Is Sony not BD's biggest developer and supporter? I would think that is extremely relevant.

The difference, of course, is that Microsoft is selling considerably more 360 systems and far more games than Sony is with the PS3. Right now the PS2 is far more profitable for them from a hardware and software standpoint.

Also, that loss includes a reported $1B from extending the warranties on all XBOX 360's to 3 years, and the refunds to people who paid for service.

I think MS has a sector or two in their company that are still pretty profitable though. Did MS as a whole post a net loss? People are comparing apples and thumbtacks to make things look good for Sony and PS3.

I will re-iterate, right now, Sony's trading of dominating the video game market in favor of dominating the home video market is looking like a shaky decision.

I have no hate for Sony. I have a PS1 and a PS2 (first day adopter on both). I have dozens of PS2 and PS1 games, and loads of Columbia DVDs. I have a Sony TV in the bedroom, and a Sony monitor.

What I think you are interpreting as hate for Sony is a lack of attachment to a corporation. I have no problems calling out a company, even one who I support, for their mistakes.

Well, I think they cannibalized their video game division (which was profitable) for their consumer electronics division (which was not as profitable, if it was profitable at all). BD may "win" the war but it will be at the expense of outright domination in the video game sector. The PS3 won't have a 70%+ share like its predecessors.

* 70% is my estimate, I don't remember what it is exactly.

i believe panasonic hold more patents in bd technology than sony. u wouldn't get that impression from reading message forums where sony is nearly always identified as synonymous with the bd format by those opposed to blu-ray. both were founding members of the bda, both manufacture bd discs of all varieties for other companies. both produce players, and both have been vocal proponents of their format. in fact panasonic spokesman have been more bombastic in my oppinion, with one fella recently claiming the war had been won already, with the release of the ps3. (a device which gives toshiba plenty of royalties, funnily enough!)

i agree entirely. i just don't see it as especially relevant to the subject of this thread - unless u take the next step and claim that sony are going to remove bd from ps3s and hence make every game unplayable on the system! the financial fortunes of sony simply don't impact the format war at this stage.

there was some interesting news recently in a completely different area. a samsung germany representative gave an exclusive interview to heise (german technical website) about the upcoming samsung dual format player. apparently the current plan (due for release in 2008) is for the unit to cost about $400 more than a simple bd player. it seems that dual players are likely to remain fairly expensive for the meantime.

Fair enough. I just find comments such as "The PS3...as a game system has been a disaster" and "It is currently an abysmal gaming machine" (not QGJ's quote) to be hyperbole, especially when they are repeated ad nauseum.

Continually comparing the PS3 to the Wii gets old too (posters in general, not necessarily QGJ). All the games I'd want to play are on the PS3 and with much better graphics than the Wii. If you don't like the selection on the PS3 that's a reasonable negative for you, but don't extrapolate that everyone has the same issue. If we all just post our experiences as data points, positive or negative, then others can decide for themselves whether something is a disaster or abysmal.

Well, back to more relevant Blu-Ray news:

Sharp Readies First Blu-ray Player for Fall Release

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ll_Release/749

The more the merrier!

Microsoft still has not turned a profit in their games division since the original Xbox launched. I think they were predicting their first profit in the next quarter.

They inadverdently traded their dominance in the video game market, for dominance in a niche corner of the home video market.

HDMs will not become -THE standard- home video format for quite a while (5-10 years) if ever for several reasons. The biggest being price.
cost of manufacturing may/should go down over time and with increased scale, but it will never go lower than dvd production. DVDs will always have a significant edge here, and that- moreso than sheer quality of the presentation- is what a significant majority of consumers base their purchasing decisions on.

But let's say you didn't agree with that- and that you believe that Blu-ray movies will eclipse dvds as the format that everyone buys their movies on... even then you would have to agree that we are still a ways off from this occuring.


Bottom line is- Sony ceded this generation of the console war, and their hope now is to make up the deficet with HDMs and Blu-ray as a standard- and that ain't gonna happen soon. In fact, I'd be willing to be we'd be looking at a second succsessor to Bush, before the majority of movies/content on disc purchased was Bd.

That's a long time to bleed.

While it's impossible to say for sure, I'm not convinced that Sony would have game dominance even without BD. Let's say they made the same console but with DVD instead of BD, knocking $100 off the price. At $400-500, they'd still be priced as high or higher than the 360, and much higher than Wii. The 360 had a year's head start, and Wii has been selling faster than either of them. At the very least, it would be a much closer race instead of Sony winning outright.

They were planning to launch in the spring but supplies of blue laser diodes were low so that is why they delayed until the fall. If this happened 360 would have a few months head start and not a year's time.

It would have been more than $100. I think side by side, a $350 PS3 with software still in the $50 range would have fared much better than the XBox on brand name alone.

If they were delayed for the diodes as you said (and I am not sure that was accurate- I thought they were predicting shortages due to the diodes) then they really blew it by giving MS a head start to that 2nd generation of games that everyone knows is better than the first.

Right now we have 3rd/4th generation titles for MS against 1st/2nd gen for Sony. They are in a tough spot. MGS4 and FFwhatever loom on the horizon, but when?

I thought they were delayed by not being able to fit the guts of the machine into the box they'd designed. And then there was the hasty revamping of the controller, dropping the rumble feature for some kind of Wii-ish motion sensor functionality.

Its great that YOU think there are great games on the system, but apparently the majority of people do not. PS3 games don't even break the Top 10, which is dominated by the 360, Wii and DS (notice no PSP there either?). The PS3 barley outsold the GBA last month. THE GBA. Which has been a dead system for over a year with nothing but throwaway kid games. Lets not even talk about last months PS3 sales. I own a PS3 and have 0 games for it. The game I was going to buy, DMC4, is now also on the Xbox 360. PS3 is a GREAT Blu-Ray player...and thats it.

Geoffrey Kleinman DVDTALK.com (second quote on the right) quoted on the new Disney ad.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ques...hp?startpage=4

Pro-B

Suprmallet is not going to be happy. Does Geoff even have a BD player?

It's incorrectly attributed, sourced from one of Daniel's reviews.

Oooh....that sucks.

What gets me is the new slogan: "Disney Blu-ray. Better than Perfect."

Oh, snap!

Harumph!

Uh oh ... looks like someone is letting their job go to their head.

I think you should sue...

jigga,

with football season coming up, can we expect any sort of announcement regarding 2 football movies from your company? One is the original starring Burt Reynolds and the other one is a remake with someone named Sandler. It would be good timing to release these.

I was hoping my response would be suitably tongue in cheek.

Unfortunately nothing is planned. I will keep you posted.

On a side note, I've seen what they are planning for Transformers and they look like they are going all out.

thanks.

I saw Transformers today and enjoyed it alot. Can't wait for the BD.