Blu-Ray

[Reggs]

Well, Blockbuster just comitted itself to Blu-Ray, a huge loss for HD-DVD. I think this is going to be the tipping point.

As far as PS3, even if Blu-Ray does come out on top, I think it was pretty stupid to force people to buy it. Even if PS3 did have a lot of good exclusive games(

), at the end of the day I still want to know what Ill be paying $200 extra for. Now that MGS4 will probably be on the 360 I doubt Ill get a PS3. Well, maby after its already dead in the water and selling for $100 or so, like I did with the Saturn.

Slim, what did you think of the Dreamcast?

 

[A Y]

Originally Posted by capnpyro

I don't see many people downloading up to 50GB movies, then burning them onto BD-R's that currently cost as much as a retail Blu-Ray movie (~$20) in the near term, maybe next 2-3 years or more until BD-R prices come down and bandwidth speeds increase.

I don't think downloading hi-def movies will be thing that kills the next-gen formats. It's the ease of availability of content that people want to watch, in any resolution, good or poor. Netflix is the first step. Downloading will be the next.

The hi-def formats look good, but it's not fair comparing a still picture to a moving picture. The eye loses so much resolution when things are moving.

As for Sony, I just have to point out these things:

1. Beta
2. MD
3. UMD/PSP
4. Memory Stick
5. SACD
6. DAT

The only things that it's done right that were popular on a large scale were the CD, PS2, and Walkman. Walkman actually amplifies Sony's incompetence more so, since Sony let Apple eat their lunch and get away with it. How the heck does a company whose product was virtually synonymous with personal listening devices let some random little computer company with no history in the field completely replace it? Even worse, Apple doesn't even own a record company, so it had to negotiate with relatively hostile partners to make the iPod worthwhile.

--Andre

 

[Brian SD]

Andre, I agree with you. I'm just saying that until downloading HD content becomes more viable (and I think it's almost there), DVDs will reign supreme. Until the end of optical mediums, DVDs will be the optical medium of choice.

The PS3 is completely tanking right now, and I hope it continues to do so. I want M$ and Nintendo to come out on top this generation. As it is right now, Nintendo is tearing them both a new one.

 

[imageWIS]

Congrats on your 666th post

Jon.

 

[Reggs]

Priceless Sony quotes:

http://next-generationsystems.blogsp...st-quotes.html

"It's probably too cheap..."
- Ken Kutaragi, Regarding the $499 to $599 price point

"...for consumers to think to themselves "˜I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."
- Ken Kutaragi, explaining their marketing goals for the PS3

 

[Brian SD]

How about when that guy said he'll give anyone $1000 if they can find a PS3 on the shelf at a retailer?

 

[Tiranis]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

Sony has just dropped its music downloading biz and refocused all those resources into the PS3. Blu-Ray is slowly but surely rolling up supporters in retail and rental, and Gran Turismo still hasn't dropped yet. The games slated for Q4 this year will make or break the PS3's future.
This would all be nice if 360 didn't have a good game line-up (listing exclusives): Halo 3, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Alan Wake, and many more. Unless something crazy happens I don't see how PS3 will get a comeback, even with some nice exclusives, especially since many of them are not exclusive anymore and will be on 360. With that said Blu-Ray will most likely beat HD-DVD, although I can't imagine either getting a big marketshare anytime soon. But this will be completely irrelevant to PS3 as most people buy separate players anyway.

 

[GQgeek]

Didn't we already cover the DLing thing months ago? DLing won't kill anything. Broadband is still pretty slow in much of the US. We're talking about DLing 25-50GB per movie where a lot of people still have 20-30GB usage restrictions on their broadband accounts. Downloading a movie that big would be tolerable IF you were getting consistant DLs of 1MB/s (not Mb/s). Even then, it would STILL take 7 hours to DL at the low-end of the BR disc size range. And then you'd need a multi-terabyte array of drives to store these discs on. No normal user will have that for a least a few years, and by then I think BR will have plenty of penetration in the market. HDTV adoption is speeding up, you can already get HD-DVD players for under well under $300 and BR players are likely to follow-suit by the end of the year.

This move by blockbuster could really help tilt the scales. If people only see BR on the shelves, that's what they'll buy imo. At this point, I just want one side to win quickly so that we can start renting them. I used to be in the HD-DVD camp, but I think BR has a better chance of ending it quickly so I'm hoping they win. It's stupid having two standards out there to accomplish them same thing.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by Tiranis

This would all be nice if 360 didn't have a good game line-up (listing exclusives): Halo 3, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Alan Wake, and many more. Unless something crazy happens I don't see how PS3 will get a comeback, even with some nice exclusives, especially since many of them are not exclusive anymore and will be on 360. With that said Blu-Ray will most likely beat HD-DVD, although I can't imagine either getting a big marketshare anytime soon. But this will be completely irrelevant to PS3 as most people buy separate players anyway.
I agree that as of right now the available titles tilt the scales heavily in favor of the 360. Hell, most of what I want to play right now is on the 360. The problem is that generally speaking, the 360 is a POS and it doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in me buying one. If I wanted a loud, hot gaming machine that crashes, I'd just keep playing my first gen PS2.

$600 is still marsupialedly cheap considering what the PS3 has under the hood. I'd anticipate that within the next six months or so, Sony will begin to take advantage of the fact that they are selling a $600 supercomputer with a next-gen drive by releasing media center software, (maybe) storage expansion, and other applications for the PS3 along with the games and Blu-Ray movies. It's expensive as hell for a videogame machine, agreed, but for a 7.1 surround Hi-Def media center that plays games, music, movies and (possibly) TV - maybe they'll be able to close the gap a bit. I'm not saying that its DEFINITE that this will happen, but I have a "feeling" that some of this stuff is currently in the works. Plus, I wouldn't count out the games... the rumble is coming back into the controllers shortly (yay!), and there are plenty of good games on the horizon. FFXIII is going to blow people's minds (assuming they like FF to begin with), MGS4 is going to be great, GTA IV (and I can tell you now that it will be better than the 360 version, I promise!). Assassin's Creed and Lair are also looking pretty sweet. People will buy it, I think... when the games come out...

 

[Mute]

Look at it this way. If BR takes off and people want to start purchasing BR players, their best value maybe in just getting a PS3 instead of a BR player only given the current prices. If I decided at this point in time to purchase a BR machine, it will most definitely be a PS3 even if I never buy a single game for that system. It just makes sense, money wise, until someone comes out with a BR player that sells for less than $400.

 

[A Y]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

We're talking about DLing 25-50GB per movie where a lot of people still have 20-30GB usage restrictions on their broadband accounts.

Yes, but I made it clear people weren't downloading hi-def movies. Content that people want to watch is important. Quality is just icing.

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Congrats on your 666th post

And that's what I love about this forum: no one's hung up about integer multiples of powers of 10 here.

--Andre

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

This move by blockbuster could really help tilt the scales. If people only see BR on the shelves, that's what they'll buy imo. At this point, I just want one side to win quickly so that we can start renting them. I used to be in the HD-DVD camp, but I think BR has a better chance of ending it quickly so I'm hoping they win. It's stupid having two standards out there to accomplish them same thing.

Well, the problem stems from the fact that BR and HDVD are completely incompatible on a manufacturing level. I'm in complete agreement however: the sooner the format wars are over, the better it will be for everyone.

Jon.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

If the PS3 were a hundred bucks cheaper, would it make a difference?

We are about to find out. $100 price drop on July 12th.

$499... which includes five free blu-ray movies.


Anyone?

Opinions?

 

[mbc]

Originally Posted by Reggs

"...for consumers to think to themselves "˜I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."
- Ken Kutaragi, explaining their marketing goals for the PS3
Unsurprising. Maybe one of these days Japanese companies will realize that nobody else on the planet behaves the same way Japanese consumers do.

 

[A Y]

PS3 is considered one of the better BD players out there. It might be interesting.

--Andre