Damed

Yeah, it sounds like a regurgitation of the "no longer exclusive" story.

A link would be good.

g

Its the same Variety story that Universal denied.

Jim

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...y/19054/?biz=1

Just posting the link. Not claiming anything about the reliability of the site since I've never heard of it.

Edit: Looks like it links back to the Variety article.

Qui Gon Jim

Yup. The only thing that is true and has been reported is that Universal is no longer HD DVD exclusive. The rest seems to be some guy speculating.

Damed

Yep. It goes back to the same Variety article.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...ryId=1009&cs=1

Univesal has already responded and denied any coming bluray support.

bunkaroo

As much as I would love to see Uni on Blu, given their staunch support of HD DVD over the past 2 years, they're going to have to post an actual quote or press release stating they are releasing on Blu before I believe it.

Qui Gon Jim

Here's what kills me. This is the third paragraph in the Variety piece:
"Neither studio is ready to throw in the towel immediately, however. On Thursday, Universal broke its silence about the matter to say that it plans to keep supporting the format for the time being, a pledge Par made earlier in the week. And in any case, U is committed to a series of HD DVD promotions in coming months."

Compare that to the spin this guy put on it.

Thi si the reason why it is difficult to decipher fact from opinion. The web makes "reporting" without journalistic ethics easy, and at the same time a site (like this one) can appear to be totally legit.

TheMovieman

My question is, why are they prolonging this? I realize a lot is invested in this, but why not just rip the bandaid off and endure the short term pain because unless something drastic happens to the BD camp, there's no way HD-DVD is going to win...

Jim

I haven't seen a response from them that denied Blu-ray support would be forthcoming. Do you have a link for that? All I've seen is that they will continue to support HD DVD. They left out the work 'exclusively' in the denials I've seen.

Qui Gon Jim

This is under discussion here:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....22#post8424022
This news and Universal's denial are a couple pages back.

They don't specifically deny going BD, but they do not say anything at all about going TO BD. At this point, their stance has not officially changed. If follows logic that they will eventually at least go neutral, but they may have other plans. No matter what, until it is officially announced, it is speculation.

jiggawhat

This makes no sense at all. When did the studios start selling PS3s?

The PS3, like pretty much every other system with the exception of the Wii, have been sold at a loss. You need to explain what you mean because your post has nothing to do with what I was saying.

Qui Gon Jim

Maybe they are trying to work out BD licensing terms and are trying to figure out how profitable it will be to produce on one or both. They may be waiting on the fence for some incentive from one side or the other. They may have a financial stake in HD DVD. In time, I am sure their reasons will come out.

Quake1028

Unless something drastic happens to the DVD camp, neither BD or HD-DVD can ever "win".

Gizmo

Lock?

TheMovieman

No doubt about that, but I just want the whole thing to come into motion already. I'm tired of these endless discussions and speculations.

Qui Gon Jim

Your original quote:
I said that attach rate is important because if I am Fox for instance, and I am thinking about publishing on a format, the number of titles that are sold per potential customer is one of the numbers that helps me decide if the R&D dollars I will sink into a going with the new media will give me a decent ROI.

PS3 has sold a ton of units, but aside from each buyer being a potential customer, if I am a studio, I don't see any return on that sale.

If I DO see a nice ROI, I would turn around an produce more titles. My fear, especially now that one format is emerging as the winner, is that attach rates remain dismal, and studios slow their releases down to a trickle.

The second part of the quote is essentially the point you made after it. PS3 is sold at a loss so the only entity in the whole scheme of things that makes any money off the sale of a PS3 is the retailer that sells it (and their margins are reportedly very slim).

Qui Gon Jim

Agreed.

tylergfoster

Damn it, why hasn't this actually happened yet?

DVD Polizei

Because I haven't posted.

sentineles

I am no fool. I purchased it for the King Kong HD-DVD and that sweet remote. My point was that if you really use attach rates, I cut my attach rate in 1/2 for my DVD collection based on that purchase since both the 360 and the add-on play DVDs.

Qui Gon Jim

This is true. I have 1000 DVDs but I have 9 or 10 DVD playback devices.

I think the difference comes with market penetration. I think it is a safe assumption that most BD equipped players are being sold to separate customers because of the price point so they probably assume a close to 1:1 ratio between players and customers.

At some point, the penetration into the marketplace will be deep enough that they count owners or households rather than players.

While it was more of an apples-to-apples comparison between HD DVD and BD, DVD and BD is an extremely different comparison.

Mr. Cinema

They never said blu-ray. All they said was their current plan was to continue to support HD DVD. Just like WB saying in December that their current plan was to support both formats. I fully expect Paramount and Universal to keep supporting HD DVD for a while, but also releasing BD titles as well.

Goldblum

When a change happens, it will likely happen without warning. Any statements from these companies don't mean shit unless they are 100% unfaltering, even then they often retread. It's probably because all the big decisions occur from the highest of the higher-ups with little to no notice to the PR spinners.

Trevor

They will vocally support HD DVD until the 90 day return window on holiday shopping is over, and as much back stock as possible is cleared. By then, most retailers will go BR only and the studios will officially follow suit.

They know what they plan to do now, but it would be not be cost effective to announce it now.

cardaway