Universal = Blu-Ray exclusive?
 

I didn't see any threads about this, and I'm not sure how reliable the news is, but in the latest issue of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) there is a large spread on why this year will bring PS3 back in the game, and part of it mentions Blu-Ray winning the war. Well, here's the snippet:

http://bp3.blogger.com/_5jzXf-z6YEY/...h/EGMSCAN1.jpg

It may happen at some point, but I wouldn't put much stock in this article.

I read that as well. Sounded like it was speculation based on what looks obviouis to me.

I'd say that writer took a wild leap form the fact that Universal didn't categorically rule out Blu-Ray support.

I think we would at least need to see some Universal titles on Blu-Ray before we can even talk about exclusivity. I can see Universal being the last holdout in the HD battle.

Yeah, Universal has been pretty unwavering in their belief in hd-dvd. Paramount will make the switch first before hd-dvd.

misinformation.

Universal didn't make any comment regarding their support for HD DVD. There was a report that said that Universal's exclusivity contract with HD DVD had expired (whether or not this is true is unknown), and some websites *cough*TGDaily*cough* thought that that meant they were dropping HD DVD to be Blu-ray exclusive.

It's sad that that misinformation got published in a real magazine (let alone various websites). Journalism these days is just pathetic...

the article says:
i never saw such a statement released from Universal, so the article is either inaccurate, or i missed something. also, even if what the article states is true, that would not mean that Universal = Blu-ray Exclusive. it would simply mean that Universal != HD DVD-exclusive.

of course, i believe Universal will eventually release on Blu-ray, whether exclusively or not. but nothing has been announced to that effect yet.

You consider Electronic Gaming Monthly a "real" magazine?

Also keep in mind that a magazine with huge lead time will likely not "scoop" the internet.

I read this it's probably just a typo.

I agree Universal will ride this out until HD-Dvd goes down like The Titanic. There's so many releases I'd love to snag on Blu from Universal. Still too soon to tell. It will be another good year though. Unless Paramount does what it's been rumored to do.

haha. No. By "Real Magazine", I really meant "Physical Magazine", as opposed to something that is purely web-based.

That is, by far, the worst signature I've ever seen on any forum of any classification. ugh. I think I threw up a little...

What I think is that when and if Universal supports blu-ray, they will at first only release newer, major releases that were already on HD DVD. Like Bourne ultimatum, the Kingdom, and Chuck and Larry. They probably wont go into thier older catalog titles until HD DVD is "officially" dead. I wouldnt expect any announement from them for some time though. If they do decide to ditch the format, they wont want us to know until they have cleared thier warehouses of unsold HD DVDs.

On the other hand, much of the hard work in getting the current crop of HD DVDs ready for Blu-ray release is already done (the HD transfer, audio/video encoding and such). There would still be some work to to, to be sure, but the ROI for that work would be very high, so I see no reason that they would want to sit on them for any long period of time.

I agree. When Uni and Paramount go Blu, I would expect to see steady releases of some of their titles that were HD DVD exclusives. I don't expect them to hit like gangbusters, but they will be good fodder to pad out the release schedule.

All credibility in that article is gone when they say HD DVD is going the way of Laserdisc.

Probably written by a 20 year old who has no experience with LD.

Explicit wording: Universal is no longer HD-DVD exclusive.

Doesn't indicate any droppage of HD-DVD. Doesn't indicate any supportage of Blu. That's all there is to say about it.

Doesn't it, though, explicity imply this?

Except for the fact that it's a flat-out falsehood. Universal is still HD DVD exclusive.

While this may or may not happen down the road, let's go ahead and close this one until there's some actual news to discuss.