Sony Blu-ray and PS3: Is recession the killer?
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3 | By: Alan Ng
Posted on: November 13, 2008 | 37 Comments
This latest recession has hit all parts of the world, including the gaming industry it seems. After the initial success of the format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, some executives in Hollywood are worried that the recession could have an effect on the Blu-Ray industry, in terms of the prices consumers have to pay to be able to watch the films.
Of course, now everyone is more cautious with their money and what they spend it on, but for those wanting to watch Blu-rays providing they do not have the equipment, could result in a very expensive package. We are talking about having to purchase a high spec HD TV along with a dedicated Blu-Ray player. While the PS3 has an integrated Blu-Ray player, it is certainly not cheap, especially since there doesn’t seem to be any price cuts along the way. Stand-alone Blu-Ray disc players themselves are also very expensive at the moment, so this could lead to consumers searching elsewhere in hope of watching content.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is currently a lot cheaper to buy at the moment, compared to Sony’s PS3, and with Microsoft preparing to offer films digitally, this could be another factor in loss of sales for Sony. It certainly will be an interesting period over Christmas in regards to Blu-Ray sales. Do any of you have any plans to purchase one? Leave your comments below.
Source: Read
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Recession is world wide, PS3 is outselling Xbox 360 worldwide even though PS3 is twice the price of Xbox 360. Xbox is the one to be worried about, not the PS3.
The cheap version of the 360 requires the additional purchase of the online attachment sold separately and also the a hard drive. The ps3 comes with this out of box. Also factor in the cost of an xbox live account and the cost is greater than the ps3.
I like to own the physical media in my hand, instead of owning nothing with a download.
Is Product Reviews Owned by Microsoft??
Two articles released 29 minutes apart, both heralding the death of PS3, Killzone 2 and Blu Ray. Nice.
Morne
Sony have a video store already (part of the PSN store), only available in the US at the moment. This allows the digital download of movies and TV shows, so I think Sony are moving with the times already
I have no plans to purchase one right now, the recession will factor in i’m sure but right now here’s what i think is the problem.
DVD was a huge leap from tape based media, aside from picture and sound quality all the problems with tapes chewing up and breaking, degrading, slow rewinding and the storage space required to house them made the upgrade well worth while.
Even with all these plus points DVD couldn’t really replace VHS until mass market priced DVD recorders hit the stores, people still wanted to record their TV progams.
The difference in picture quality between a decent upscaling DVD player and Blu-Ray in quite small to the average non-videophile and to a large section of people who still have SD TVs completely redundant, plus swapping a disc based media for another disc based media doesn’t carry any of the advantages that VHS to DVD did.
Many people i know still have a VHS player stacked under their TV along side DVD, i suspect the thouhgt of transfering their whole library to digital media was too daunting for them.
So to sum it up Blu-Ray as a format is still less fuctional than VHS until BR recorders hit the stores and at a mass market price, although some of the more tech-hungry among us will buy it, and PS3 owners will have it, the rest of us that go to making up the numbers needed for it to be a success will no doubt wait for a cheap recordable machine that can at least fully replace one of the boxes currently under our TVs
P.S a BR player/DVD-R combo at the right price might have some success but i don’t see anything less than a cheap, fully fledged Blu-Ray recorded convincing the mass market that it’s time to upgrade and with the recession looking like it’s gonna get much worse, i think it’s going to be a tall order.
Without getting into the Fan Boy battles over this story, I won both consoles and the PS3 is only used in my house as a DVD player.The Xbox has so much more to offer the gamer and although you have to pay for the Live service, it is the best multiplayer available on any console.
The Games on the Xbox look better than on the PS3, more games are available on the Xbox, and you can download and watch HD movies right now on the Xbox 360.
The PS3 was rushed out without any quality games available at a high price.
All you need to do is look at the games chart to see how the Xbox is dominating the console war.World wide more PS3’s, but the gamer is choosing the Xbox as a platform of choice…….FACT.
Yeah I’m pretty sure I only want information like this from someone that actually OWNS a console! This guy talking about xbox will have a digital movie store by Christmas…Obviously this guy has never even put his hands on a controller, not to mention PS3 has one too. Oh and by Black Friday there will be a blu-ray player for $149.
Introducing a new format takes time…It’s been less than 2 years. I didn’t even own a dvd player until they were on the market for 6 years. And I was an early adopter.
People that write articles like this make me sick.
@Owen Chadwell
You’ve not only gone completely off topic just to prove what a fanboy you are but you are talking rubbish as well, there are 3 Xbox 360 models all cheaper than PS3, you can argue that if you want and need all the thing that come with the PS3 then it’s good value and i wouldn’t contradict that because i’m not a fanboy.
The point of having a low priced model without an HHD is for people who don’t want or need them, if i didn’t have or want an internet connection i’d buy that model, otherwise i’d buy one with an HDD. The same way if i bought a PS3 and didn’t use the internet i would be out of pocket having paid for an HHD and wifi that i’m not gonna use.
I DO use the internet, that’s why i bought the Pro model and i never use wifi, i use my existing wired router so i’ve had the best value for me personally, everybodies circumstances and tastes are different.
If you bought a budget priced car because you didn’t want the air conditioning, 1000 watt stereo and leather seats i wouldn’t factor in that you would have to pay for those later, that’s just dumb but let’s just say for arguements sake sometime in the future you changed your mind, well you could probably get a good deal on a stereo and some nice Recaro seats if the price was right.
@ Boo Shank
“The PS3 was rushed out…”
really?
because this article yesterday from the Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/xbox-truth
unveils that the xbox360 was rushed to market and just generally terribly built, and when engineers wanted to stop production due to too many faulty products they just kept making them….
so maybe you were confused, because it really was the XboX360 that was rushed to market, and although I cannot download HD movies to my PS3 I can watch real HD movies via BR. I think those who are terribly uninformed about what is inside the machines are those choosing Xbox360’s not ‘the gamer’
tough day for you Boo Shank you barely made any sense, and given that the FACTS are in direct opposition to your position, I’d say you lose
Nice reply.
Just pointing out that a PS3 is a better upscaleing/BR player than a games console.
I don’t think recession is going to hit the Xbox as much as the PS3 when it comes to console sales.Both systems are great and do have pro’s and con’s but if I was going to buy a console as a Christmas gift the Xbox would place high on my value for money list.