PS3 was driving force behind Blu-ray win – A trend set to continue
By Dave Parrack
This year has seen the death of one high definition format in HD DVD, and the emergence of another in Blu-Ray, as the format of the future, at least for the time being. It’s long been thought that the Playstation 3 having a Blu-ray drive built-in was one of the reasons for this win, and research has now shown how much of a trojan horse the Sony console proved to be.
Almost every single one of you will know that the high-definition format war is well and truly over now, with Toshiba holding the white flag up to Sony way back in February. So, Blu-ray won out, and HD DVD is no more, although there are a few people strangely still fighting for the future of the format.
The Entertainment Merchants Association has recently issued its annual report, which looks at trends happening in television, home video and video games over the course of the last year. One of the most revealing segments of the report is the part which states that the Playstation 3 “is the primary driver behind Blu-Ray sales, with 87% of PS3 owners watching Blu-Ray movies on their console.”
As PSX Extreme states, this is the same organisation which called Blu-Ray the losing format back in 2006, but it now seems they have had an obvious change of heart seeing as Blu-ray is the only format left. The EMA also makes a prediction in the report over the future growth of Blu-ray, and the PS3 again plays a major part. TG Daily states that:
The EMA believes that the PS3 will remain the main force behind Blu-ray disc sales until 2009, when standalone Blu-ray players are expected to outpace the sales volume of the PS3. Market research indicates that 100 – 130 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray player by 2012.
This raises the question of what would have happened if Sony hadn’t decided to use the PS3 as a trojan horse to get Blu-ray in to people’s homes? Or what would have happened if Microsoft HAD put an HD DVD drive in to the Xbox 360, instead of selling it as an add-on?
It’s reported that 316,000 HD DVD add-ons for the Xbox 360 were sold before HD DVD was declared dead, but when compared to the 3 million Playstation 3 consoles sold up to end of 2007, Toshiba’s format didn’t really stand a chance.
I think Blu-ray will continue its inevitable climb to be the number one movie format, although prices of both the players, and discs themselves will have to drop before DVD gets completely killed off. By which time, digital downloads will be a much cheaper, and more viable option for many.
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Stumble It!
July 6th, 2008
I only own 6 Blu Ray movies right now. The price of Blu Ray movies is ridiculous! For now, I’ll wait off on buying them. And because I don’t like to buy old material (dvds, vhs’s) I would say that it is a good call. :)
July 6th, 2008
Blu-ray won the little tiff with HD DVD but is nowhere near being even remotely close to winning the war with DVD.
With Blu-ray movie prices staying high and their supposedly final spec players very thin on the ground and also very expensive compared to upscaling DVD there is no guarantee at all that Blu-ray will escape the game console niche.
Many many people have zero interest in splashing out the large sums needed on the audio equipment needed to even hear the audio improvements it offers and upscale (at the price) looks pretty damned good on the 32″ – 50″ HD TVs which are all the size most of us will ever have.
The fanatics and game console fanboys just don’t get it, for a hell of a lot of people it’s all just TV at the end of the day; not the elixir of eternal life, in good health, with wealth and deep joy & happiness.
July 7th, 2008
“…the elixir of eternal life…” LOL, man that was good! I assume you got that from Ninja Gaiden. :P But yeah man, I completely agree with you. The only reason why I was able to afford a PS3 was because I saved my money for 3 or 4 years.
Had I not done that, PS3 would just be another video console to me. I still have to buy an HD TV so I can experience the PS3 in it’s true form. But by the time I do that, PS4 or Xbox Trace will be out.
…..I’m not buying another video game console again. Ater buying the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, and seeing the tragic hard times they both went through, I’m done with video games.
On PS3 I still be waiting on Motorstorm 2 and Resistance 2 to come out, but other than that, I’ll buy other things like clothes, shoes, a stack of dvd’s, paying for dinner with my dates, that type of thing…..
Video games are old now to me. There’s nothing innovative about them. When it comes right down to it, video games are just clear visuals with crisp sound…..thats all.
What ever happened to virtual reality?? When will video games literally PUT you in the game, to where you can’t tell if it’s reality or a dream??
When that happens, I will gladly enter back in the video game industry. But until then, PS3 and 360 will be my last stand……then it’s time to grow up :)