Fox, MGM pledge more support for Blu-ray

by Ross Miller on Aug 21st 2007 1:25PM

The high-definition format war was due for a shakeup. Following yesterday's news that Paramount will be ditching Blu-ray in favor of HD-DVD exclusivity, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM (whose video releases are, not coincidentally, handled by Fox) pledged more support for the Sony-backed Blu-ray, citing the format's dominant sales compared to HD-DVD.

That pledge totals 29 new Blu-ray releases by the end of the year, which breaks down as follows:

Six new films from Fox, including Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Live Free or Die Hard, that will be released day and date with the DVD version.
Four day and date (for U.S. only) Blu-ray and DVD new releases from MGM
19 titles deemed "must have on Blu-ray" from the two studios' collection

Additionally, Fox has promised to bring television drama Prison Break to Blu-ray. According to the announcement (via GameDaily), Fox said it intends to release "at least one state-of-the-art title per month featuring numerous BD 'firsts.'"

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Source

Tags: blu-ray, bluray, format, fox, hddvd, mgm, paramount, PS3, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (111)

...and what does this have to do with games?

lol...

Absolutely nothing. Except it generates traffic and will cause a flame war of ginormous proportions.

And I guess you could say that the ps3 has bluray so it remotely matters...at least thats what the writers and the sony fanboys will say.

So what is your contribution to society?

I'm only playing with ya ;)

It's relevant to the fact that one gaming console uses blue ray formatted discs for it's games.

I'll miss Fantastic Four...

Hopefully HD DVD will make big gains over the next few months.

Its still winning in terms of NUMBER of PLAYERS SOLD.

nope. Blu-ray players outsell HD-DVD players.

Nope. You're wrong troll.

nope. you're in denial.

And you're so scared that you're trying to flame me. Bye now troll.

lol @ "...flame me". grow some testicles and admit you're in denial about Blu-ray pwning HD-DVD in number of players sold.

now now kiddies, play nice

Ok, for those vaguely interested in facts:

* HD DVD standalone players outsell BD standalone players
* The PS3 outsells both, but only 25% use it as a BD movie player (NPD)

The bragging rights lie in how you choose to distort those points.

ill give you the only fact that matters: Blu-ray hardware/movies consistently pwning HD-DVD hardware/movies.

"MGM pledged more support for the Sony-backed Blu-ray"

It's easy for MGM to "pledge support" since their catalog is owned by Sony.

I was about to write exactly that fact.

They're currently only publish on Blueray and not on HD-DVD. After their pledge of more support for Bluray, they will still only publish to Bluray and not on HD-DVD. Where exactly did any shit change even the slightest? Not only is this unrelated to games, it's not even news.
FLASH
This just in from MGM
We're doing the same thing as last month.
Wow. That's so great info there. Nothing changed. They just want they're name in the news because Paramount got some people's interested yesterday. There's nothing here that I couldn't just declare on my own. Oh wait. Somethings coming in now.
FLASH
Sony's going to keep publishing games for the PS3 AND they will put out more movies on Bluray only.
Oh, and so will Disney and Lionsgate.
And Universal will still put out it's movies on HD-DVD along with Paramount, Dreamworks and the Weinstein Co.
Joystiq should know better than to be shills for Bluray OR HD-DVD
At worst, this belongs on Cinematical, not here. At best, it's not news at all. Nothing is different than before.

the naked gun movies exclusive to hd-dvd ftw!

This is from the New York Times...

Paramount and DreamWorks Animation declined to comment. Microsoft, the most prominent technology company supporting HD DVDs, said it could not rule out payment but said it wrote no checks. “We provided no financial incentives to Paramount or DreamWorks whatsoever,” said Amir Majidimehr, the head of Microsoft’s consumer media technology group.

Just to shutup all the ignorant people who think MS paid off Paramount.

From the very same article:

"But money talks: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD, according to two Viacom executives with knowledge of the deal but who asked not to be identified."

Your point?

I read the article and I understood it. Did you? Those financial incentives came from other parties most likely.

But hey if you and the rest of the sony fanboys want to think that MS did it thats your business.

And even if they did it was a good business move for both parties involved.

And its not like sony wouldn't or couldn't do the same thing. And its not like sony hasn't done this before in the past.

Point being they were still paid off to prolong the format war.

Also Microsoft's denial means nothing. They may be lying or they provided incentive by other means than financial.

See a "payoff" to you looks like a business deal to me.

And I believe MS. Its not a fact that MS paid them and until you and the rest of the sony fanboys actually have PROOF you're just spouting more bs rumors.

As for the continuing of the format war...thats a good thing IMO. I haven't decided which format I want yet but the more and more I look at bluray supporters the more I'm convinced that HD DVD is the way to go.

Now I have more time to research and make a decision. And spread the news.

"And I believe MS."

Sucker.

Does it really matter? That's how business works. We don't live in Sony's little world where honor and respect prevail in the video game business. It's all about the Benjamins baby!!!

I love how these idiotic sony fanboys think that these hearts actually make a difference in whether a person can read the comments or not.

And like the guy above me said its BUSINESS. And you're dumb if you think MS is the only company in the world who does that.

It's only delaying the inevitable end of the format war. Theres are over 4 million machines out there capable of playing blu-ray discs, theres no way hddvd is coming back from that. Prolonging it does hurt the consumer since it keeps prices higher in the short term.

And of course MS isn't the only company that does this, they all do. I was just calling out this lunatic that shits up EVERY SINGLE THREAD on this site with his never ending anti-sony bullshit.

@cc123

The problem is that it's not "inevitable" that Blu-Ray wins the format war. That's a common error--but one major studios and major corporations don't make. If it was "inevitable", I assure you they would have given up. There's no reason to spend more money if they didn't think they had a shot at winning the format war. All three of the major studios now support HD-DVD--two with at least partial exclusivity. The players are less expensive as well. The name is catchier...

Ultimately, nobody knows what's going to happen. That's the truth--and the days of people being certain Blu-Ray would win SHOULD be over...at least for the moment. I think we can safely all get back to guessing.

Well Dave I'll have to completely disagree with you. Between the standalones and 360 HD-DVD drive the number is a little under 300k. The PS3 and standalones are over 4 million right now. The PS3 alone sells more in about a month and a half than the entire life to date numbers of all hd-dvd playing hardware.

This was just a delay in the eventual phasing out of HD-DVD.

Also the two studios changed because of a $150 million "incentive" and I'm sure that whoever the mysterious source that gave this cash was had a very good reason for doing it.

Well, cc123, you certainly have a right to disagree--but the amount made on either format is a drop in the proverbial bucket when compared to DVD. Until average consumers make a decision, it hardly matters.

Everyone, including myself, thought things were leaning toward Blu-Ray--but you can't possibly claim to be as certain of Blu-Ray's success in light of this week's announcement.

Either way, it will be some time before either format dies--assuming there's ever a decisive victory. HD-DVD movies can be copied to Blu-Ray discs. I'm not sure the reverse is true. So the risk in embracing HD-DVD is relatively minimal.

@Dave

I'm saying that Blu-ray wins over HD-DVD not that it wins over DVD. Right now it is nothing compared to DVD and that part is definitely up in the air.

And yes even in light of this announcement I think Blu-ray will take it easily. The number difference is just too big right now and only getting bigger. At the start of the year I would have agreed it was a toss up not now though.

All I can say is that, due to this announcement, I immediately bought an HD-DVD player and a number of movies. I have read that a number of others have done the same. It seems production is cheaper on HD-DVD as well--so that's incentive for studios such as Paramount to switch. The lower cost of the players makes it easier for consumers (like myself). So how can claim to know the future?

I understand that nobody's who's made a decision for either format at this stage wants the other side to win. That just makes sense. When you commit time and money to something, you want to feel that you've made a wise investment. Everyone feels the same way. All I'm saying is that, if I'm going to be honest with myself, I DON'T KNOW--and neither do you.

Claim to know the future: No

But thinking that HD-DVD will not overcome the 3.7 million lead bluray has while it's LTD numbers are being outsold in a little bit over a month by bluray isn't much of a stretch.

HD-DVD hardware would have to start outselling bluray standalones AND PS3s on a monthly basis solely to catch up.

That is why I am confident bluray will take it.

Damn, I was hoping the Simpsons movie would come out for HDDVD.

Well, are you a Futurama fan? Because I believe the new Futurama movie is a Paramount property.

I kinda wish the whole media format war could be settled prior to Christmas. I like BluRay personally(storage space, functionality, etc.); but at this point, I just want it over with... no such luck, it seems.

I really think this think is going to go for some time. With major companies having so much invested in one format or the other, plus the general public just finally really adopting DVD's as today's video format added to the fact that the HDTV market has not fully matured yet.

There are just too many variables for this thing to end so quickly.

HTPC FTW.

That's all I have to say.

Do some of you REALLY THINK that it was just gonna be over that fast? Both side a put millions(?) of dollars into this "war". Do you think Toshiba was just gonna give up after a year going, "Oh darn we gave it our best try..." =)

Anyway, like I said before I have the HD DVD add on for 360 but I still plan on buying a Dual HD DVD/Blu Ray player when they get it right.

Wouldn't it be AWESOME if the next Xbox has a dual hd format drive!!?? Just a thought.

Maybe next gen systems (Xii, Xbox 720) will use some sort of memory card, instead of optical media.

I mean... they are now 16 GB SD card very cheap... in 4 years maybe a SD card with BluRay capacity will be cheap enough to make videogames with this format.

It will be cool, with no load times.

@Fernando

Uhh...why? Optical media has always been cheaper than cartridge media, and I'm highly doubtful that will change. Plus, with more games using a hard drive to reduce load times (and those load times would be reduced even more if next-gen systems use SSDs) the advantages of faster load times with cartridge media are reduced even more.

That would be pretty hilarious if the industry transformed back to cartridges, lmao!

@ TheGuy

I agree with the many points you've settled out. But flash technology still shows its promises: if I remember correctly, they're working on HDDs using flash to cache memory or something like that... basically, hybriding both technologies to essentially get a HDD with faster loading/reading speeds.

This is not news, everyone knows that Fox and MGM have been backing Blu-Ray for years now, they are simply reaffirming their support for a format that they haven't released any movies on for months. I guess it's just nice to post this as news to try and calm down any BR fanboys that are freaking out over the Paramount announcement. That or as a poster mentioned above, create another BR vs. HD flame war, as there aren't enough of those already.

War! Hoah, good god ya'll, what is it good for?

Absolutley nothing...

say it again!

Mr.Bay says Paramount pisses him off with this news(he wants Transformers to be available on both formats, available to as many people as possible) AND he won't be attached to Transformers two because of it.

Is that bad news Transformer fans?

Not really in all honesty.

I'm gonna watch Transformers 2 for several reasons.

1) The actors.
2) The robots.
3) The graphics (which probably will be even BETTER!)
4) To see if Megatron returns.
5) To see if they introduce MORE historical Autobots and Decepticons that we all know and love.

In short Michael Bay is a baby. Crying and whining all the time. I'll give him his props. He did a good job with Transformers 1.

But there are plenty of great directors out there that could do the same thing.

That's really a bunch of crap considering that both players still play normal DVD's I really don't think a owner of a BluRay player who really wants to have Transformers won't get it simply because they can't get it in HD.

I think this is really the reality of all this. While HD is clearly better, I really don't think we are to the point where the majority of people are saying HD or nothing. Before anyone blasts me with how they feel its HD or nothing, I said the majority of people which isn't made up of mostly videophiles, "hardcore" gamers, and other techies.

yeah, I thought it was hilarious when I read his post. A real little hissy fit.

Anyway, will one format die already!? I'm a BR person myself but if it stops all this format war rubbish then I don't care which camp comes out of this with the royalty checks.

Just concentrate in killing DVD off ya 'next gen' bastards!

Actually that's good news for people who want a good movie. Yeah I said it, Transformers wasn't good.

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Fox, MGM pledge more support for Blu-ray

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