Came accross an interesting article @ tom's hardware.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35008/118/
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35008/118/
The impact of PS3 in winning the HD Format War
- Thread starter LunchBox
- Start date
djskribbles
Legend
those are pretty useless stats imho. it should be no surprise that HD-DVD standalone players are outselling BR players for 2 reasons - HD DVD players can be found for considerably less money than standalone blu-ray players (thats the only thing keeping HD DVD alive imo), and the PS3, afaik, has always been the cheapest blu-ray player so it just makes sense for people to buy the PS3 over a standalone. the only benefit to buying a standalone over a PS3 would be to save energy and noise.
its obvious the PS3 has an impact on the war. if the PS3 can play BR movies, theres a good chance owners will use it as a BR player as well. its just going to get more difficult for the HD DVD camp to win with the PS3's userbase growing.
its obvious the PS3 has an impact on the war. if the PS3 can play BR movies, theres a good chance owners will use it as a BR player as well. its just going to get more difficult for the HD DVD camp to win with the PS3's userbase growing.
DeathKnight
Regular
It's going to get more difficult for Blu-ray to "win" the longer HD DVD continues to survive and gain momentum (despite the countless proclamations from members of the BDA that HD DVD is "dead" and that the "war is over"). Sony and Co. were hoping for a swift death to HD DVD (in fact they've hoped for and tried numerous times) and it hasn't happened. Unfortunately the corporations who so staunchly and publicly position themselves behind Blu-ray are likely to hold out even longer to try and avoid massive ego bruising and egg-on-face.
How about ppl without HDTVs?
What's going to be interesting is how many of those are left after this holiday season (including the months after). I'm going to predict that you'll see a huge jump again in HDtv penetration.
djskribbles
Legend
agreed, unfortunately. i just wish one format would beat the other out so we're not forced to support both of them. or, i hope all movie studios support blu-ray so i don't have to buy an HD-DVD player.
when/if HD-DVD players drop below 100-150, then ill maybe consider one.
Call me weird, but I use mine to play games..
Color me Dan
Regular
Priceless!
I think the people who use the PS3 for BD are quite a bit more then the PS2 owners who used it for DVD playback, i think consumers are quite well aware that they have a BD player in the PS3 (how can you even avoid it?) and use it thusly instead of getting a standalone. I know i used my PS2 for DVD once or twice, but it was never the mainstay for dvd watching in my house. Mostly because i was affraid the lid might get worn out considering the amount of movies i watched at that period. PS3 also has the advantage of being able to record like a DVR, or will.. can't remember how that is right now.
For the same reason I've watched people spend $500-600 on video card upgrades with the intention of running it on a 4yo CPU. This particular example is someone I used to work with buying two Voodoo 2s ($600) and putting them in a system sporting a P100. I tried talking him into buying 1 V2 and upgrading his CPU and and adding an additional V2 later on down the road, but noooooo. . . .
Count me as another who basically uses it as a bluray player these days. The only games I own for it are Resistance, Motorstorm, and Folklore...and I'm not very interested in any more. That said, I own precisely zero Bluray discs or HD DVD discs, and I just rent them via zip.ca (Canadian netflix thing).
Some people may build their home theater step by step, starting with the PS3 first.
Also I thought there was a report previously that claimed that 40% of PS3 owners do not know about Blu-ray ? (and 10-20% uses PS3 exclusively for games). So BDA and Sony need to work on those 40%. The movie sale should increase some more when they come in.
Since all the PS3 promos here in the US are "get 5 free blu-ray movies" you'd have to be more than slightly dense not to know it plays movies and downright stupid not to get your free movies. I seriously doubt that 40% don't know about blu-ray unless that's a stat from last xmas season.
As I've mentioned a few times before, I have 4 colleagues who got PS3s somewhere between now and March, and they're all very different:
one of them just bought the PS3, is still on SDtv, plays a few demos and mostly FIFA08 on it right now. He also just got a new kid, 3 girls now, and we keep him quite busy with work as well.
the next one bought a new (Full) HD TV a few months back, and bought a PS3 along with it, and a nice piece of furniture that has HDMI wiring integrated and such. Our company has also been involved with a takeover and a move of location (in reverse order) both happened in the last few months and he's barely had a chance to start it up, let alone configure it properly (I'll be going there one of these days to help him out with the PS3 where needed). I lent him Planet Earth, and he's been able to take a small peek at it for a few minutes, loved it, and asked me for a subtitled or dubbed version so his youngest daughter could understand it (doesn't exist yet it seems).
One (recently joined) colleague seems to use it quite a lot, also with his son (pre-teen) and told me he was thinking about buying that guitar game, and we talked about soccer games (although I don't play myself, after trying the demoes and reading about them I advised FIFA this year, they previously went for PES but after trying the demoes they agreed). And is going to get the PS Eye.
One colleague just got his this weekend, already bought an HDtv a few months ago, is just getting started but is already liking it.
And then there's me of course.
So you see, quite a varied bunch, but they're all just starting. I don't think any of them bought any BluRay movies just yet, and they're just starting to buy some games, basically.
Will be interesting to see how this changes over Christmas.
(We should all get PS Eyes, as you can video conference with the PS3 with up to 6 people at once.)
one of them just bought the PS3, is still on SDtv, plays a few demos and mostly FIFA08 on it right now. He also just got a new kid, 3 girls now, and we keep him quite busy with work as well.
the next one bought a new (Full) HD TV a few months back, and bought a PS3 along with it, and a nice piece of furniture that has HDMI wiring integrated and such. Our company has also been involved with a takeover and a move of location (in reverse order) both happened in the last few months and he's barely had a chance to start it up, let alone configure it properly (I'll be going there one of these days to help him out with the PS3 where needed). I lent him Planet Earth, and he's been able to take a small peek at it for a few minutes, loved it, and asked me for a subtitled or dubbed version so his youngest daughter could understand it (doesn't exist yet it seems).
One (recently joined) colleague seems to use it quite a lot, also with his son (pre-teen) and told me he was thinking about buying that guitar game, and we talked about soccer games (although I don't play myself, after trying the demoes and reading about them I advised FIFA this year, they previously went for PES but after trying the demoes they agreed). And is going to get the PS Eye.
One colleague just got his this weekend, already bought an HDtv a few months ago, is just getting started but is already liking it.
And then there's me of course.
So you see, quite a varied bunch, but they're all just starting. I don't think any of them bought any BluRay movies just yet, and they're just starting to buy some games, basically.
Will be interesting to see how this changes over Christmas.
(We should all get PS Eyes, as you can video conference with the PS3 with up to 6 people at once.
)quest55720
Regular
While the PS3 is and will help blu ray numbers now it will not help it get mass market appeal. Untill hd players get to main stream prices they are nothing more than a niche hard core devices. The PS3 is the short term answer but the blu ray group must get some reasonably priced players out there for the long term battle. For myself I got sick of waiting for someone in the blu ray group to break the gentlemans agreement with pricing. I got 2 hd-dvd players for less than the price of 1 blu ray player.
IMO this format war is going to go on for years. HD-dvd lacks in studio support and blu ray lacks in reasonably priced players. I just don't see either situation changing anytime soon. I don't see fox and disney going neutral and I don't see the ce blu ray group releasing lower margin players.
IMO this format war is going to go on for years. HD-dvd lacks in studio support and blu ray lacks in reasonably priced players. I just don't see either situation changing anytime soon. I don't see fox and disney going neutral and I don't see the ce blu ray group releasing lower margin players.
I think it was a Summer 07 survey, but I wouldn't be surprised if the result is off so to speak. It's the only publicized survey for such purposes though.
As for getting the 5 free BR discs, it's done in the form of a rebate. Don't be surprised too if some refuse to get them due to the tedium involved (however minor). These people are typically less price sensitive.
In any case, there should be a portion of PS3 owners who don't play Blu-ray movies yet. It takes time for behavior to change.
Prices will come down over time (standalones and even for PS3). Studios might change position again. The only certainty today (well, more or less) is I will continue to play games.
I do have intention to buy Ratatouille before Christmas though. And to Arwin a few posts above me, yes, PS Eye rocks (!)
Apparently, PS3 is helping BluRay in Europe, reaching 1 million disc sales and outselling HD DVD 3 to 1, with best selling titles being Casino Royale and 300.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88421
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88421
Well, it's as downright silly to claim that PS3 isn't helping B-r as it is to claim that PS3 users at the macro level watch as many HD movies as HD DVD owners do. Both are extremist and classic strawman positions to take.
For the former, if it were true then you'd be left with the laughable supposition that HD DVD is outselling B-r standalone hardware by mulitples and yet being significantly outsold as to content.
For the latter, it's plainly obvious that a class of someones who buys a single purpose device like an HD DVD player is going to use it more for the sole and only purpose they can use it for (watching HD DVD movies) than a different class of someones who buys a multi-purpose device like PS3 will use it for the specific subset of functionality we're discussing here.
Obviously the useful thing to do is figure out a reasonable ratio of PS3 owners it takes to make up one HD DVD owner and go from there. We probably have enough data at this point to actually do so.
Having said that, that ratio (just the ratio itself) will probably increase in HD DVD's favor over time as PS3's price decreases and a higher and higher percentage of new PS3 owners don't even own HDTVs in the first place. This will of course be offset to some degree, possibly even more so than the degradation in the ratio, by the higher volume of PS3 sales that the lower price generates.
For the former, if it were true then you'd be left with the laughable supposition that HD DVD is outselling B-r standalone hardware by mulitples and yet being significantly outsold as to content.
For the latter, it's plainly obvious that a class of someones who buys a single purpose device like an HD DVD player is going to use it more for the sole and only purpose they can use it for (watching HD DVD movies) than a different class of someones who buys a multi-purpose device like PS3 will use it for the specific subset of functionality we're discussing here.
Obviously the useful thing to do is figure out a reasonable ratio of PS3 owners it takes to make up one HD DVD owner and go from there. We probably have enough data at this point to actually do so.
Having said that, that ratio (just the ratio itself) will probably increase in HD DVD's favor over time as PS3's price decreases and a higher and higher percentage of new PS3 owners don't even own HDTVs in the first place. This will of course be offset to some degree, possibly even more so than the degradation in the ratio, by the higher volume of PS3 sales that the lower price generates.