    Blu-ray

    * Broken Arrow (Fox)
    * Chain Reaction (Fox)
    * Chronos (Koch)
    * The Departed (Warner)
    * Entrapment (Fox)
    * Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
    * The Marine (Fox)
    * Phone Booth (Fox)
    * Planet of the Apes (Fox)
    * Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
    * The Sentinel (Fox)
    * The Usual Suspects (Fox)

    HD DVD

    * The Departed (Warner)

    Titles to date HD DVD 159 vs Blu-ray 171.
    and remember HD-DVD had a big head start and is now fading fast.

    --
    Letter To Iran
    1. Re:Actually yes, all over but the shouting by Yakman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From that list it looks like both formats got the new release (The Departed), and Blu-Ray got a bunch of old movies that won't be significantly better in quality than the SD DVD version anyway.

  19. lets see by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Informative

    last VHS by publication date

    amazon.com
    #1 the mystery of love
    VHS Release Date: February 6, 2007

    #115 Dora the Explorer - Save the Day! was Jan 10, 2007
    #116 Here Comes the Big Red Car ~ Wiggles was Jan 3rd, 2007- so 115 seems to be a safe bet for new vhs titles in the last month.

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  20. And he's right by melted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The primary thing that decides the success or failure of a format is content available on it. There's only one HD-DVD exclusive studio (Universal). There are quite a few that are Blu-Ray only, including all of the Sony studios and Disney. There are rumors of Universal throwing in the towel on HD-DVD.

    Besides, Blu Ray is a better format. 50 GB per disk allows for lower compression ratios and uncompressed multichannel sound. The only advantage HD-DVD has is the "extras" and "interactivity features". I don't know about you, but I don't give a shit about picture-in-picture that they push so heavily. I just want to watch the goddamn movie.

    As if this wasn't enough, Blu Ray also enjoys much broader industry support, including Apple (which gives you a hint as to what Final Cut / DVD Studio types will be using) and Dell. PS3 is by far the best value on the market as far as 1080p players are concerned. The fact that it plays games as well is gravy. Xbox HD-DVD add-on has an abysmal attach rate, and even if it did have a better attach rate, Xbox doesn't support HDMI, so it's not an option for folks who want an entirely digital signal path.

    So there you have it.

  21. Reminds me of famous historical headlines: by vertinox · · Score: 3, Funny

    1812
    France to market Napoleon as winner of battle of Waterloo!

    1862
    Southern states to market General Lee as winner of Battle of Gettysburg!

    1944
    Germany to market themselves as winner of World War 2!

    2003
    Fox news to market US as winner of Iraq war! Oh wait...

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  22. Experience with Blu-ray/HD-DVD by MrJynxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, I actually own both Blu-ray/HD-dvd players (PS3, and HD-dvd addon for 360). I have both systems hooked up to a 50" sony SXRD LCD projection TV and so far . . . I think HD-DVD looks better even though it's displaying at 1080i. (My PS3 is @ 1080p)

    I've now come across quite a few instances of really grainy video with the blu-ray movies I have. This has not been a problem with HD-DVD.

    In terms of quality both are identical (except for the annoying grainy video on blu-ray). I've shown this to quite a few friends and they all see the exact same thing (so I'm not crazy). So from experience, I'm hoping HD-DVD overcomes blu-ray.

    ***SIDENOTE***
    So far I've been really disappointed with the PS3. It's probably been the worst purchase I've made in years. Sony had better get their shit together, and get it together FAST!!!