The problem with Sony is you have all sorts of conflicting information. They're all over the place. Here's what Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai said on or about 8/18/2006:

From GameDaily:

At CES 2006 I believe they said 4 million units by end of calendar year 2006 (there's a picture of the slide here).

As for the 10 million they promised studios to get them to support Blu-ray-- that was a long time ago. I remember reading about it at the time. I did find an article mentioning it in Business Week on 11/8/05:

I also found a mention of the 10 million units in an April 06 issue of Sound and Vision link here:

Some of us have been following this for more than a year and it is hard to bring you up to date on points that were reported that long ago.

It says 10 million units by the first YEAR AND A HALF. Microsoft is about to do it in 1 fiscal year, you dont think sony can?

P.S. Devil May Cry 4 playabale at tokyo game show this september on the ps3. Dont think sony is out of the game market, they still have a lot to show for themselves.

It's a buttload of money. It has an inferior picture that is blamed mainly on the use of MPEG-2.

If they had made games on LD do you think the format would have taken over?

I think they'll find a way to get her free hardware. -wink-

She has very valid points. I could see more people with a PS3 buying regular dvds because of the price than bothering with BR discs.

No kidding? I had no idea they were anywhere near that number.

And do you really think that a significant amount of college students, or people close to that age, have that kind of a/v equipment? They are, after all, a large part of the gaming community.

Consumers voice their opinions with dollars. DVD was better and more affordable than other options, and it did well. If you want to get into technological minutiae, then that's for another discussion. This line of discussion was about the perception of value and how big of a difference each step "up" was for the consumer.


I'll repeat my quote, in full:

"Unfortunately Kaz Hirai's comments in the recent GameSpot interview regarding PLAYSTATION 3 production were misunderstood. We are still on schedule to ship 2 million units for our mid-November 2006 launch and additional 2 million units by the end of the year for a total of 4 million units." - SCEA, 8/22/06

Oh Kaz....

That remains yet to be seen. ;)

You're right, it is anecdotal. However, I would be interested in knowing ther reasons behind that decision, as they may not apply to the PS3.

Now you're just talking about perception instead of actual fact. In that case, there's these things called CDs that everyone was aware of for playing music. To public perception, DVD was a CD that played movies. So it's still evolutionary rather than revolutionary in the perception of its technological advancement

In any case, the technological advantages that LD provided were not enough to bring it mainstream acceptance at any point in its 20 year life-span. DVD didn't catch on because of technological superiority, aside from the smaller format that held a full movie aspect of it. The major things that drove the mainstream to it, low price and films appearing on the format before VHS, were market driven, not technology driven.

Warner just confirmed for me that of their second wave of BD titles, Full Metal Jacket will be the only one that uses MPEG2. Lethal Weapon, Blazing Saddles, and Firewall will all be encoded using VC1.

Things are starting to get interesting, i guess, if you want to pay almost triple to get the same quality...IF it's the same quality.

Not improbable in that I don't think it will happen at all, but improbable in that I don't think it'll happen to the PS3 in any significant amount.

Of course I'm talking about perceived value. I'm really not interested in this ridiculous semantic debate. I've seen little evidence to suggest that the PS3 will be the Trojan horse Sony (and presumably you?) believe, with millions of gamers each buying dozens of Blu-ray discs and shifting the market in that direction. It's anyone's guess what'll happen, and if you think that's the course the market will inevitably take, it's as good a guess as any. I really don't care enough to continue replying to your smarmy posts.

It still costs less than any other BD player, and is less than Toshiba's more expensive HD-DVD player. Plus, it's a video-game system, which is what most people will be buying it for. That it plays BD movies is just a bonus.

MPEG-2 usage will change. And for an owner of a PS3, buying a BD disc will be cheaper than buying a whole new player and disc.

Um, they did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc_video_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_LaserActive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon_(console)

However, if any successful video game system had used LD as a media, and could play LD movies as well, I think the format would've seen a boost. Just like PS3 will give BD a significant boost, although it probably won't decide the winning format.

As of yesterday...news:

Citing issues with parts suppliers, Mitsubishi forecasts Sony will only be able to ship 3 million units following its launch of the PS3 versus the 6 million Sony has said it expects to ship. Although Sony's loss as related to its Gaming unit will be smaller given the fewer units shipped, this will have a negative impact over the longer-term as it will take more time for Sony to recoup its costs.

Have what kind of equipment? I never said that everyone buying a PS3 will have an HDTV. However, those that do will more likely than not use their PS3 on it. For those without an HDTV, BD movies won't be of interest right away, as won't HD-DVD. The difference is that once people with PS3s upgrade to HDTV, they already have a machine capable of playing BD, while they'd need to buy something else to play HD-DVD.

BD discs don't cost triple.

You know what i mean.

The player to play them on, does.

Man, are you here JUST to argue?

I bought mine for ~$450 after tax at Best Buy. Are you saying I'm going to be able to buy a PS3 for less than that? Since the Tosh has HDMI, you'd have to compare it to the more expensive PS3 with HDMI, too.

I've never said that millions of gamers will be buying and watching BD movies, at least not instantly. I also never said that I think BD will inevitably win. I did say that even if a small fraction of PS3 buyers become regular BD movie buyers, that's a significant boost this early in the formats. Its a boost that shouldn't be ignored, which is what many HD-DVD boosters seem want to do.

It's not an all or nothing equation; it's not either "PS3 will bring millions of BD movie consumers" or "PS3 will bring near zero BD movie adopters," and it's frustrating that most people want to reduce it to that.

Samsung and Sony list their BD player at $999.99. Toshiba's HD-A1 lists for $699.99

By "Toshiba's more expensive HD-DVD player," I meant, "the more expensive model of Toshiba's two players." PS3 falls in price between the two Toshiba models. Sorry fo the confusion.

Can be had for $363.

The panasonic and pioneer will both be over $1300 and are currently on tap to be the best way to see them.

I seriously don't get why you're here to start bullshit. Do some research.

Sony's Stock plummets on PS3 shortage news.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) fell more than 3 percent by early afternoon on Thursday after a Japanese brokerage cut its rating on the electronics maker and its shipment target for the upcoming PlayStation 3 game console.

Mitsubishi UFJ Securities lowered its rating on Sony to "3" from "2" and slashed by half its estimate on PS3 sales for the current business year ending March 31 to 3 million units, citing difficulties in procuring enough cutting-edge parts.

The PS3, sometimes described as a high-performance home server disguised as a game machine, is powered by the Cell microchip, dubbed the "supercomputer on a chip," and equipped with a Blu-ray next-generation high-definition optical disc drive.

Sony shares were down 3.2 percent at 5,080 yen, underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index (.IELEC.T: Quote, NEWS, Research), which lost 1.51 percent.

A spokeswoman for Sony's game division, which in March delayed the PS3 launch to November from spring 2006, declined to comment.

Sony, which competes with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS: Quote, NEWS, Research) in the nearly $30 billion video game industry, aims to ship 6 million units of the latest version of its blockbuster game machine by March.

Slower PS3 sales would affect Sony's bottom line in a positive way in the short term as the company is expected to make a loss on each console it sells at the initial stage.

The Tokyo-based company said in April its game division would rack up an operating loss of 100 billion yen ($860 million) this business year.

It is not unusual for game makers to suffer substantial losses at the early stage of a console launch by setting prices low to spur sales. They typically rake in profits later through game software sales.

The Samsung can be had for $799 at Amazon right now.

And it sucks.

Do you even own either format? Or plan on it?