CES 2006 News & Announcements

[MrWibble]

How many dev-kits does a dev need? 4000 kits for 200 titles in progress is 20 kits per developer. Are there lots more games in development than that, or are lots of SDKs needed? How much of an issue is it if some of the team work on higher level code on less accurate SDKs, so the low-level coders get the final hardware Cell+RSX, and the higher-level programmers using the low-level functions run them on Cell+G70 kits appreciating the bottlenecks with the occassional test of their code on a final kit to make sure it runs up to speed?

3900 of them are probably in EA alone

What you describe is reasonable though - as things progress, newer kits come along and they go to the core coders while the older ones are moved to people with less of a need for them, or they get retired if they're too old for the newer libs.

 

[Titanio]

Looks like the only new footage was spliced into the Vision GT trailer..

Then trailers for MotorStorm, Formula 1, Vision Gran Turismo, Lair, and Warhawk were shown--the same trailers Sony showed at E3 last May. The only one with any discernible additions was Vision Gran Turismo, which had a flashy new introduction.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141877.html

 

[RobertR1]

As a Consumer, if the both formats give me the same image quality, I'm going for the $499 High Def. Player not the $1000 one. While the extra storage might sound like a big deal to enthusiasts the general consumer only cares about the cheapest price and is generally unaware and unconcerned of the capacity limits for various formats. If the prices aren't competitive, Blu Ray will go the way of SACD's.

If the studios who plan to make both BR DVD's and HD DVD have a prices diff. between the two, with BR DVD's costing more, it'll really hurt Blu Ray.

 

[mckmas8808]

As a Consumer, if the both formats give me the same image quality, I'm going for the $499 High Def. Player not the $1000 one. While the extra storage might sound like a big deal to enthusiasts the general consumer only cares about the cheapest price and is generally unaware and unconcerned of the capacity limits for various formats. If the prices aren't competitive, Blu Ray will go the way of SACD's.

If the studios who plan to make both BR DVD's and HD DVD have a prices diff. between the two, with BR DVD's costing more, it'll really hurt Blu Ray.

But what if the consumer finds out that many of their favorite movies are only on Blu-ray? What would the consumer do then?

 

[Titanio]

As a Consumer, if the both formats give me the same image quality, I'm going for the $499 High Def.

I'm not sure they do - I haven't seen much about HD-DVD resolution - but that $499 player certainly won't give you the same image quality (it's output is 720p/1080i).

Why not get a PS3 - likely no more than that HD-DVD drives price? It'll give you 1080p output, and the wider choice and variety of the Blu-ray lineup.

 

[RobertR1]

But what if the consumer finds out that many of their favorite movies are only on Blu-ray? What would the consumer do then?

Then it'll be up to Sony to strong arm studios into making BR media only. So far from the list posted on the first page, I'm more interested in the HD DVD movies. The cheaper player will also get the nod from OEM places like Dell, HP and so forth. Competitive pricing will be the main factor in Blu Ray vs. HD DVD war.

 

[Titanio]

Then it'll be up to Sony to strong arm studios into making BR media only. So far from the list posted on the first page, I'm more interested in the HD DVD movies. The cheaper player will also get the nod from OEM places like Dell, HP and so forth. Competitive pricing will be the main factor in Blu Ray vs. HD DVD war.

By the looks of things, only 10 or so titles, the Universal stuff, won't be on Blu-ray, for now at least. All titles from Sony, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate and Disney are exclusives to Blu-ray (and the first 3 have announced 56 titles sofar). Warner has titles coming, they simply haven't announced them yet. Neither have Disney. But if you go to the BDA booth at CES, you'll see a wall full of titles, including from Warner and Disney, so announcements are forthcoming..

 

[mckmas8808]

Then it'll be up to Sony to strong arm studios into making BR media only. So far from the list posted on the first page, I'm more interested in the HD DVD movies. The cheaper player will also get the nod from OEM places like Dell, HP and so forth. Competitive pricing will be the main factor in Blu Ray vs. HD DVD war.

Again those Warner movies will be on Blu-ray also. Please, please read the thread before posting.

 

[Edge]

As a Consumer, if the both formats give me the same image quality, I'm going for the $499 High Def. Player not the $1000 one.

Paying a thousand now is cheaper than playing $1500 later on, when the HD-DVD buyer realizes his mistake and then has to buy a Blu-ray player. Yes $1000 is cheaper than $1500! Do the math!

 

[MrWibble]

Paying a thousand now is cheaper than playing $1500 later on, when the HD-DVD buyer realizes his mistake and then has to buy a Blu-ray player. Yes $1000 is cheaper than $1500! Do the math!

And I have trouble believing that a PS3 will cost as much as $1000... it's probably worth holding out for that to be released (or at least for a price and date to be announced) before plonking down any amount of money on EITHER BD or HDDVD...

 

[Sis]

Paying a thousand now is cheaper than playing $1500 later on, when the HD-DVD buyer realizes his mistake and then has to buy a Blu-ray player. Yes $1000 is cheaper than $1500! Do the math!

Good point. I better avoid both.



.Sis

 

[scooby_dooby]

Paying a thousand now is cheaper than playing $1500 later on, when the HD-DVD buyer realizes his mistake and then has to buy a Blu-ray player. Yes $1000 is cheaper than $1500! Do the math!

Get over yourself. You don't know which format will end up on top. Companies would not be releasing hardware for both formats, and media for both formats, if there was not a real format war about to take place.

What happens to the BR owners that get stuck with a $1800 player for a losing format? What then? Do the math!!

HD-DVD has a great chance for success, they have backing from MS and Intel, they have a lower pricepoint, they will be first to market by 3 months, they are supported in the XBOX 360, and have support from most movie studios. They're standalone players will also be the first to hit sub-$300 pricerange.

This war may be decided on forums around the internet, but it's faaaaaaaar from over in a little thing called the REAL WORLD.

 

[Titanio]

they will be first to market by 3 months

Nope. They'll have 3 months over Sony's players, but Samsung are planning theres for early Spring, and PC drives will be out between Jan and March.

 

[Sis]

Nope. They'll have 3 months over Sony's players, but Samsung are planning theres for early Spring, and PC drives will be out between Jan and March.

What will you do with the PC drives that come out between Jan and March? Will these be capable of playing movies? I'm assuming not...

.Sis

 

[Edge]

HD-DVD has a great chance for success, they have backing from MS and Intel

How many HD-DVD players do Microsoft and Intel manufacture?

ZERO

How many movies will Microsoft and Intel produce for HD-DVD?

ZERO

It constantly amazes me how much weight people give Microsoft and Intel in the consumer space.

edit: Microsoft HD-DVD player for the 360 is a joke, and will be adopted by a tiny minority of 360 owners, and like you guys argue, if PS3 is not a CE device, neither is MS player.

 

[Titanio]

What will you do with the PC drives that come out between Jan and March? Will these be capable of playing movies? I'm assuming not...

.Sis

They are capable of playing movies, yes, at least the Pioneer is. Panasonics, I'm not sure, but I'd assume so.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Edge- Maybe you haven't noticed, but the consumer electronics world and the PC world are merging.

Intel and MS cast huge weight, and if HD-DVD drives start coming pre-installed on the majority of PC's it's pretty much game-over for BR.

 

[Sis]

They are capable of playing movies, yes, at least the Pioneer is. Panasonics, I'm not sure, but I'd assume so.

How? With an on-board decoder? What do they output to?

I thought there was a whole discussion around secured output and Windows XP certainly has no knowledge of Blu-ray or HD-DVD, so I'm confused about this point.

.Sis

EDIT: Are you talking about the Pioneer player? That's the link I see. I'm referring to a Blu-ray PC drive...

 

[AlphaWolf]

Paying a thousand now is cheaper than playing $1500 later on, when the HD-DVD buyer realizes his mistake and then has to buy a Blu-ray player. Yes $1000 is cheaper than $1500! Do the math!

Ok, buy an hd-dvd player for $500 now... format loses out 3 years down the road and forced to buy a BR player. So you run down to walmart and pick one up for $79.97. So total cost is $579.97.

 

[Nicked]

It constantly amazes me how much weight people give Microsoft and Intel in the consumer space..

Well, consumers seeing this on a box:

Definitely counts for something...
Its not as major as a movie studio or even some of the larger CE companies, but its pretty significant.