Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and plans for future hybrid formats
We interrupt the game news with hardware “news” (more sales figures, an exec says something quotable, intercorporate politics, and questions about game format).
Parts of the porn industry may have “sided” with HD-DVD, but according to NPD sales figures, Blu-ray is still way ahead. Not that the HD-DVD Xbox 360 add-on isn’t moving: the MS hardware sold an impressive 92,000 units in the last two months of 2006! But Sony‘s Blu-ray has sold 687,000 units in the PS3.
Still, Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner (Time Warner supports both HD-DVD and Blu-ray) says the PS3 sales figure doesn’t necessarily mean Blu-ray is winning the format war. “Do I think that the game console platform is really going to drive the conversion?” Parsons said, “I don’t think so. People get those things [PS3s] to play games, not watch movies.”
The real winner will be determined by the sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. Or both could end up as losers with some companies opting to manufacture a compromise. Warner Brothers is fielding Total HD, a disc that can play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media. Meanwhile, LG Electronics has its Super Multi Blue player which plays both formats.
What would be interesting would be a hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-ray format. That should end all this brouhaha about which HD-DVD versus Blu-ray, so we can finally stop arguing about disc players and start talking about what matters most: game titles. Right? Right?
We interrupt the game news with hardware “news” (more sales figures, an exec says something quotable, intercorporate politics, and questions about game format).
Parts of the porn industry may have “sided” with HD-DVD, but according to NPD sales figures, Blu-ray is still way ahead. Not that the HD-DVD Xbox 360 add-on isn’t moving: the MS hardware sold an impressive 92,000 units in the last two months of 2006! But Sony‘s Blu-ray has sold 687,000 units in the PS3.
Still, Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner (Time Warner supports both HD-DVD and Blu-ray) says the PS3 sales figure doesn’t necessarily mean Blu-ray is winning the format war. “Do I think that the game console platform is really going to drive the conversion?” Parsons said, “I don’t think so. People get those things [PS3s] to play games, not watch movies.”
The real winner will be determined by the sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. Or both could end up as losers with some companies opting to manufacture a compromise. Warner Brothers is fielding Total HD, a disc that can play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media. Meanwhile, LG Electronics has its Super Multi Blue player which plays both formats.
What would be interesting would be a hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-ray format. That should end all this brouhaha about which HD-DVD versus Blu-ray, so we can finally stop arguing about disc players and start talking about what matters most: game titles. Right? Right?
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