Blu-ray penetrated
Source: Gizmondo
Betcha all those studios that signed up with Blu-ray rather than HD DVD because of its “superior security measures” are a little worried now. And this just a few days after it was discovered that Playstation 3 games were being artificially bloated (i.e. filled with automatically generated garbage data to increase file sizes) to justify the adoption of Blu-ray as the system’s storage format, and to push the “real” data further towards the outer edges of discs in order to improve read times on this “consistent read speeds across the entire disc” (or not) format. I wonder who will be taking home a pink slip from Sony Towers this Christmas?
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Posted: Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 9:04 PM
| Comments: 6
Categories:
Blu-ray
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Games
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HD DVD
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Technology
Comments
1.
its not completely 'hacked' yet, but give it time; this is just 2weeks after PS3's launch.
I dunno if you're into gaming but this article really illuminated for me the differences between PS3 and Xbox360. And was a slap in the face to Sony's hype machine - apparently, the 360's more future-proof despite BD(in fact, the article claims that BD's impact will probably be negligible):
http://dpad.gotfrag.com/portal/story/35372/?spage=1
Posted by: aw, November 30, 2006 10:01 PM
2.
Hmmmmmm
I just visited a large media store here in Italy that is beginning to sell BR, over-hyping it as the next big thing, as "the High Definition is here at last!" and so on and so on. And no trace of HD-DVD readers on site, at all. Some tech magazines are more or less singing the same song.
Meanwhile: PS3 advent being in 2007, Christmas console war sees PS2 (and DS) in all the right and most visibles areas within the largest general mart in town, while Xbox 360 is relegated in a small dark corner. The media store that sells BR is showing both PS2 and 360 side by side, with obvious price difference in good evidence. At least, Gears of War is considered hot and advertised (sigh)
Ok, Italy is an irrelevant market, especially when compared to major ones, but this kind of attitude from sellers made me worry a lot.
Posted by: MCP, November 30, 2006 11:03 PM
3.
That's interesting, Italy sounds more like Japan. For the time being and most likely the next two quarters, Xbox will dominate the market in the US and Europe. I don't know very much about Wii's marketing strategy
Posted by: , December 1, 2006 2:08 AM
4.
Point is, if HD-DVD is not even shown in large stores, BR(+PS3) will be perceived by general public as the only way to get High Definition. One could guess Sony high-level economic and social relationships, bonds and agreements here are much stronger than those of competitors.
Posted by: MCP, December 1, 2006 11:22 AM
5.
I don’t think that HD is yet at a stage where your average customer will simply go into a store and pick up what they see on a shelf. For some time to come, I expect that both formats are going to be bought by people making informed decisions based on what they read in other sources. As such, I wonder if perhaps the press reporting on the formats will have more effect on their uptake than advertising and in-store availability.
Posted by:
Whiggles, December 1, 2006 11:26 AM
6.
Yes, press for sure is very important, too, at this stage.
I happened to find medium/short articles showing evident bias pro Blu-Ray in at least four tech magazines I read in September/October (one related to video and CGI production; one for DVD and home cinema hardware; a couple of PC magazines). But given usual two/three months (AFAIK) gap from article writing to actual newsstand availability, they probably were written before summer.
Posted by: MCP, December 1, 2006 1:36 PM
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