Warner drops HD DVD, goes Blu-Ray only

I am ready for one standard. If Blu-Ray wins then so be it, no matter what Sony Fanboys say the 360 is outselling and has always outsold the PS3. Just how many PS3's are out there? the 360 has outsold the Ps3 almost 4 to 5 to 1. Even if blue-ray becomes the dominant format I still wont buy a PS3 console to be my main Media player, I don't want the wear and tear. I will just buy a player. You PS3 fans can see this as a victory but face it. Xbox360 More games, more games that look better and play better and more games coming and thats the bottom line.

Sorry guys, I meant MS should release a Blu-ray Drive for the 360!

oh yeah also they forgot to mention that sony paid off new line cinema as well so none of those for HD DVD either :(

Xbox Ultimate to contain Blu-Ray drive, confirmed!!

how many times must it be said: DIGITAL DOWNLOADS IS A PIPE-DREAM that is at LEAST 8-15 YEARS down the road.

OK fellas hear me out here. First up, I've been coming to this site for over a year now. I appreciate gaming news and all things gaming. I DO like the 360, but I think M$ could have treated the customer better, and has a history of trying to squeeze ever buck out of Americans. Need and example? How bout the little assed HDDs that they were selling for over a hundred bucks? Well how bout Xbox 1 and having to buy a dongle to play DVDs (until haxors made it free)? How bout the wired Rock Band guitar bundle costing the same as the wireless PS3 one? (I'd rather have the wired one personally) My bottom line is that as much shit as people talk about the PS3, they seem to make you pay once (it may be expensive as hell, but...) for a decent product. The Ps2 was most people's first DVD player. If MS would have had inherent DVD capability without the extra charge it MAY have sold more systems, I mean it WAS better and all. This gen they don't have the luxury of much better hardware, and they're STILL making similar mistakes. Live as a PAY service? Come on man, without us gamers there would BE no Live, and they want to charge for it? I'm saying I know its a business, but the gaming division STILL hasn't made a nickel for obvious reasons. I don't hate you guys for having 360s, I have one myself, I just think they should do better by their customers, and this is typical of American companies (I'm American, active duty USAF actually). I have a problem when I bring up basic points like this and dudes like Knight call names and shit just because I'm pissed at MS for screwing US over on the BIG things. They just aren't THAT far ahead to be treating us like this, mostly because they are trying to recoup losses from Xbox 1.

Now Sony isn't perfect, but the machine DOES work over 95% of the time, the online IS free, and I'll be able to use the damn thing for 10 years, even if it IS just for Blu-ray movies (I own ONE, the one that came w/ the thing, and I could give two shits really). Its about longevity man. I said in the beginning when people were saying the PS3 was dead and it has no games and blah blah blah that it was made for the long haul. The 360 just doesn't seem to be designed to last 10 years, the PS3 seems to be. I wish they both were.

It was a good fight but I think the counter uppercut Sony just delivered has the Xbox stumbling at the moment!! Personally I would like to see what Microsoft has to say about all this... SHOULD BE INTERESTING on what the next week holds for us GAMERS!

Ok, here we go, just some observations:

Blu-Ray is a standard developed by Sony and Sony only. It has 50 gig standard on 2 layers, it uses a special (blue) laser, Blu-Ray discs need to be manufactured by selected Sony disc-pressing factories. Blu-Ray group was formed later on by impressing moviestudios by the enormous PS2 numbers (>115 million of these consoles in households over the world) and by showing all the extra security it would incorporate so that pirates couldn't rip Blu-Ray movies. All in all, it looked impressive enough to sway over Disney (including Buena Vista/Miramax/Pixar) and Fox. MGM was bought by Sony just before, so no other option as to back (exclusively) Blu-Ray. If I was Disney and I would know that there were 2 contenders for the follow-up to DVD standard and 1 of those would probably in > 100 million households the world over and the demographic of those owners would be perfectly suited for your own movies to sell to at premium prices (because right now moviestudios don't make as much a profit on 1 discbased movie (DVD) as they used to because of all the competition between DVD sellers) and it would have all kinds of protection against hacking your precious movies, I would to choose Blu-Ray.

The thing is, Sony isn't only a maker of tv's, walkmans, cellphones and (Playstation)consoles, they are also very big in moviemaking, moviepublishing and moviedistribution. They own Columbia (Tri-star), MGM, Sony Pictures and others. They would profit more than any other contender (Toshiba with its HD DVD format for instance) when BR would become the standard: not only would they (finally) have a made up standard that would be victourious and would stay for a long time to come (prestige), they would get revenue for a long time to come.

If I was Warner (for instance), I would not choose BR as a standard for High Def, because all your movies you sell on this format (BR) are gonna bring Sony wealth and so gets bigger and bigger. Sony is a competitor for Warner Bros in the movies market. So your Sony would benefit from every sell its (movie)competitors make (BR disc wise).

That's not a very good idea is it? Warner probably did not get (real) money from Sony to go BR exclusive. But, they probably did get a lot of discounts on the right you have to pay them to become a BR movie member and/or the amount of money you have to pay Sony to get your discs pressed at one of their plants.

The problem is: Sony is in control. Sony is in a monopoly position. They tried it before (DVD format is a combination of the Sony/Philips standard and the Toshiba standard, look it up, you're allready on the internet) and with the revenues they got on the Playstation format they knew it was the way of the future (single format domination) of getting a steady stream of money without doing shit.

I'm not saying Toshiba is a saint and that they wouldn't have the same hopes of becoming the High Def standard because of the money. I am saying, I prefer not-Sony getting its masterplan together. I am not a (super)fanboy of x360 that I dislike Playstation/Sony. I prefer xbox/x360 over PS2/PS3. I loved my Dreamcast, I hated nobody gave it a fair chance, because all morons bought a PS2 without even considering something else. That's genius PR on the side of Sony. Getting everybody very happy with PSX/PS1 (I had one from launch, I was laughed at by everybody, cause Project Reality/N64 would be the holy grail), especially in the end, when big number of lame non-gamers bought chipped PSX's with 30+ copied games with it for a super low price), so they are all Playstation minded and only considering Playstation 2 as a next-gen console with good games).

The other observation I have made is that in shops where you can get stand-alone BR players (or HD DVD players) the people who work there, aren't that big a fan of stand-alone BR players. Some of them told me, they would not buy new stock. Why? Because Sony is competing with these players in a unfair way by having a PS3 that is as good as a BR player as a standalone, but as a bonus you get PS3 playback compatibility with it. For free. Competively priced. Nobody is gonna pay for a standalone, that is more expensive than a PS3 with the same quality of playback movies. So in the end, Sony wins twice. Because of it position with the PS3 as a BR player, people are buying PS3's instead of standalones. It looks very nice for Sony to show the salesnumbers of your PS3 going up when people are buying it only as a cheap BR player. It has nothing to do with gaming. So they are hijacking the future of movie discs by using gaming technology.

In the gaming world, there have always been many contenders, there was never just one standard. Sure some were much more popular than others, but there wasn't a real monopoly in the market. Without it, there wouldn't have been (for exsample) such a fine gaming year as last year, which was made possible by the fierce competetion between x360/PS3/Wii.

So why is it possible that next gen High Def Movie format gets hijacked by consolegamemakers and that's a profit for mass market? Fuck mass market. Those people are lazy, they just want something they saw their friends having and they want it as cheap as hell (hardware + software/movies). They dont choose. They only don't want to 'lose'/ make a mistake. Those are the people that bought a PS2 when it was 250 dollar/euro/pounds and you could get all kinds of (mostly trash dumped licensed) games for little money in the supermarket. Those are not real (hardcore/fanboy)gamers (like you and me), those are not real movielovers, they are lazy and not willing to get informed and choose side on basis of their needs/availability of software they like.

So Warner now (mistakenly imo) chooses BR as format of the future, giving the message for the people that there is (finally) a 'Winner', so they (average Joe) can finally get their PS3 on the next price-cut (250/300 dollar/euro/pounds). Sony would make a (bigger) loss on every PS3 it sells for this price, but would get it back (x2/x10/100/1000?) in the long run (with its revenue on BR disc sales). Hardware makers (Pioneer/Samsung/LG/Philps etc) are gonna be pissed because nobody buys their kit. And every moviestudio (besides WB) pays Sony by every BR movie released so Sony (Pictures) gets richer and more dominant/powerfull. They are paying their competetion, silly ones.

In the end nobody wins but Average Lazy Joe and Sony and its naive fanboyfollowers.

This is x360 fanboy, so no problem with PS3 fanboy, only that most of them never made a (consious) choice when deciding on a movieformat. Most of them, didn't really care, they're in it for the games. They didn't even had a HD (ready) LCD/Plasma, so what would be the benefit? Movies on BR are expensive, it's not like the price of nowadays DVD's, is it? For the price of 2 BR movies you can get an PS3 game. For the price of 1 BR movie you can get a secondhand PS3 game. We are gamers. Some of us are gamers first, movielovers second. Some of us have expensive surround systems and HD video displays. Those people are the people that make a choice: choose I BR or HD DVD for my HD movies? Those people choose to buy a standalone (better buildquality, 5.1/7.1 analog out (when you don't have an surroundamp with HDMI input), dedicated remote control (instead of the bluetooth version available on PS3, not included with console) and more AV component design (against strange design PS3, where you can't really put it within the rest of your setup of AV component, only on top..)) or an add-on/PS3 for playback option. Those people are the hardcore (early adopters) that choose. Those people are dedicated and serious about movies. Those people are willing to buy movies at primium prices. Without those people (early adopters that choose) there wouldn't be an xbox (360) or PS3 now.
If nobodies buy it in the beginning it can't get popular.

Finally, the movies of studio Universal are very special to me, a lot of them are classics (Big Lebowski, Bourne trilogy, King Kong, Scarface, Terminator II, Leaving Las Vegas, La Haine/Hate, Deer Hunter, Carlito's Way, 40 year old Virgin, Carlito's Way, Children of Men etc (more adult-oriented than BR's Spiderman and Pirates of the Carribean family entertainment blockbuster stuff).
BR doesnt had/have them. Big miss. WB had movies out on HD DVD that weren't on BR (because of in-movie experiences/PiP etc): Matrix, V for Vendetta, to name a few.

Talking about Pip/In-Movie-Experiences: that's only possible on a BR player Version 1.1 or higher. There are only 2 players available right now that supports it:
a very expensive (+500 dollar/euro/pounds) standalone and the PS3 (because of its internetconnection and harddrive it can upgrade). So there's another argument why people are/will buy(ing) PS3 for BR movieplayback: its upgradability.
Think of all the (dedicated) BR early adopters with standalone machines (those people did choose, I respect them even though we prefer not the same standard), they now have an expensive machine that is not fully compatibly with all options on BR movies. They need to upgrade to get it. They will probably just buy a PS3, because BR version 1.1 is (also) not final.

Don't forget about the fact that BR has (oldscool) region coding. It's 2008, major movies are been released worldwide on the same date, but we're stuck (again) with regioncoding. On HD DVD I can (and allready have) buy imported movies that are not (yet) available in my country.
Also movies that were multiformat released did have the same quality of picture and sound on HD DVD with its (only) 30 Gig as BR (which is clearly the superior format because its got 50 Gig). Big HD award winning movies (= super HD picture remaster and super surround sound experience) that were multiformat (WB come to mind), like 300, 2001 A Space Oddissey, BladeRunner were the same high quality on both formats.


WB losing its multiformat stance is a real pity, a real shame, because WB has a lot of good, classic, adult-thinking-mans, classic movies (BladeRunner, Training Day, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Oddessey to name just a few), that were more appropiate (imo) on the HD DVD format (AND the BR format, with its younger demographic and lust for action oriented hit of the summer blockbuster movie) instead of only BR.

I really hope that WB turns its stance, Tosh (with partner MS) and us (HD DVD movielovers/Sony dominance-not-digging) got the time till end of May to prove WB otherwise. I hope they can pull it of.

NOW would be a good time for Microsoft to announce a WMV/HD store, online. Working with your xbox360, media center extender, zune, and computer, it would completely dominate the market. Downloadable high definition movies! Do it!

500gb drives are $100, now! We are ready!

Ok, I made some typos and repeated words/names twice by accident. Also English isn't my main language so my spelling/grammar isn't perfect.
My story was way too long for a first comment by a newly signed up member. Sorry, I am passionate about some things. Hope you don't mind (too much).
Yes, I am a HD DVD fanboy (there you have it, I said it out loud).

big blow to HD-DVD.360 going down.rise PS3.

big blow to HD DVD & 360.RISE PS3.ha ha ha ha ha ha

lets see 30 GB or 50 GB

You forgot to mention that Universal Studios is also HD-DVD exclusive, in addition to Paramount and Dreamworks.

paramount&dreamworks&universal studios. will come to blu-ray.

360 reg dvd games.PS3 blu-ray 50GB. longer games.resistance fall of man 16 GB. what that do.

It strikes me as odd to hear people on a page supporting a microsoft product speak of sony trying to monopolize things (J.F.) The Blu-ray format is better all around. With a theoretical limit of 200GB compared to a theoretical limit of 60GB, blu-ray can handle higher resolution should we go higher than 1080p. Right now, there isn't much of a difference overall in quality, but in a few years Blu-ray will still be able to handle new technologies. I understand it sucks for HD DVD owners, especiall 360 fanboys wich are almost cult like at times. Yeah, it has great games, I like my PS3 better but I'm not gonna trash the 360 because I have a preference.

As to the points people make about the consumer not being able to decided the format, they really did. Look at the sells over Christmas, blu-rays sold more. I know in europe it was 3:1 in favor of blu-ray and I don't remember the US ratio....even though I'm from the US, but it was higher too. When I go to best buy or any place like that, there are always more blu-rays to choose from and I see more people shopping for blu-rays than hd dvd. Actually, I've never seen someone pick up an HD DVD, of course people do I just haven't seen it.

As far as trashing Sony, 360 fanboys shouldn't criticize considering they are fans of Microsoft. This is the company that releases software that hasn't been properly tested then when a customer runs into a bug, they charge for tech support. So, in essence, they make the entire public their beta testers and charge them to do it. It's a strategy they use, we've talked about it in my comp-sci classes. I'm not an apple guy or anything, I just know how they opperate. So, don't be so quick to criticize Sony when M$ is probably the biggest monopoly of all and their practices are less than reputable at times.

If HD DVD wins, I will go out and buy a player, if blu-ray wins, as it looks like it will, great I don't have to buy another player but it's really not that big of a deal.

OH, and whoever is mentioning the VMD, the red laser HD disc, it is good but it doesn't surpass both formats in every way, it is slightly better than HD DVD and slightly worse than Blu-ray and that's basically only in the sound. I'm speaking technically of course because I actually haven't seen a VMD. It holds 30 GB per layer and it has 2 layers. I heard that what makes it cool is that it can play in an upscaling DVD player which makes costs low after a firmware update. It would be great but it's probably just a little to late entering the market.

Downloading movies sounds cool too but downloading blu-ray quality movie complete with the uncompressed sound would take way too long, even on a cable modem.