This might be covered by the Spielberg question since he was one of the executive producers of the film, but maybe the question could be amended to distinguish between films he directed vs. films where he was a producer.

Ok, added the new questions to my list. I can't promise that i'll get to any of them because i don't know if they'll have a Q&A but i'll do my best. I'll post what i hear tonight or tomorrow depending on how long the presentation is.

They had that offer for The Fifth Element up back in June when the player was supposed to be released the first time. At this point they are probably just trying to clear them out!

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/740/740455p1.html

First 500,000 PS3s will ship with Taledega Nights.

What does this mean? A few things:

1) Taledega Nights will become the best selling High Def disc (a BD50 NTL).
2) 500,000 Blu-Ray disc players (assuming everyone tries out their free disc).

1. Using that same logic, King Kong can also stomp out over 500K copies this year between the add-on and individual sales. Feebies just are not the same thing as retail sales, which is what Blu-Ray has stumbled with so far.

2. Point two, a pack-in disc, tells us nothing about what the attachment rates will be for the PS3. I would actually argue that including an entire movie instead of a demo disc will hurt them as more people will buy games to begin with as they already have a movie.

Not to be pedantic, but I don't think those 2 points really "mean" anything:

1. If you're giving away a disc, it doesn't become a "best seller". Sony could give away 2 million copies of a disc to people on the street and it would mean exactly the same thing -- nothing.

2. Unless a healthy percentage of those 500,000 go to Best Buy and get in the habit of buying additional BD movies to feed their machines, all this means is that you have half a million people watching a free movie at home on their game machine. Which means the same as point #1: nothing.


Not that I think this is a bad idea -- I abolutely think that Sony should be shipping the PS3s with movies. Just like I think including Kong with the Xbox addon is a great idea.

But I just wouldn't draw any conclusions from this yet. The first 500,000 of these especially are going to hardcore gamers who really, really want a machine to play games. Maybe they'll buy movies for it too. Maybe they won't. But I'm not sure that including a single recent comedy film is going to tip the scales much. It's just a nice extra.

With the add on, we know what it will be used for. With the PS3, no one knows how many will use it for movies. It's a gaming machine first and foremost.

Kinda twisted logic to say Talledega Nights will be the best selling disc because it's bundled with the PS3. Standalone sales of a movie is much more impressive and I think Kong will definitely win that battle.

It may mean that the second-hand market will be flooded with copies of Talladega Nights. Anyone without a PS3 looking to buy it would be wise to check eBay, EB Games, etc. instead of picking it up at a retail store.

Sort of like people looking to buy Lost in Space or Stepmom around 1999 or so.

I agree. If someone isn't picking up a copy of the movie and walking up to a register -- or placing it in a shopping cart online -- it's not a sale. A consumer buys a PS3 and gets Talladega Nights; he isn't buying Talladega Nights.

Sony would be wise to just use a slipcover or something instead of full case/artwork. The last thing they want is loads of these used discs sitting on a shelf somewhere taking up space looking like no one wants them. We'll have to wait and see.

Wow, that's the first thing I thought of when I read that post. They gave away 5 free DVDs with the purchase of a DVD player (also Six Days Seven Nights, Lethal Weapon 4, and Stargate).

1) no...the most owned...thats different.
2) whatever # of PS3 are sold is the number of BD players (along with the standalones)....watching Talladega nights doesnt have anything to do with it.

Also ask if they're aware of the TrueHD skipping problems on End of Days and Fear & Loathing, and if they know what's causing it.

No one ever wanted to buy a copy of Lost in Space or Stepmom.

The PSP came bundled with the Spiderman UMD and helped make UMD the successful movie format that it is today. Here's hoping Talendega Nights can be as helpful to the Blu-Ray format.

Well i just got back from the presentation. This was held at a Sheraton Hotel which is an above average hotel i would say. It had a nice dinner buffet with a carving station and an open bar. Hell i even had some keisch or however you spell it. This event was held for small video chains and independant video stores and i knew this going in. Let me just say that me, wearing khakies and a nice sweater, outstyled everyone in the room except for the speaker and the staff. Some serious white trash. This was an immediate bad sign.

Anyways, the presentation lasted for about two hours and i would say that about the first hour was spent talking about piracy and downloading. And 5 of those minutes was spent talking about how they are preventing piracy. Talking about how much money was lost and how you can go to jail for 3 years if you get caught bootlegging.

They then spent 20 minutes going over new movies coming into theatres, which some were quite interesting. They also spent about 10 minutes going over how Universal did this past year and how the boxoffice has rebounded. They also sprinkled in some more piracy talk too.

Finally, about an hour and a half in we get to the High Def talk. 5 FUCKING MINUTES. That's all. And his whole speech was about how everyone should wait and see who wins and that the High Def stuff is too complicated for consumers. He basically instructed a room full of people to not buy either product, but he did mention the price of both machines and the available space on both discs. He then played a clip of cobbled media reports where they talk about the format war and how it is like Beta V. Vhs. They also said that these High Def machines are soo much Bigger and Heavier and they made it sound like a bad thing, they then said in a few years they'll have lighter and smaller machines. They also talk to some Fucking tech guy who says that the High Def players are useless if you don't have a 1080P TV and that there are only 3 readily available and usually go for $10,000. I almost threw my beer at the projector.

So he the clip ends and he asks if there's any questions. BOOM! My hand shoots up. Now i'm kinda pissed about all of this already, "Why in the world are you showing clips that are completely untrue. 1. You don't need a 1080P TV to enjoy High Def stuff. 2. The jump from VHS to DVD was far more complicated. and 3. Aren't you guys exclusive to HD-DVD, isn't HD-DVD getting good press and doing really well?"

Now the other people in the room might have understood 8-10 words in my little rant. The speaker responded saying with the classic Best buy line that 1080P is the future of TV and that the TV's and he went on to explain that with new HD equipment there is a learning period and that first generation equipment isn't perfected. Now comes the good part in response to why he isn't promoting HD-DVD and the fact that HD-DVD is getting good press, "Yes we are exclusive to HD-DVD and we choose to be with them because of their copyprotection that they could provide and the fact that they are a more durable format. HD-DVD is doing very well and getting great press, but if Blu-Ray comes along and takes the lead and proves their a better fit then we'll have NO problem supporting them." I was kinda stunned. And then we briskly moved on.

That was the last mention of any High Def stuff. I decided i didn't want to talk to the man anymore because from his presentation i didn't think i could believe anything he said. But i did score 5 free dvd's: Curious George, Frankenstein 75th Anniversary ed, After the Rain, THis Revolution, and Break Up Artist. So i guess it was worth going just for the free food, Booze, and movies. But if anyone ever meets Steve Randolph from Universal give him a swift kick in nuts for wasting two hours of my life and poluting the minds of innocent white trash people.

A little add on to the High Def talk that the guy said "We drove around to 10 different Best Buys and Circuit City's and you want to know how many High Def players we foudn. ONE. and that just came in that day." There was not one mention of any HD titles or feature or anything about the movies that they put out or are planning to put out.

Unbelieveable. I thought that superficial shit only mattered for game consoles. Yeah, screw better quality picture and sound, I'll just stick with a compact DVD player.

Gotta tell ya - I think that Universal is taking a responsible appraoch to the situation.

Don't forget that there is an upcoming EU investigation into studio exclusivity.

Universal is on very solid ground, since HD DVD is outselling Bluray - and the more they emphasize this, the better.

The other studios are exclsuively backing the format that is NOT preferred by 70 percent of the consumers, and are beginning to stick out a bit.

What Universal says about backing whichever formats do well is a resonsible approach that should be adopted by the others... after all, no one said they would abandon HD DVD at any point.

With regards to Taladega Nights being included with the PS3 - hmmmm... surely they could've come up with something a bit more "WHAM"? I think they have inadvertantly highlighted another key difference between Bluray releases and HD DVD releases - the desirability of the movies being released so far...

Will Ferrell is a hot ticket right now. I think that wasn't a bad choice for a movie at all.

Or people buying freaking Phantom of the Opera last April.

Well *that* made my morning.

I really wouldn't read too much into this. He mentioned copyright protection, which we all know Blu-Ray has the upperhand on, not HD DVD. The more "durable" format is Blu-Ray with the manditory scratch resistant coating. I'm sure he meant to say "cheaper", but even that might be a fallacy at this point.

That is pretty interested that he said they would have no problem supporting Blu-Ray. The facts you can get wrong, but a hard driven company line like that is something you would think they would have tattooed on their arms.