From The Hollywood Reporter
2008 is the year Sony's Howard Stringer and the Blu-ray Disc will slay HD DVD as effectively as Joseph Turok dispenses with dinosaurs. If you're unfamiliar with that metaphor, you probably don't have a PlayStation 3.
Every PS3 console sold in the U.S. comes equipped with a Blu-ray DVD player. That's an advantage that has put the Sony device in about 2.7 million U.S. homes, compared with fewer than 750,000 for HD DVD. Blu-ray movies also outsell HD DVD movies in Europe by a 3-to-1 margin. This despite HD DVD players costing less than half the price of a PS3/Blu-ray combo unit. True, Paramount, DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation recently joined Universal in exclusively embracing HD DVD. But those decisions stemmed from a $150 million "incentive payment" that smacked of desperation.
To truly understand Blu-ray's dominance, compare titles that are available in both formats. Warner Bros.' "300" is the best-selling next-gen DVD, and Blu-ray boasts an advantage of 66% to 34% over HD DVD in sales of the title.
The final stake in HD DVD's heart could come from Blockbuster, which is testing both formats. "It's still about 70%-30% in favor of Blu-ray at our stores that offer both," a Blockbuster spokeswoman says.
Dual players are expensive, and a recent Forrester Research study suggests that 22% of Americans say they will not buy a next-gen player until one format wins over the other. Couple that with the 25% who say they'll never buy a next-gen player, and the incentives are in place for Hollywood to finally stop confusing the consumer with one too many choices.
2008 is the year Sony's Howard Stringer and the Blu-ray Disc will slay HD DVD as effectively as Joseph Turok dispenses with dinosaurs. If you're unfamiliar with that metaphor, you probably don't have a PlayStation 3.
Every PS3 console sold in the U.S. comes equipped with a Blu-ray DVD player. That's an advantage that has put the Sony device in about 2.7 million U.S. homes, compared with fewer than 750,000 for HD DVD. Blu-ray movies also outsell HD DVD movies in Europe by a 3-to-1 margin. This despite HD DVD players costing less than half the price of a PS3/Blu-ray combo unit. True, Paramount, DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation recently joined Universal in exclusively embracing HD DVD. But those decisions stemmed from a $150 million "incentive payment" that smacked of desperation.
To truly understand Blu-ray's dominance, compare titles that are available in both formats. Warner Bros.' "300" is the best-selling next-gen DVD, and Blu-ray boasts an advantage of 66% to 34% over HD DVD in sales of the title.
The final stake in HD DVD's heart could come from Blockbuster, which is testing both formats. "It's still about 70%-30% in favor of Blu-ray at our stores that offer both," a Blockbuster spokeswoman says.
Dual players are expensive, and a recent Forrester Research study suggests that 22% of Americans say they will not buy a next-gen player until one format wins over the other. Couple that with the 25% who say they'll never buy a next-gen player, and the incentives are in place for Hollywood to finally stop confusing the consumer with one too many choices.
