Blu-ray: Messiah of the PS3?
Flashback to a few months after the feared Y2K bug. With a less-than-admirable launch list, the PS2 had to rely on the strength of the brand name to drive sales. It wasn’t until the months leading to the holiday season of 2001 when a blockbuster list of games (Metal Gear Solid 2, Dynasty Warriors 3, Final Fantasy X, GTA 3, Devil May Cry, etc.) had the PS2 dominating.
Some have argued that what really kept the PS2 afloat (aside from the hype) during the first few months of its release – a time when the console was plagued by production shortages and eBay overpricing – was that the PS2 was a decent and affordable DVD player. There were even reports that at the time, Akihabara was filled with PS2s that are displaying DVD movies. Some have argued that this was surprising since they claim that Akihabara – the Japanese tech town – used to be solely videogame-centric.
Some Dreamcast fans even go as far as to say that if the Dreamcast, the console that came out a year early, only had DVD support instead if the GD-Rom, then maybe (we think that’s a big maybe) the Dreamcast would’ve lasted a few months past March 2001.
Flash-forward to 2007.
The PS3 is facing heavy criticism. Pundits are screaming lower than expected sales, shipping problems, high prices, bad PR, and an underwhelming launch list.
Defenders of the console are screaming that the big black console is built and engineered for a bright tomorrow, that prices will go down in time, that the high price is an investment worth making, and that just like the PS2, the games will come.
Defenders of Sony‘s big black console are also saying that the PS3 has Blu-ray. They’re saying that Blu-ray is the future, and that it will help support the PS3 until the promised franchises and the awaited titles arrive. The sentiment is that Blu-ray will help the PS3 much the same way DVD helped the PS2.
Read the rest of the article after the Jump.
Flashback to a few months after the feared Y2K bug. With a less-than-admirable launch list, the PS2 had to rely on the strength of the brand name to drive sales. It wasn’t until the months leading to the holiday season of 2001 when a blockbuster list of games (Metal Gear Solid 2, Dynasty Warriors 3, Final Fantasy X, GTA 3, Devil May Cry, etc.) had the PS2 dominating.
Some have argued that what really kept the PS2 afloat (aside from the hype) during the first few months of its release – a time when the console was plagued by production shortages and eBay overpricing – was that the PS2 was a decent and affordable DVD player. There were even reports that at the time, Akihabara was filled with PS2s that are displaying DVD movies. Some have argued that this was surprising since they claim that Akihabara – the Japanese tech town – used to be solely videogame-centric.
Some Dreamcast fans even go as far as to say that if the Dreamcast, the console that came out a year early, only had DVD support instead if the GD-Rom, then maybe (we think that’s a big maybe) the Dreamcast would’ve lasted a few months past March 2001.
Flash-forward to 2007.
The PS3 is facing heavy criticism. Pundits are screaming lower than expected sales, shipping problems, high prices, bad PR, and an underwhelming launch list.
Defenders of the console are screaming that the big black console is built and engineered for a bright tomorrow, that prices will go down in time, that the high price is an investment worth making, and that just like the PS2, the games will come.
Defenders of Sony‘s big black console are also saying that the PS3 has Blu-ray. They’re saying that Blu-ray is the future, and that it will help support the PS3 until the promised franchises and the awaited titles arrive. The sentiment is that Blu-ray will help the PS3 much the same way DVD helped the PS2.
Blu-ray to the rescue?
Well, the situation now isn’t exactly similar to the situation right after the Y2K bug. The Blu-ray’s got competition. Microsoft is pushing the HD-DVD format for their console that came out a year early, the Xbox 360. Some High-def connoisseurs are saying that the quality of Blu-ray HD movies isn’t all that good compared to HD-DVD. The HD-DVD camp is even saying that the contrast and the colors and the detail is better on HD-DVD.
If in the next few months, the Blu-ray format does become the dominant format for HD movies, will that help convince folks that their US$ 600 purchase is justified? After all, most Blu-ray players now are closer to US$ 900, thus making US$ 600 a decent price for a Blu-ray player that’s also a game system. Will that somehow give people reason to purchase PS3s while they wait for a second coming of that legendary 2001 Holiday game list? Sony zealots are hopeful.
So how’s the battlefield?
A quick look at the list of upcoming HD-DVD and Blu-ray releases seem to indicate that Blu-ray has a big lead when it comes to the number of movies that are going to be available on its platform.
| Upcoming HD-DVD releases |
Upcoming Blu-Ray releases |
| February 06, 2007 Failure to Launch (Paramount) Hollywoodland (Universal) February 13, 2007 The Departed (Warner) February 20, 2007 Babel (Paramount) February 27, 2007 Bullitt (Warner) The Getaway (1972) (Warner) Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time (Interscope) March 27, 2007 Happy Feet (Warner) National Geographic: Relentless Enemies (Warner) April 10, 2007 Payback: Straight Up – The Director’s Cut (Paramount) April 24, 2007 Planet Earth: The Complete Collection (BBC) |
February 06, 2007 American Psycho (Lionsgate) Failure to Launch (Paramount) First Blood (Lionsgate) Reservoir Dogs (Lionsgate) Running With Scissors (Sony) The Tailor of Panama (Sony) February 13, 2007 February 20, 2007 February 27, 2007 March 13, 2007 March 20, 2007 March 27, 2007 April 03, 2007 April 10, 2007 April 17, 2007 April 24, 2007 June 08, 2007 |
Of course, the titles listed above are only for the confirmed movie releases. Moreover, released titles don’t really indicate if the format is selling well or not. So how are format sales shaping up?
Well, it seems that recently, there’s a lot of good news for Blu-ray folks. There have been reports that Blu-ray discs are outselling HD-DVDs by over 2:1. In fact, the Nielsen VideoScan results for the week ending January 7 reveal that for every 47.14 HD DVD movies sold, 100 Blu-Ray movies are sold. And there’s a lot of speculation that the gap will get bigger.
Fox has even said in a press release that their internal research (we’re a bit iffy about this since it’s “internal”) indicates that the growing sales gap would see Blu-ray outselling HD DVD by a 3.5-to-1 ratio by the end of March this year.
Speaking of March, does it seem a bit too convenient that the PS3 will be launched in Europe this March, and that Sony’s “Spiderman 3” movie will be released soon after? Is this starting to sound like a PS3 fanboy’s wet dream?
Wait, we might be getting ahead of ourselves.
Despite us pointing out these things, we have to be fair and consider that Blu-ray may still end up a non-factor when it comes to the console war. That, and we still have to consider the opposition.
The people behind HD-DVD does point out that because HD-DVD is an option for Xbox 360 users, those on the HD-DVD side will have a higher “attachment” rate. They said this in a CES press release:
With the knowledge that every Xbox 360 HD DVD player sold is purchased by someone who wants to watch high definition movies, studios supporting HD DVD see significant value in the player, as a great way to bring “The Look and Sound of Perfect” to gamers while helping ensure strong movie attach rates for each and every player sold.
There’s also Microsoft’s planned IPTV, and Bill Gate’s drive to move content away from discs and have users just download the movies that they want. Here’s what Bill had to say during an interview:
For us it’s not the physical format. Understand that this is the last physical format there will ever be. Everything’s going to be streamed directly or on a hard disk. So, in this way, it’s even unclear how much this one counts.
Even if Bill himself isn’t unsure about how much “this one counts,” Xbox 360 HD DVD player sales still look pretty good.
It’s still up to Sony.
Sony’s big black box has been facing “hate” since even way before it was launched. You’d think that it’ll all lighten up after launch but no, the PS3 is facing a lot of criticisms right now. The latest EGM cover even shows a tomato-splattered PS3.
Despite things looking good for the Blu-ray format, it still doesn’t automatically translate to a brighter future for the PS3. Not that we’d like to decry the PS3, we just want to see Sony do things right. We have a PS3 here in the office ourselves, and we, like all of you PS3 fans out there, don’t want to end up with a dead console.
As much as we’d like to be happy about how things look promising for Blu-ray, Sony still has to exert a lot of effort to make Blu-ray matter for their PS3.
Sony has to make good on their promise that games for the PS3 will come. Sony has to work on that PlayStation Network of theirs. Sony still has to communicate to users that US$ 600 equates to a decent Blu-ray player. Sony has to communicate that Blu-ray movies are starting to sell and are starting to proliferate. Sony just basically needs to communicate.
Given their recent PR attempts involving bad rap and their PSP, this blogger is worried.
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