Will 5 bundled BD-movies help push PS3 sales?

[expletive]

This move may help bolster PS3 sales, but it really depends on if the people buying thee machines will use the PS3 as just a BD player or if they will actually buy games for it. If it ends up the majority of people that buy the system do it only for these movies and continuing movies then it's a sad sign for the PS3 in general. Sony will continue to lose money on system sales. And without game purchases there will be nothing to soften the losses of the PS3 sales.

Then again, his could be an entirely good thing and an incentive for people to buy the system along with a few games.

Agreed, i dont think it will boost PS3 sales but it will boost "PS3 as a BR player" sales. THeyll move some units but i think they should expect lower than average PS3 software consumption over the life of this console. Similarly, those who buy a ps3 as a game machine first, on average, will consume less BR movies as someone who buys it as a movie player.

I think we're heading to a point with the PS3 where installed base vs 360 may become much less relevant than software sales of like titles.

Its tough for developers, and Sony for that matter to know whos buying the PS3 to do what with so looking at titles like the darkness or GTA IV may be the best barometer going forward.

 

[cthellis42]

Have people actually run in-depth testing of standalone BR players against each other yet, and compared the PS3 alongside? (And compared quality changes from firmware updates, on those players that DO get updates?) Right now, I can't really see any reason to NOT get the PS3 as your BR player, if you're going that route.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I mean, you might not care about the movies, but who can argue with free?

You should know nothing is free. You'll end up paying for it anyway one way or another.

 

[cthellis42]

That's rather needlessly philosophical, and has basically disqualified people from taking interest in any sale, price drop, or bundled offer ever. Congrats!

 

[22psi]

No, the deal is that if you buy a PS3 and two games and a controller, you get a $50 gift certificate (which you can immediately apply to your purchase, I believe.)

Basically, if you were already in the market in one or just waiting for a price drop, between the deals it could kick you over. I mean, you might not care about the movies, but who can argue with free? And it's not like one WOULDN'T likely be getting at least two games and an extra controller...

Hence, no huge reason to wait if you want to have some fun now. But it's really going to impact those who are waiting for overall content (and the quality thereof) to make a decision on if they want one at ALL.

crappy deal then for me at least

 

[cthellis42]

crappy deal then for me at least

I'm not really gunning for it either, but if I had more surplus cash I probably would. I pretty much KNOW I'll be picking one up the moment Rock Band comes out, so it'd mainly be "to get it now, with some deals" rather than wait until later. *shrugs*

 

[Todd33]

Have people actually run in-depth testing of standalone BR players against each other yet, and compared the PS3 alongside? (And compared quality changes from firmware updates, on those players that DO get updates?) Right now, I can't really see any reason to NOT get the PS3 as your BR player, if you're going that route.

It's kind of old now, but Sound and Vision loved the PS3.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-dvd-bluray/1927/shootout-3-blu-ray-disc-players.html

 

[djskribbles]

not only is it a great BR player, its also a very good upscaling DVD player (among the best).
the only benefit of having a standalone player is that it will probably be quieter and it will consume less power

 

[SugarCoat]

If they do the same thing with the Xbox HD-DVD drive, I think they'd be flying off the shelves.

Well thats apples to oranges. The people buying the HD-DVD drives are doing it specificially to watch movies, with the PS3 its people generally buying the console to play games. This is already pretty much proven with the sales/attach rate of Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD before and after the PS3 launched. Even though the PS3 gave a huge sales boost to Blu-Ray players the actual BRD sales havent moved all that much.

What Sony seems to have failed to realize still is that the PS3 is a gaming console first and a movie player second. They seemed to of been banking quite a bit that people would leap right into BRD media for whatever reason. Too bad most people dont have disposable incomes to just start flushing money for BRD movies.

If anything this is simply yet another strategic move to more or less influence BRD sales for the better.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Too bad most people dont have disposable incomes to just start flushing money for BRD movies.

I can't imagine anybody who has purchased a PS3 at this point lacks disposable income.

 

[Todd33]

Even though the PS3 gave a huge sales boost to Blu-Ray players the actual BRD sales havent moved all that much.

Well the facts do not support this claim. HD-DVD has like 60% of the standalone market and yet BD are like 70% of HD movie sales. How does that work out if the PS3 has no impact on movie sales?

What Sony seems to have failed to realize still is that the PS3 is a gaming console first and a movie player second.

Again, many people have bought the Ps3 as a BD player, it is among the best and cheapest. So it is both a game machine and BD player, the only real penalty is the price to do both.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This whole thing of why people bought a PS3 can't be discussed without real figures. Until we get actual ratios of PS3 owners to BRD viewers and gamers, no-one really knows what people are using their PS3's for! It's all just best guesses.

 

[SugarCoat]

I can't imagine anybody who has purchased a PS3 at this point lacks disposable income.

i agree about that as well to a point, but theres also those people who save quite awhile for things and buy them, or who justify spending only so much on any one item. My point really is that people paying the price for the PS3 doesnt necessarily mean they have the money to go out and start buying $20-$30 movies. Especially when theres the cheaper option from DVD.

Well the facts do not support this claim. HD-DVD has like 60% of the standalone market and yet BD are like 70% of HD movie sales. How does that work out if the PS3 has no impact on movie sales?

I'd really like some proof of that. From everything i read the PS3 increased BRD player sales by something like 1000%, some crazy growth which is expected, right? But the movie sales since the launch havent followed this trend, or anything close to it. Im quite sure i read that BRD media growth both before and after the PS3 launch has been pretty pathetic as opposed to the HD-DVD attach rate which only has a few hundred thousand units but the people buying them are doing so specifically because they are buying the media, unlike a normal PS3 purchaser. Fact of the matter is most people arent buying PS3s then running over to the Blu-Ray section and spending another $100-$200 on some movies, which is what you and a few others make it sound like they're doing.

 

[Todd33]

I'd really like some proof of that. From everything i read the PS3 increased BRD player sales by something like 1000%, some crazy growth which is expected, right? But the movie sales since the launch havent followed this trend, or anything close to it. Im quite sure i read that BRD media growth both before and after the PS3 launch has been pretty pathetic as opposed to the HD-DVD attach rate which only has a few hundred thousand units but the people buying them are doing so specifically because they are buying the media, unlike a normal PS3 purchaser. Fact of the matter is most people arent buying PS3s then running over to the Blu-Ray section and spending another $100-$200 on some movies, which is what you and a few others make it sound like they're doing.

The group claims that 60% of all all the high definition set top players sold use the HD DVD format.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10070.cfm

BD/HD-DVD ratios:

Day Week YTD SI
01/07 63.3/36.7 63.3/36.7 41.2/58.8
01/14 68.2/31.8 65.7/34.3 43.2/56.8
01/21 67.8/32.2 66.4/33.6 45.1/54.9
01/28 68.8/31.2 67.0/33.0 46.7/53.3
02/04 69.0/31.0 67.4/32.6 48.1/51.9
02/11 69.6/30.4 67.7/32.3 49.3/50.7
02/18 65.0/35.0 67.4/32.6 50.3/49.7
02/25 68.5/31.5 67.4/32.6 51.5/48.5
03/04 65.7/34.3 67.2/32.8 52.2/47.8
03/11 68.7/31.3 67.9/32.1 52.8/47.2
03/18 81.7/18.3 69.2/30.8 54.3/45.7
03/25 n/a 70.4/29.6 55.6/44.4
04/01 n/a 69.9/30.1 56.2/43.8
04/08 62.4/37.6 69.4/30.6 56.4/43.6
04/15 61/39 69/31 57/43
04/22 52/48 68/32 57/43
04/29 71/29 68/32 58/42
05/06 60/40 68/32 57/43
05/13 62/38 68/32 57/43
05/20 58/42 67/33 57/43
05/27 69/31 67/33 58/42
06/03 61/39 67/33 59/41
06/10 66/34 67/33 59/41
06/17 64/36 67/33 59/41

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=798080

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Does that include PS3 sales?

 

[Todd33]

Does that include PS3 sales?

The 60% does not, they are trying to brag about their installed base by excluding the Ps3 on purpose (and 360 add-on which is at 150,000).

So 60% of the standalone market and 35% of the movie sales - I think the Ps3 is a huge impact even week to week (which is typically ~ 65/35).

 

[cthellis42]

Especially when theres the cheaper option from DVD.

Also especially when you can upconvert said DVD's... even on the PS3.

I think we're getting thrown off right now because people have a lot more easy renting options now than they used to. HD disks are at a premium, but they cost no more to rent, and since the HD releases so far are doing little to take advantage of features of the new formats, there's not as much compelling reason to own as opposed to renting the periodic flick you want to watch on your HDTV, and otherwise waiting for sales, price drops, etc. I think people are apt to go out and pick up a few disks to "try things out," or get a couple of their favorites, but there's no compelling reason to buy not because they necessarily still want DVD's, but because they can easily pick up each and every HD release right now (since it's still pretty slow) with a rental plan and get the best of both worlds. (Watch immediately, buy what you want when they start getting down to DVD rates.)

Of course this will certainly slow DOWN the rate at which the formats drop in price, but what do they care? They can always rent 'em again.

 

[SugarCoat]

The 60% does not, they are trying to brag about their installed base by excluding the Ps3 on purpose (and 360 add-on which is at 150,000).

So 60% of the standalone market and 35% of the movie sales - I think the Ps3 is a huge impact even week to week (which is typically ~ 65/35).

considering the millions of PS3s in homes vs the few hundred thousand of HD-DVD players or even standalone BRD i think my point is very clear, i certainly dont see that as a "huge impact". Numbers prior to the PS3 launch would prove that, which you didnt provide, just the numbers from the launch on which doesnt really show anything but a pretty stagnant percentage which also doesnt jive with a growing PS3 install base. If it was such a huge impact surely you'd see the numbers leaning drastically further and further into the BRD camp as the huge amount of PS3s are sold (in comparison to standalone HD-DVD players its huge anyway).

The question asked by the OP was is the five free movies going to move PS3s much better, i have seen nothing that proves that. Again, little indeed shows that the PS3s even have much impact on HD media sales.

 

[Todd33]

considering the millions of PS3s in homes vs the few hundred thousand of HD-DVD players or even standalone BRD i think my point is very clear, i certainly dont see that as a "huge impact". Numbers prior to the PS3 launch would prove that, which you didnt provide, just the numbers from the launch on which doesnt really show anything but a pretty stagnant percentage which also doesnt jive with a growing PS3 install base. If it was such a huge impact surely you'd see the numbers leaning drastically further and further into the BRD camp as the huge amount of PS3s are sold (in comparison to standalone HD-DVD players its huge anyway).

The question asked by the OP was is the five free movies going to move PS3s much better, i have seen nothing that proves that. Again, little indeed shows that the PS3s even have much impact on HD media sales.

That was a really long way to say "Yes, I was wrong when I said.."

Even though the PS3 gave a huge sales boost to Blu-Ray players the actual BRD sales havent moved all that much.

 

[cthellis42]

The question asked by the OP was is the five free movies going to move PS3s much better, i have seen nothing that proves that. Again, little indeed shows that the PS3s even have much impact on HD media sales.

Actually, we may see what goes with "levelled offers" at this point, as HD-DVD has been running a similar offer since March, and is already getting that media sales uptick.