DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

I’ve played GTA IV for a week now, and while I think it’s a great game, it does have some flaws. I think people got too excited handing out the 10/10 scores, and as with the Net media these days, one site does it and then everybody does it. It’s a great game no doubt, but perfect? Or even the best game in the last year? For a sandbox game fan and GTA maniac like myself, perhaps it is the best game of last year, but I’m sure there are games that are up there with it. It’s old, it’s cheap and it doesn’t have a storyline, but Crackdown on the 360 is an awesome game … makes GTA IV feel 2D by comparison (although I agree that giving Niko Bellic Spider-Man like abilities is a bit too much). I’m also not a big fan of the judder in the game, which some say is normal, but it’s something I can’t stand.

Despite my time wasting in Liberty City this week (I’m now awesome at GTA darts, BTW), there was actually quite a bit of news, and only half of it was GTA related.

In copyright news, the news of the week has been a good one for the MPAA. They won a judgement awarding them $110 million in damages to be paid by the owners of TorrentSpy. That got them all fired up and now their next target is The Pirate Bay, having asked for several million from them too. It’s unlikely the TorrentSpy people will not appeal this decision, and even more unlikely that they will have to pay anything, but neither compares to the impossibility of the MPAA getting their hands on TPB, or stopping torrent based piracy on the Net. Their other lawsuit involving IsoHunt is still going on, and both sides are awaiting a ruling which will finally decide if having .torrent files is the same as hosting pirated content.

While the MPAA might be enjoying the victory, the news has been less good for the RIAA. After their humiliation in court last week over what constitutes piracy, they have also suffered from the public backlash against DRM. But the RIAA is standing firm and claiming that DRM will make a comeback soon. Yeah right.

New York’s AG recently proposed new anti-piracy laws. In case you’re wondering why so many new anti-piracy laws are being passed, then look closely at the lobby groups spending huge amounts of money getting their issues to be heard. Something fishy going on behind the scenes, perhaps happening in New York? And it’s not just New York, the US House of Congress also introduced a new crack down on copyright violations. Studios are spending huge money to get laws passed in their favour, but are they really that concerned about piracy or is it more about having more control over users and having laws that allow consumer rights to be stripped away bit by bit. We’ll report, you decide.

Microsoft, at the brunt of DRM related controversy last week, has once more angered anti-DRM activists by suggesting a new update that will force copyright control on their Zune players. Did you hear that? That was the sound of the Zune dying a horrible death and the iPod taking full control of the portable player market. What is it with companies doing things that will hurt them more than it helps? Electronics Arts will introduce a new type of DRM on its new PC game releases, including the widely acclaimed Mass Effects. The new DRM will require an Internet connection that will dial back every week to ensure the serial used isn’t a pirated one. No Internet connection? No play! The public outrage was swift and vicious, and EA backed down by toning down the Net-based authentication required, which again raises the question of why introducing it in the first place if only to back down in a week and causing a lot of negative publicity in the process? Will companies ever learn?

In HD news, not much going on in the world of Blu-ray this week. Some “doom and gloom” articles are still being spun thanks to the sales figures from January to March, which recorded a huge drop and was reported on earlier here as mainly due to seasonal variations. Blu-ray is definitely not doing as well as it should, compared to DVDs at the same stage and now that it has no competitor. But it’s far from over yet, and without a competitor, time is no longer an enemy. Still, the latest Nielsen VideoScan results (for the week ending 4th May) aren’t looking too rosy, with Blu-ray vs DVD sales down 1% for Blu-ray to 5% vs 95%, with Blu-ray sales dropping 23% compared to the previous week (which was 7% down compared to the week before). But again, this is far from doom and gloom as Blu-ray sales are still up quite a bit compared to the same time last year, and that Blu-ray sales, unlike DVD sales (which was also down 5% compared to last week) are much more dependent on new releases, and no new major releases in that week meant worse sales. But Sony’s claim that they will raise the 5% to 50% in the next 7 months seems quite ridiculous now. Lies, damned lies, and statistics indeed.

Perhaps 3D movies will help Blu-ray. Samsung is set to release a new 3D TV that will aim to bring IMAX style 3D movies to your home, and I’m sure they will look great on HD as well. Perhaps it’s a gimmick like this that will drive Blu-ray sales, especially if the 3D components can be somehow integrated into Blu-ray players (HD DVD players supported mandatory USB connectors for just this sort of thing, but USB is not required on Blu-ray).

And as expected, Microsoft once again denied rumours of a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360. This must be the third time this year already. You have to wonder who is coming out with these rumours, if they are indeed false? Perhaps someone who wants to create some positive news for Blu-ray, and at the same time, highlight the major difference between the PS3 and Xbox 360? Gee, I wonder who that could be. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I’m highly skeptical that the 360 will ever have a Blu-ray drive. The next Xbox console maybe, but I just can’t see it in the 360. One, because the drive would only be used for movies, not games like on the PS3, so it’s kind of a pointless addition to anyone who doesn’t use the noisy 360 to play movies. Two, by including a Blu-ray drive, that’s Microsoft basically admitting the PS3 is superior and it wants to copy it. The Xbox 360 will never be as good a Blu-ray player as the PS3, so why make the comparison when you don’t have to? The Wii doesn’t even play DVDs, and nobody is saying it needs that capabilty to compete with the 360/PS3, so why does the 360 need Blu-ray to compete with the PS3? I will say this though, that there are a lot of people who are quite bitter at the moment because the PS3 isn’t doing very well in the format war, not because it’s losing badly, but because it’s not winning handsomely as they had expected.  And everyone knows the delay to the release of the console due to delays to Blu-ray was what caused it (or rather, the earlier release of the 360 allowed it to gain crucial market share to win over consumer and developer confidence). The same people are the ones trying to suggest Blu-ray will help the PS3 win the console war, but in actual fact, it was the other way around (PS3 helping Blu-ray to win the format war). If the 360 gets a Blu-ray add-on or a built in drive, then it would represent the ultimate victory for these people. Which is why I don’t see it happening.

(cue Microsoft announcing next week Blu-ray is coming to the 360)

In gaming news, as expected, GTA IV broke all sales records. This was always going to be the title that bought the “next-gen” into “this-gen” (and this will be the last time I use the term “next-gen”, unless I’m talking about the PS4 or Xbox 720 or WiiII or something). Microsoft was quick to point that that is has won the GTA IV war, having sold more copies and having seen hardware sales jump as a result too. Some will say that one shouldn’t believe MS’s claims, and I would normally agree, but there’s a lack of any noise from the usually spin-tastic Sony PR department about GTA IV, which leads me to believe that MS is telling the truth. Microsoft was also quick to point out that the only console you can play GTA IV in full 720p glory is the Xbox 360. This, plus the freezing issue which a patch is now available for but apparently doesn’t fix the problem, at least not all occurrences of it, means that GTA IV’s release could definitely have gone a lot smoother for Sony. And then there’s the issue of exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360, but Sony is trying to muddy the waters by suggesting they will get DLC too. These two possible facts actually don’t conflict with each other … nobody has ever said that all DLC is exclusive to the Xbox 360, just two episodes worth. But if Sony is suggesting future DLC will be PS3 exclusive, then that’s just misleading because there’s no evidence of it and I’m sure Rockstar’s contract with Microsoft won’t allow it.

So while Sony PR can’t talk much about GTA IV without getting attacked for having a lower res, broken and exclusive lacking version, then they will have to talk about something else. The PS3 has done well in Europe, and total sales have exceeded the Xbox 360 figures even though the PS3 was released much later. No spin there, just facts. What could be considered spin is Sony saying they will overtake all others, including the Xbox 360 and Wii, both of which are miles ahead of the PS3 in the US. I always find it funny to hear Sony talk about their 10 year plan and that the PS3 hasn’t reached its full potential yet. It is true that there is more to come from the PS3, but three years ago, nobody could have predicted the rise of the Wii, so even if the PS3 can squeeze out more in the next 5 years or so, will it still be an attractive console by that time? For one, they can’t predict what Microsoft and Nintendo have up their sleeves, so if Sony are going to rest on their laurels and rely solely on developers getting more out of the PS3, then I think that’s a disaster waiting to happen.

And speaking of what’s up Microsoft’s sleeves, a new Xbox 360 build could be here by August with a new GPU chip codenamed Jasper. It promises lower heat production, and hence, lower noise and more reliability. Microsoft will probably introduce the Wii like controller for the 360 at the same time as well. A cooler, more reliable and quieter Xbox 360 is exactly what Microsoft needs right now to compete with the PS3, and not a Blu-ray drive in sight! The GTA IV related victory has given Microsoft a lot of confidence, and some analysts have already concluded that the 360 will win the “current-gen” console war, mainly due to a superior games library and multiplayer community. I’m not so sure about that, but you can’t argue with the 360’s games choice and Xbox Live, and not letting Sony maintain 80% of the market is a victory of sorts already.

Of course, the real winner could be the Wii. While everyone is talking about GTA IV, Nintendo has been quietly selling loads of Mario Kart and Wii Fit, making Wii Fit the best selling exercise equipment of all time. What, even more popular than the Thighmaster I hear you ask. Yes, more popular than that and Jane Fonda exercise videos … COMBINED!!

Ok, that’s that for this week. I’ll have more for you next week. More of what? I don’t know. Will it be interesting? Probably not. But there will be more …

Finally got my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV from gamehubs.com (quick delivery, at a great price … good customer service too, well recommended). It is certainly very impressive, but since this is the first GTA game I’ve not played on a PC, I’m still getting used to the controls and playing it on a big screen TV (which to be honest, is making me quite nauseous). The city feels much more real and alive compared to previous GTA games, although I’m a bit tired of being thrown through the windshield all the time while driving (don’t they have seat belts in Liberty City?). Anyway, a lot more play time is needed before I can truly say that it is my favourite game of all time. As expected, news this week has been dominated by GTA IV.

In copyright news, and while on the subject of GTA IV, pirated Xbox 360 copies of the game are already available on several torrent sites. I understand that some people only downloaded those so they can play prior to the release date, but it’s a shame that people are not paying for a game which has reportedly cost over 100 million dollars to make and received great reviews. If you like the game, buy it!

On the other end of the scale, there’s the RIAA claiming that making music files available in “shared folders” constitutes piracy. Fortunately, a judge has ruled that this act alone does not mean piracy, and many other steps afterwards (such as other people actually downloading the shared music files) must happen before piracy can be declared. There was another ruling which said that the burden of proof must be on the RIAA’s side (you mean innocent until *proven* guilty? What a novel concept!), and that third party anti-piracy agents must first download the pirated file from the defendant’s hard-drive before they can accuse anyone of piracy. Some common sense at last!

Now that RIAA’s “everyone should use DRM” crusade is at an end (with DRM being defeated quite comprehensively), only now are some of the bad side effects of DRM are beginning to show. The MSN music store, which made way for the Zune Marketplace, sold many DRM’d files and with the closing of the store and the DRM validation servers, these files no longer play because it cannot connect to the store to authenticate the license. That’s the trouble with DRM, especially those that from time to time require online validation … the content owners at any time could decide not to give you rights to play the file, or even make you pay for them again if you want to “re-activate” your license. Thank goodness that DRM is dead, for music files at least.

In HD news, Paramount, the last studio not to announce their Blu-ray plans, has finally done so with big titles such as Bee Movie and Cloverfield, as well as the Oscar nominated There Will Be Blood, all making their ways onto Blu-ray by the end of May. Universal has also announced that they will use the lossless DTS-HD MA format for their releases (Paramount wants to use Dolby TrueHD, also lossless). This should help Blu-ray, although reports suggest that the only company it will really help, more than any other at least, is Sony. The in-fighting amongst the other Blu-ray backers could actually hurt the format, since the BDA is far from a united front and consists of companies that have conflicting interests (as opposed to the HD DVD people, which really didn’t have that many supporters and only one major one in each field). Another problem identified is that Blu-ray is too dependent on the PS3, and not all PS3 users are movie fans that are willing to buy lots of Blu-ray movies, even though Blu-ray usage on the PS3 has increased. And the expected surge after HD DVD’s demise has not happened, and sales even dropped 40% from January to February. Of course, seasonal variations means that February (and March) are always slow months, but the victory certainly hasn’t been a catalyst for mass acceptance of Blu-ray … that will take another year or two at least. And to further prove this, the latest Nielsen VideoScan data (which is now updated weekly on our forum) shows that with only 6% of the market compared to DVDs for top 20 titles by volume on both formats, Blu-ray still has a long way to go. In fact, the 6% is actually generous, because a large percentage of DVD sales occur outside the top 20 titles, whereas Blu-ray sales are much more concentrated in the top 20 - I don’t have exact figures, but Blu-ray probably only accounts for 2 to 3% of all sales at best).

And just before moving onto gaming, the rumour that never seems to die resurfaced again, with an OEM partner of Microsoft claiming that a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 is on the way. I’m fairly certain we will see a new Xbox 360 model by the end of the year, with new GPU and possibly CPU parts to aid cooling and noise reduction. Will this model, codenamed Jasper I think, include Blu-ray playback? I’m 100% certain there won’t be Blu-ray games on the 360, so is including the drive and thus increasing the cost a sensible thing to do for Microsoft? Time will tell …

In gaming news, or more precisely, GTA IV news, the first set of sales figures from the UK have been released, and the Xbox 360 version is holding the lead. Somewhat surprising because, while the 360 has sold more overall, it is the PS3 has been selling more than the 360 for month to month figures for quite a while now. Microsoft themselves have announced that, for US sales, GTA IV on the 360 is outselling the PS3 version by 2-to-1, no doubt helped by stores like Amazon offering GTA IV/360  bundle deals of their own in absence of an official one from Microsoft. Sony countered by saying that GTA IV has helped to sell loads of PS3s, as expected. Neither of these statements conflict with each other of course, and so with Sony not arguing against Microsoft’s claims, then 2-to-1 is not bad for a series that has been synonymous with the success of the PlayStation brand. Sales of the PS3 version has not been helped with reports of freezing problems (and while the 360 versions has had a few freezing reports, it is not as bad as on certain older models of the PS3). It was also revealed that the PS3 version is only 630p, while the Xbox 360 versions runs at a higher resolution. Some of the shadow effects are extremely harsh on the higher resolution 360 version, which probably explains why the slightly more blurrier PS3 version looks better according to most reviews. If you want to see a video comparison of the two versions for yourself, then Gametrailers.com has the HD version up.

Meanwhile, Mario Kart is probably selling loads on the Wii, but nobody cares (well I do, since I might buy a copy).

That’s all folks for this week. I think shall spend the next week in between doing some work and a lot of time spent playing researching GTA IV.

The March 2008 NPD game console sales figures for the US has been released. It’s another month where all sides claim victory, and I guess it’s hard not to when the overall market has increased by a huge margin over the same time last year. I did predict last month that the Xbox 360 will out-sell the PS3, but barely, so was I right or was I wrong? You can read last month’s analysis here. The figures are from NPD, a marketing research firm that releases games console sale data every month.

The figures for US sales in March are below, ranked in order of number of sales:

A couple of surprises this month. First, just look at those Wii sales figures! Amazing! You would think the “hype” surrounding the Wii would end by now, after two holiday sales periods where it was the “must-have” item, but it just continues to grow stronger where this month, it out-sells both the 360 and PS3 combined! The other surprise was that, despite expert predictions, the Xbox 360 did in fact reverse the last two month’s trend and out-sell the PS3, albeit by the width of a hair. Could Microsoft’s excuse about stock problems actually be correct?

The PS3 came fifth this month, with only the PS2 behind it, which must be somewhat disappointing for Sony. Sony will say that compared to this time last year, the PS3 is doing much better compared to the 360, and that’s true: the 360’s next-gen market share has dropped from 51% to just 43% since September last year, with the PS3 gaining from 14% to 18%. But these stats are a bit of a lie (aren’t they all), since the Xbox 360’s market share had to drop considering it was the first next-gen console on the market and with 100% of the market share at the beginning, the only way was down. What is worrying for the PS3 is that while the 360 had a period which it totally dominated the next-gen market (first when it was the only console available, and then for the PS3’s fragile first few months), the PS3 has not had a comparable period. Despite the technical superiority that the PS3 has over the 360, the sheer number of 360’s on the market plus the much more mature Xbox Live multiplayer service means that the Microsoft now has a solid footing in the gaming arena which is something they didn’t have with the original Xbox. Quantity has a quality of its own, as someone once said, and that’s what the 360 earned by having an earlier release date. On a side note, looking into popular culture, how many times have you spotted someone playing the 360 on TV or in movies? South Park, Disturbia, Transformers are just some of the recent shows/movies I’ve watched where the 360 was featured. I’m sure that helps to sell consoles as well, despite all the bad press over the RRoD problems.

And Microsoft raised a point about “ecosystems” last month, where they said console performance should not just be based on hardware sales figures, but also on software and community. In this respect, Microsoft has a very healthy “ecosystem”, but it doesn’t mean the other companies do not. Nintendo is building something very strong with the Wii/DS combination, and Sony with the PS3/PS2/PSP combination. If anything, Microsoft needs a portable game console to compete directly with Nintendo and Sony to fully take advantage of their better online gaming system.

But Microsoft are right in that while hardware sales haven’t been great compared to either the Wii or the PS3, it’s the software sales that’s really driving the Xbox brand at the moment. Here’s the top 10 sales chart for games:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo) - 2,700,000
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360, Ubisoft) - 752,300
3. Army of Two (Xbox 360, EA) - 606,100
4. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) - 409,800
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP, SCEA) - 340,500
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP, Square Enix) - 301,600
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii, Activision) – 264,100
8. Major League Baseball 2K8 (Xbox 360, 2K Sports) - 237,100
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, Activision) - 237,000
10. Army of Two (PS3, EA) - 224,900

Another good surprise for Nintendo, as Super Smash Bros. Brawl outsold everything by miles - one of the criticisms of the Wii is that it doesn’t have good games that sell in great number, but I think this myth has been dispelled this month. Other than that, the 360 has 4 of the top 10, and all of them are multi-platform games that are available on the PS3. The PSP did well this month too with two titles in the top 10, but the PS3 is still struggling with only one title, and at the bottom too.

Last month, I predicted the 360 would out-sell the PS3 by a small margin, based on nothing but a gut feeling. I was right (well even a broken clock is right 730 times a year). I also said last month that the 360 will do very well in April due to GTA IV, if not in hardware sales, then in software sales, and I’m sticking with this prediction. What’s really interesting is to see if the Wii will continue to have another good month, or will it suffer from not being on the GTA IV bandwagon? But then there’s Mario Kart, so you never know.

See you next month.

You know how I said that this was going to be the 30th WNR? I was wrong. This is actually the 31st WNR. Special thanks to me not selecting the right post categories for one WNR post that made this miscalculation possible. And you know how I was going to do something special for the “30th” issue? Well I guess it will have to be for the 31st issue, and it was never going to be that special anyway (what were you expecting? Free PS3s for every reader?). I think you’ve already figured out what that something special is just by doing a quick glance at this new updated WNR …

Oh look at the pretty picture to the left. Wow! Amazing! In copyright news, despite (or is that because of) MPAA’s pursuit of torrent sites, torrent usage has increased. I don’t suppose the extra publicity given to the issue would have driven some, who have never used BitTorrent before, to test it out? But the MPAA won’t make public why they think torrent sites should be taken down, at least the legal arguments to why these sites, which don’t host any of the content, should be considered illegal. YouTube has tried to avoid major lawsuits by implementing a piracy filter. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be going very well. Unless they can hire people to check every single video that is uploaded, then I don’t think the problem is going to go away. The whole point of YouTube is for people to share interesting video clips, and it just happens that many interesting video clips are copyrighted. Who’d have thunk it?

In HD news, the big news of the week has been Universal announcing their first ever Blu-ray lineup. The first title will be available July 22nd, and it includes all their blockbuster releases of the year like The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II and the new Mummy movie. Catalogue releases include American Gangster, The Mummy Trilogy and season one and two of Heroes. Gladiator, Casino and The Thing are also slated for International release later in the year. Warner is starting to provide more details on the Blu-ray titles that were previously HD DVD exclusives, like Batman Begins and The Matrix trilogy. It appears that they will use the same encodes as the HD DVD versions, with The Perfect Storm getting a new transfer due to problems with the previous one. With Universal, the studio that has backed HD DVD the most, now releasing their Blu-ray release schedule, it seems that’s that for HD DVD. But not according to Samsung, as they will release a new Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drive for PCs (with Blu-ray write capability, and HD DVD read capability). On the same story, LG’s combo drive (reads both formats) is getting discounted here in Australia and it’s even cheaper than the Pioneer Blu-ray reader drive. And in a new feature I’m doing on the forum, I will be posting the Blu-ray/DVD sales stats weekly (with HD DVD stats thrown in for good measure - these stats come from Nielsen VideoScan, which is publised in Home Media Magazine). Last week’s stats (for the week ending 6th April) was interesting in that HD DVD seems to have made a comeback, but it was just a slow week for Blu-ray. This week’s stats, for the week ending 13th April shows Blu-ray bouncing back, but not against DVDs which scored a whopping 95% of the video sales market as compared to Blu-ray.

Moving onto gaming, the GTA IV Australia/New Zealand censorship issue won’t go away, mainly because Rockstar refuses to say what has been removed from the game. New Zealander are a bit unlucky in that they have a 18+ certification for video games, but Rockstar apparently will release the Australian version there as well, so they get the cut version too. The rumour was that only a cutscene was changed, but that appears to be untrue from a statement made by Rockstar. If the changes are small, as Rockstar have claimed before, then they should just come out and tell the public what they are. If not, it will only force people to import. The March US NPD figures are out and as expected, the Xbox 360 beat the PS3 for the first time in 2008 as stock problems cleared. The more detailed analysis will be arriving later in the week. Two Xbox 360 updates recently, one for the defunct HD DVD drive, and now an update that is equally meaningless for most 360 users. It’s more like an update for an upcoming update, rather than anything new and exciting. No details of the annual Spring update yet. The Wii is doing extremely well in the sales charts. There are some great games on the system, but Wii Sports, the one that comes free with the console, still doesn’t have a proper competitor in terms of mini-game compilation or just general fun-ness. The nerd in me wants a Star Wars Lightsaber game so I can swing my Wii-mote around like a deranged maniac. My wish might be fulfilled shortly with the Wii version of Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

Ok, so that’s it for this week. Check back next week for another words, link and now picture filled edition of WNR.

Hello everybody on this beautiful Sunday. Actually it’s cloudy and cold here, but hopefully it will be nice wherever you are reading this from. Quite a bit of news to go through this week, so let’s not waste any time.

In Copyright news, apparently DVD piracy is so common amongst the South Australian Police force that it makes it impossible to prosecute. So basically if everybody does it then they can’t do anything about it? Or does having guns help? Or perhaps it’s more of a “one rule for them, and another for the rest of us”? It’s certainly seems that way since the President of the United States has now been caught with pirated music on his iPod. Only last week did the US Attorney General say that piracy leads to terrorism … so where does this act of piracy lead to then? New Zealand meanwhile has passed their new digital copyright laws. While new laws will always mean more, not less, restrictions - at least the New Zealand laws seem to have taken a more sensible approach in terms of fair use. The Europeans are taking a more sensible approach as well, rejecting the latest attempt by the RIAA/MPAA to have provisions to chuck users off the Net who are suspected of piracy. And if chucking you off the Net isn’t enough, you chucking a CD out might be construed as ‘unauthorised distribution’, and hence, piracy. And in a “well it was bound to happen eventually” type of story, hackers have broken the encryption on PlayStation Network games for the PSP, which will now allow piracy of these games to go ahead.

UK subscription television network Sky is phasing out component output on their HD set top boxes in an ‘anti-piracy’ drive. HDMI will be the sole video output supported since it includes HDCP copy protection. Speaking of copy protection, expect to see DisplayPort becoming the next big thing in PC-monitor connection. DisplayPort (DP) is not compatible directly with DVI or HDMI, although it can be made interchangeable through adapters - and yes, it includes HDCP. So that’s VGA/DVI/HDMI/DP - does the PC really need this many connection types? But to be fair, HDMI is not suited for PC connections, and DVI is starting to get a bit old.

Onto HD news. In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft released an update for the HD DVD add-on drive this week. The update is only needed for those that connect their add-on drive to the Xbox 360 for HD DVD playback. And for those that did purchase HD DVD players, including the add-on drive, from Amazon before Toshiba’s decision to pull out, Amazon will be giving them $50 credit that can be used on anything. A very nice move by Amazon, although how many HD DVD users will end up using the $50 credit on more HD DVD movies is hard to say (I know I will if I was eligible - with HD DVD movies so cheap, that’s maybe 3 to 6 movies that you can buy, compared to just two for Blu-ray, so why not?)

I’ve always been facinated with 3D movies, and Disney is about to release a 3D movie on Blu-ray. It’s only a Hanna Montana movie, but I wonder perhaps proper 3D support through electronic glasses could help Blu-ray achieve better sales through the “gimmick factor”? Meanwhile, those with iPhones might be able to interact it with their PS3 - I wonder if the iPod Touch might have been a better choice for the integration. The flurry of news in regards to Blu-ray price rises hasn’t dampened enthusiasm, with statistics (yeah, those damned things) showing people are actually willing to pay for higher prices. Not me though, even though I consider myself an early adopter and us early adopters are well known for wasting money on stuff that we know will be much cheaper in a few months time. The question remains about the general public, who are used to low low DVD prices, and whether they are willing to pay 10 times more for a Blu-ray player and twice as much for the Blu-ray movie? Sony seems to think so, and they are predicting that Blu-ray will hold 50% of the movie market compared to DVDs by the year’s end. Blu-ray actually only holds about 8% of the market at the moment, and there’s no sign that it will surge to much higher than that in the short term, so I don’t know what Sony are talking about. 50% of the movie market will need 50% of the hardware market as well, and I just don’t think Sony and co. can get a few hundred million machines into people’s home by the end of the year when they’ve barely sold over 1 million machines so far. But PR won them the war against HD DVD, so perhaps they’re hoping to do the same against DVDs. But you can’t really fight against low low prices (ie. “reality”) unless you fight fire with fire (or fire sales).

Before we move onto gaming proper, half-way in between is news that Sony will release the 2.30 firmware update for the PS3 that will finally include DTS-HD MA decoding (to LPCM). It is the one last major feature that the PS3 lacks in terms of Blu-ray playback, and I’m glad it has finally arrived since I’ve been telling people it will be here for ages now and have recommended the PS3 based on this assumption.

Onto gaming now. The Wii has scored a coup by signing up a deal with the BBC to add a iPlayer channel. Of course, it’s only for UK users only, but I’m sure Microsoft and Sony would have liked to have been part of the deal. Microsoft are rumoured to be developing a Wii like controller codenamed “Newton”. Not sure if trying to be more Wii-like than the Wii will help Microsoft’s cause, since I think they should concentrate on making a new version of the console that’s a bit more sexier and quieter to compete with the PS3.

And following last week’s news story about the censored Australian version of the GTA IV, the confirmation has come from Rockstar that the game is censored, although no details has been given as to what has been removed/changed. Well that’s it then, I will have to source the game from elsewhere. Expect Australian versions of GTA IV to sell extremely poorly then, which is a shame for Australian retailers.

Ok, that’s it for this week. Can’t believe this is the 29th issue of the Weekly News Roundup already. Will I do something special for the 30th issue? Wait and see (and don’t be too surprised if nothing happens …)