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Study: Consumers Prefer HD DVD Over Blu-Ray (2 Viewers)

ppltd

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The PS2 revenues are the bread and butter of Sony's gaming devision. It will be a while before they cut off that revenue line.
 

Ryan-G

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They already have. By releasing the PS3, continuing to sell it is just clearing out backstock collected in warehouses. They know quite well the PS2 is dead, they're just hoping it sticks around long enough to offset the huge losses from the PS3.

Just as they did with the PS when the PS2 released, just as MS did with the X-box when the 360 released, Sega, Nintendo, etc.
 

ppltd

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Two different business models. Maintaining sales of the PS2 does not influence the PS3 buyer as the consoles are not in competion with each other. There is no way Sony is going to abandon the PS2 nor do I believe they have announced it demise.
 

Ryan-G

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Buisness models are unimportant. There's a very finite amount of resources available to go into game development. The resources are being devoted to next generation development, as they must be. Trying to design and deploy a multi-platform title for 7 distinct platforms is a good way to go bankrupt(X-box, X-box 360, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Wii, PC). Development will, and in most cases already has, focus on next gen systems. In fact, every AAA title is being developed for the next gens. Grand Turismo, Halo, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Half-Life, Metal Gear, etc. Not a single AAA title is being developed for last gen systems.

Which also makes the consoles in direct competition with each other, competition for quality titles to sell games. As games will not be developed for both last gen and new gen systems, last gen systems won't get game support, which inherently makes it a dead console.

Announcements are irrelevant, Sony wants people to keep buying the PS2, so they don't have to eat the loss on the units in the warehouse. They know those systems are paperweights inside of 12 months, but they'll happily sell you one and let you buy old titles if you really want to. It's a revenue stream if you do. But if you do, you'll get no new games. The AAA titles won't be coming to PS2.

As an example...
http://www.ebgames.com/comingsoon.as...ow&platform=15

Just 4 pages of releases for the PS2, with nearly a full page lost to accessories. No one's developing for it anymore, which in turn makes it dead.
 

Bryan X

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Well, I don't know if the PS2 is 'dead' or not, but Sony isn't just 'clearing out the warehouse' of PS2 consoles. They are still making them. In fact, Sony just stopped making the original PS this year. If that's any indication, Sony will still be making the PS2 for the foreseable future.
 

ppltd

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And they will continue until they see a steady cash flow from the PS3, which could be a long way off.
 

ppltd

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As long as there are 100 mil. operating PS2's in the market place, games will continue to be developed. And when they do stop, the 1000+ games currently available will continue to drive the PS2. There is no way Sony will discontinue this product any time soon. There will continue to be a strong market place for this console for another couple of years.
 

Brian-W

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Hmmm...I'm working on a AAA title, on current and next gen hardware; numerous colleagues at other gaming companies are doing the same...

It's not hard to do the math: spend millions of dollars to potentially sell a few hundred thousand copies of a game (next generation), or spend millions of dollars to potentially sell a few million copies of a game (current generation)?

A current gen system may be dead to you - but it isn't dead to the millions of other consumers, many whom can't afford $300-$600 for a console and $60 a game. Don't underestimate the non-early adopter, they weild more power than you think.

Unfortunately (and thankfully) you are 100% wrong.
 

Ryan-G

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Well, With all due respect to both preceding posters, I'm looking through that "coming soon" list and I'm not finding a single title that would fall into the AAA list. The vast majority of that coming soon list is filler material and licensced spin off's from other media.

So if games will still be developed, and AAA titles are being developed, where are they?

Maybe a case could be made for Gods of War 2, but 1 game out of 4 pages is pretty bad.

Of course, according to the same arguement that's being used for PS2, one could then state that the X-box is still a viable platform. It's got exactly 1 game coming.

For 20 years, a succeeding console means the preceding console is dead. Development shifts to the succeeding console. Even the original Playstation proved this to be true. I can't find any evidence to the contrary, if there's nothing significant listed as coming soon, we've got a dead box.
 

BrianB

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And the major publishers have said this was a mistake - that there was still life & sales to be had with the PSOne after the PS2 was launched and support was dropped too soon. PS1 titles were still being released in the US up until last year by the way.
 

Brian-W

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AAA is a subjective opinion - what you derive as filler or licensed spin offs don't equate to a non-AAA title.

But, "coming soon" lists are far from definitive, many publishers/etc. don't announce their titles too early.
 

ppltd

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Not the same by any stretch of the imagination. MS did not have the installed base for the Xbox that the PS2 has and it more than a year after the release of the 360. For the last year since the release of the Xbox 360, the Xbox maintained a very strong new release schedule, and has only recently seen a decline.

As no one is stating that support for the PS2 will continue forever, it will probably follow the similar path of the Xbox, only it will take a lot longer to fade away. I seriously doubt that Sony will stop production on the PS2 any time soon.
 

Jeff Adkins

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As someone who doesn't own either format yet, I really don't care that much who wins. Although, if given a choice, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want BD to win just due to the extra disc capacity. All these arguments about higher replication costs and the higher price of the players is a bunch of hogwash to me. Whichever format wins, the players will be down to $200 within 2 years or so and disc replication will be close to the cost of standard DVD. So while BD is more expensive at the moment, this trend won't last if it becomes the adopted standard.

So with costs being equal in a few years, I don't see why anyone would want HD-DVD to prevail. We're less than a year into this and we're already seeing bandwidth constraints. Personally, I would think the 50GB disc would work out better in the long run. But that's just my two cents. I'll be waiting until something further gets decided here.
 

ppltd

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Jeff, as someone who own's both formats, I also do not care who prevails in this war. But I have some issues with some of your conclusions. 1, we have not seen bandwidth issues with HD-DVD, nor limitations in capacity of the disk. Both issues are based on a very minority of releases that are conjecture, not fact.

Currently, the only cost effective player on the market is the Toshiba, although the Samsung is coming down in price pretty quickly. And these formats do not have another two years to get out 200 players. Both formats will be long dead by then if there aren't drastic reductions in price soon.

If this means HD-DVD wins, and we give up a few options BD may have brought us down the line, so be it. I would rather have a very good player that delivers exceptional quality PQ and AQ now, than risk the formats waiting for futures.

I will continue to support both formats (minus Sony product, which has a long way to go to prove itself to me), as long as these content providers produce a quality release I feel is worth purchasing, and continue to upgrade my hardware as it becomes available without the fear of one of the formats going by the wayside. I currently have a Tosh XA2 on order to replace my XA1, and will probably replace my Samsung with a Pioneer.

But it is understandable why people want one side to win over the other, as many of us have financial investments in these products. I just don't buy into the bandwidth and disk capacity arguments. While they could add some added benefit to the content, when these formats actually become mainstream, they will not be deciding factors for most consumers, and for those consumers that care, price will be a minor issue.

Currently, it seems in the hardware area only Toshiba has seen the light. With their new models they will now have both a low end (A2) unit available, with limitations normally found on consumer products, and a high end entry (XA2) with all the bells and whistles for the Videophiles to buy. When Pioneer releases a consumer grade BD player, I will now that both formats are being taken seriously by the manufacturers.

In the meantime, I will enjoy both formats as long as they continue to produce quality content.
 

Cees Alons

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Well, there's the more aggressive (to say it kindly) copy protection schemes you get "for free" with BD. And, currently, the price. And the suspicious fact that many studios who are backing BD don't want to release on HD DVD (yet).

I'm not weighing the advantages against the disadvantages here, just pointing out that there are disadvantages as well.


Cees
 

MarekM

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- more space
- stronger copy protection
- higher bitrate
- NEWER technology....
- you can play 2 lossless tracks :) :)
- more studios backing BD
- etc...

I am sure there will be some PRO and some CON answares :)

Marek
 

Marko Berg

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Get back to me when the first such disc is released. In other words, theoretical capabilities mean nothing if there is no or little support for a feature. Isolated audio tracks and multi-angle are seldom used on standard definition DVD, and I predict there will be even less support for multiple lossless tracks on HD formats, for a good reason.
 

Jeff Adkins

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I've seen mention of this but I'm not familiar with the specifics. You do make a great point. That is definitely one advantage to HD-DVD.

Having said all that, either format has the capability to produce beautiful images and awesome sound. I will be happy either way, I'm sure. I guess all other things being equal, I'd prefer the extra capacity.
 

ppltd

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Owning both systems, I can say without a doubt, you are correct that both are capable of producing outstanding results.
 

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