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Sony Blu-Ray & Microsoft HD DVD Battle Over: downplayed by brands

By: Daniel Chubb | November 10, 2007 | 12 Comments

Blu-Ray vs HD DVD

I understand more than ever now why I did not have a HD DVD drive in my Xbox 360 when I brought it a couple of years a go and that is explained best in Kevin Collins (Microsoft Consumer Media Group Director) owns words.

He said in an interview with Home Media Magazine “Microsoft knew if we put in an HD DVD drive that we would have to raise costs and disenfranchise our customers (that are primarily gamers) as the unit would become too expensive”.

This shows that Microsoft has not got and maybe never had their hearts in the battle over high-definition movie disc formats; although Kevin Collins did say he was very happy with the strong performance of HD DVD against Blu-Ray and that “The [Blu-ray] camp’s claims about Microsoft’s desire to have a format war are baseless”.

Howard Stringer (Sony CEO) also added in his bit in a statement with the AP, he said “the high-def disc battle had reached a stalemate, mainly due to the lower costs of HD DVD players and the defection of Paramount to the HD DVD camp”.

So there you have it, it looks like the battle is over or at least as Sony’s CEO puts it “reached a stalemate”.

Via Joystiq

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  • HD1

    Yes, Sony is know smelling the smoke, and they feel that they could loose this battle. A new format that could take dust like many others from this company..

  • Media Man

    talk to me after the holidays right then we will see who is on top.

  • Orion

    Come on Disney and Fox, release on HD-DVD and let the consumer decide what they want and we’ll see who
    wins.

  • Darklol

    I’m thinking that Sony just cares more of its PS3 than Blu-Ray. Why do I say that, it’s the fact that Sony has released a 399$ 40gig PS3 and lowered the price of the 80gig PS3 to 499$. How come a console machine and integrated Blu Ray player with a HDD can be the lowest BD Player on the market. Don’t tell me because they do more PS3 than standalones and the production cost is lower when you do more. How come Toshiba can ? I think they are lowering the price of the Ps3 to make more money with games (since its a gaming console at first) and they hope that the PS3 consumer will buy movies too. But this is the fact that studios should realize cause HD DVD is trying to reach Home Entertainement in households and is trying to catch everyone (average joe consumer) and Sony is trying to sell its Blu Ray movies through gamers. Since most people who own a Ps3 is people like me 15 to 25 and guess what he dont make 50k a year and thats the reason i returned my ps3 the same day i bought it, i got mine at 700$ and my bank account was almost gone so i prefered to keep my money at that price and at first i was buying it only for games didnt even know about HD DVD and Blu Ray. I finally decided to get a HD DVD HD-A2 for 299$ with 3 movies inside witch was a good deal when you see Tokyo Drift at 48.99$ at Best BUy. At the begining I was a PS3 fan boy like you guys say, but when i knew about HD DVD at their lower priced player i got one. I’ll probably get the Ps3 when Gran Turismo will be out other than that movies are in Hd Dvd and i own already over 30 HD DVDs.

    Sorry Sony but for other than gaming you lost me when i bought a SONY Mini-Disc Player the worst music player in the world, i should of bought a 19$ mp3 player.

    I’ll continue supporting Toshiba and Microsoft.

  • eugene

    If all things were equal, like all studios supporting both sides, the consumer would choose the cheapest one. Hd dvd is the clear winner except for Sony’s exclusivity with fox disney and itself.

  • Darklol

    ^^ That’s the big deal !

    The decision here comes to Warner Bros if he chooses a camp then it could be crucial when you think about the Potter Movies there is still two to come so it might be a turning point when Warner Bro will decide witch side to go until then there will not have any clear winner right now.

  • Crazy A 64

    Wow so we’re not all Microsoft heads in here then?! Blu-Ray is outselling 2-1 in the states and has similar figures in Europe if you check out the various stats available in a quick Google search. Oh and no I’m not biased to Sony in any way at all, I prefer my 360 for gaming… at the moment.

  • Darklol

    ^^ Why do you think its 2 to 1, this is sales calculating Ps3 Owners. I dont say we shouldn’t count them , Sales are sales. But think about it. Ps3 owners are what , mostly between 15 – 25yrs old, and most of them have saved their little money or got it from Dad or mom ! Don’t tell me its not true because it is. Accept it most of them are game players. So, Sony has sold millions of units and people buy them for gaming and as an integrated Blu Ray Built in, witch makes the gamer having a Blu Ray Player that can read BD movies. So those GAMING PLAYERS will buy a few movies , Casino Royale, Spider Man 3 etc… the good gamers movies Versus Toshiba 500000 units. This 2 to 1 was last 9 months, i would like to see now what are the stats from last month we 90000 average joe’s got a HD DVD from Wal-Mart, Best Buy etc… Will a Average joe buy more movies than a gaming hardcore player with a Ps3 ? Sad to hear here but yes !

    The problem here is that Sony is hoping on gamers to sell movies. Cause like you said , google search ” Sony Stanladone players sold is 190 000″ versus ” Toshiba Standalone solds are 500 000″

    Toshiba owners is for Hi Def Movies entertainment and will buy more movies than PS3 owners.

    Whats funny here is even with the help of the millions of Ps3 Gaming Console sold out there they can’t do better than 2 to 1 Software sales.

    Here is some maths (according to game chartz):

    Blu Ray : 2.26M PS3 Sold + 190 000 Standalone sold = 2.45 Milions of Blu Ray Players Sold

    HD DVD : 190 000 Toshiba standalones + 155 000 X360 Add on = 345 000 HD DVD Units Sold

    All numbers are in the STATES* !

    So if you can count here :

    2 450 000 / 345 000 = 7.1…..

    Witch does a 7 to 1 margin.

    How come they only do 2 to 1 in 9 months ? and Counting the PS3 they do 7 to 1 in player sales. This explain how ALOT OF PS3 Owner don’t even use the PS3. Most of them are kids and will never buy movies.

    I can’t believe you people think Sony will win.

    Average Joe HD DVD > PS3 Gamers

    ^^ This is the key and toshiba showed it pretty well with the wal-mart secret sale on black friday. My bad for Sony.

    *Search google, HD DVD on April 17 2007 had reached 100 000 Units sold had the 90 000 units sold this month. (And in there , there is missing units sold because im only adding the 90000 units sold in one week end since April 17 2007)

  • Darklol

    Big News from Europe to prove what i’m thinking :

    The overall attach rate is highest in Spain, where HD DVD owners have bought an average of 5.7 movies per player, which is over 14 times the attach rate for Blu-ray (at 0.4 per player). Here are the other country breakdowns:

    * Italy: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 4.4 movies each (11 times the Blu-ray figure of 0.4 per player).
    * France: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 5 movies each (over 8 times the Blu-ray figure of 0.6 per player).
    * Benelux: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 2.9 movies each (over 7 times the 0.4 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)
    * Germany: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 2.9 movies each (which is over 4 times the 0.6 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)
    * UK: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 3.7 movies each (which is over 4 times the 0.8 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)

    http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/11254/12278/HDDVD-software-adoption-figures-released.phtml

    Stop thinking Sony will win. These numbers includes GAMING HARDWARE.

  • kvh22000

    Actually this past week following the $99 dollar sale of Hd-dvd players blu ray out sold by a 71:29 margin.

    Also those attach rates dont matter. Overall sales are something like 80:20 in Europe in favor of blu ray

  • kvh22000

    blu ray outsold hd-dvd 71:29

  • Darklol

    ^^ where is the actual proof of this 71:29 ??

    This is probably hardware sales counting PS3 Gaming Console that only 40% of the owners of the PS3 know that they have a Built In Blu Ray.

    And this has been posted on alot of news ! PS3 owners don’t know that they have a blu ray player well only 60% of them lol search google for this.