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Game Consoles – February 2008 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

The February 2008 NPD game console sales figures for the US has been released. This month, all sides have claimed victory, and after reading this analysis, you might come to the same conclusion as well. 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 February are below, ranked in order of number of sales:

  • DS: 587,600 (Total: 18.5 million)  
  • Wii: 432,000 (Total: 8.1 million)
  • PS2: 351,800 (Total: 41.7 million)
  • PS3: 280,800 (Total: 3.8 million)
  • Xbox 360: 254,600 (Total: 9.6 million)
  • PSP: 243,100 (Total: 11 million)

    • NPD February 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

    NPD Game Console Total US Sales Figures (as of February 2008)

    Apparently, this month’s results showed that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are all winners. It’s obvious why Nintendo would claim this. Both the DS and the Wii sold in large numbers again, claiming first and second place. The DS claimed 71% of the portable gaming market, while the Wii claimed an equally impressive 45% of the next-gen console market, outdoing the previous two months’ efforts.

    Sony has also claimed victory because for the second month running, the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360. Last month it was by 39,000 units, this month 26,000 units. Since I started doing this feature on the blog, the PS3’s monthly market share has jumped from just under 11% (in September 2007) to now a very healthy 29%. The Blu-ray victory appears to have had the intended effect, and Sony will be pleased with its efforts so far in 2008.

    However, it may sound strange, but Microsoft has also claimed victory this month, despite coming last in the next-gen console war. As with last month, Microsoft is claiming stock shortages are the cause and that April will be the soonest that they can ensure stock is no longer a problem. Cynics might suggest that it’s just an excuse, while there does seem to be some data which suggest the claim has some validity. Regardless, the trend in the last few months have been decline in monthly market share for the 360, starting from September 2007: 45%, 36%, 35%, 37%, 30% and now finally, 26%. But to be fair, the one month that bucked the trend, December with 37%, was the month with the highest volume of sales, so if Microsoft had been expecting something like 33% in December, and got 37% instead, it does explain why they might be caught short-handed in January and now in February as well (that extra 4% equals more than 136,000 units). But excuses, whether real or not, can only last for so long and if the 360 does not outsell the PS3 in March or in April, then we will know who is telling the truth and who is not. So why is Microsoft still claiming victory? Well, it’s the software sales that will give Microsoft some encouragement.

    Five of the top 10 selling games in February were Xbox 360 titles, including previously PlayStation exclusive, Devil May Cry (4), which perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, outsold the PS3 version. The PS3 version of DMC4 was the only PS3 title to make the top 10, with 2 Wii titles, 1 DS and even 1 PS2 title making the top 10. The top 10 games sold in February were:

    1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, Activision) – 296,200
    2. Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360, Capcom) – 295,200
    3. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) – 289,700
    4. Devil May Cry 4 (PS3, Capcom) – 233,500
    5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii, Activision) – 222,900
    6. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS, Sega) – 205,600
    7. Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360, Microsoft) – 203,600
    8. Turok (Xbox 360, Touchstone) -197,700
    9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2, Activision) – 183,800
    10. Rock Band (Xbox 360, MTV Games, Electronic Arts) – 161,800

    So Microsoft do have something to smile about, and their earlier efforts to release the console before all others seems to have paid off. By having the most number of consoles, software sales will come naturally and Microsoft again was the most profitable company out of the 3. With almost exactly 50% of sales in the top 10, it’s hard not to be.

    Predictions tell us that the Xbox 360 will regain its lead over the PS3, although barely, with April being a better months for Microsoft. The release of GTA IV in late April will also be interesting, especially to gauge whether the PS3 version or the Xbox 360 version (with exclusive content) will sell better. A good GTA IV led sales campaign might just help one console to dominate the rest of 2008.

    See you next month.

    Posted in Gaming, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 5 Comments »

    Weekly News Roundup (16 March 2008)

    Sunday, March 16th, 2008

    What a week it has been. The server problem was finally fixed, although not without a lot of fixing and tweaking as you would expect when you do a major server move. Also received a bunch of cheap HD DVDs that I had ordered in previous weeks, pretty much all the titles I’ve ordered have now been received (I just need to find some time to watch them, that’s all). And I also celebrated my birthday during the week as well. So it’s been a busy week, and if there seems to be less news stories than normal, that’s probably why.

    So let’s not waste any time and start with copyright news. The MPAA is at it again (I seem to use this phrase quite a lot. But blame the MPAA, not me). This time, they are against Net Neutrality, because it might hurt their plans to spy on everybody. Net Neutrality basically means leaving the Net alone and not placing restrictions on things like content types, connection modes and placing priority on certain types of content, while reducing priority on other “less desirable” content. Obviously, a restricted and regulated network will benefit the MPAA in their attempt to control how, when, where and what we download. Having big business tell us what we can and cannot do is, in my opinion, even worse than Big Brother type governments doing so … at least government are elected (in most countries).

    On to HD. Now that people have finally gotten around to the idea that Blu-ray is *the* HD format for the future, questions are starting to be raised. Even staunch Blu-ray advocates such as Bill Hunt from The Digital Bits are starting to ask the BDA to make changes, the very changes that made people choose HD DVD like prices, profiles. We’ve been flooded with news of Blu-ray prices rises, both for hardware and movies, but I think it’s too soon to tell what the general direction Blu-ray will be heading to next. If the BDA is serious about replacing SD DVDs with Blu-ray, then prices will drop. If they see Blu-ray as a money maker that is needed to replaced flagging DVD sales, then prices may not drop as quickly as one would like. There is a very interesting read on Gizmondo that highlights some of the problems that Blu-ray will be facing in the short and long term. It certainly is a pretty pessimistic look at things, but you would have to agree with their key points, which are: the cost of the format war means prices drops will hurt manufacturers and studios, profile confusion, and productivity problems. On that last point, the article raises something quite interesting in that they speculate Universal studios might be having trouble releasing their titles on Blu-ray due to the entire 2008 production stock already being allocated to other studios. In other words, Universal can’t release movies on Blu-ray because they can’t get production time in the already over capacity production lines. New lines are being built, but they cannot come online quick enough. Of course, this might all be speculation, but one thing is for certain: HD DVD would not have experienced this problem as all recent DVD production lines are capable of producing HD DVDs. And speaking of former HD DVD studios releasing titles on Blu-ray, Paramount is apparently set to re-release their previous Blu-ray titles (before they went HD DVD exclusive) again next week. Seems that they kept their Blu-ray stock, as opposed to pulping them as some rumours had suggested. Unfortunately, Universal never got into Blu-ray production, so it will be some time before you see The Bourne Trilogy on Blu-ray. Another problem for Blu-ray is that upscaled DVD performance continues to improve. Oppo this week officially announced their new DVD upscaler, the DV-983H, which early testing has showed to be possibly the best performing on the market today. From my experience, a fairly average/poor HD encode is often the same or worse than a decent DVD encode upscaled (case in point, T2 Extreme Edition DVD vs T2 HD DVD Australian version). Such decent DVD encodes look very “HD” when upscaled, but the general rule is that real HD, when given a proper encoding, will always look better. But just because it is better, doesn’t mean people are prepared to pay extra for it … think DVD-Audio and SACD, although better video quality is easier to sell than better audio quality.

    Meanwhile, HD DVD is selling quite well (the latest numbers showed a 10% market share jump for HD DVD in the US, even though the big sales haven’t really started, at least not at Australian “everything under $10” levels yet). For those that want to join in, keep an eye on this page and this page, as well as the blog. I wish somebody would release Australian sales numbers, because it must be at least 20:1 in HD DVD’s favour in the past few weeks. The Xbox 360 add-on drive is proving particularly popular due to its low price, but Microsoft this week denied again that they are working on a similar add-on for Blu-ray. 

    Before I move on properly to gaming, DivX support is coming to a lot more Blu-ray players than just the PS3. In fact, their support will be even better than the PS3’s (which is a bit strange). Anyone who has used the PS3’s DivX/XviD playback function will know that it is somewhat limited, with no DivX Ultra support, no support for GMC/Q-Pel and has a few other problems as well. But when a file does work, it plays beautifully. And while the PS3 has had a firmware update (adds nothing of significance, other than some gaming compatibility fixes), the next big update will be interesting if they add enhanced DivX support, as well as perhaps DTS-HD MA decoding (the one essential Blu-ray feature that the PS3 sorely lacks) and even Profile 2.0, although I believe the latter two will be more likely to come only after standalones with similar features are available.

    Now onto gaming proper, February’s US NPD figures are out and I will provide a full analysis in the next few days. Once again, all three gaming companies are claiming victory. Nintendo’s Wii sold the most, so they’re claiming they’re the best (with justification, IMO – but if I’m a bit sick and tired of seeing another story about how the Wii is helping the elderly, the injured and basically curing all disease and bringing world peace). Sony’s PS3 sold more than the Xbox 360, so they’re claiming victory too (mainly thanks to Blu-ray’s victory, I think). While Microsoft is still saying Xbox 360 stock shortages are affecting sales figures, and that they sold the most software and made the most profit, which they think is the most important. If Microsoft is really having stock problems, then what they say makes sense, since people are still choosing the 360 over the PS3 when it comes to multi-platform releases (Call of Duty 4, for example). It will be interesting to see which consoles gains most from the release of GTA IV, but I believe with the 360 install base much greater than the PS3 in the US, the 360 version of GTA IV, with the exclusive content, will probably sell more copies. I’ve yet to decide which version I would get (PS3 or 360), although I’m leaning towards 360 due to not having to buy another controller just to get rumble capabilities (and the fact that the 360 version was produced first, meaning it might play a little bit better). Once I assume 360 stock become plentiful again, Microsoft will fight the PS3 with further price cuts which will put pressure on Sony to follow. Expect to see a 360 GTA IV pack for less cost than the basic PS3, and it will sell like hotcakes.

    See you next week.

    Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, Video Technology, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (16 March 2008)

    Weekly News Roundup (9 March 2008)

    Sunday, March 9th, 2008

    Sorry for this slightly later than usual roundup. The server hosting most of Digital Digest’s websites started experiencing some problems, which were later traced to a bad hard-drive. To avoid any outages, I had to quickly source a new server and transfer the sites across, which was not easy at 3am in the morning. I ended up going to bed at 7am, and 6 hours of sleep later, I’m back again continuing with the transfer. Ah … the glamour of being a webmaster.

    Let’s not waste any time, because I have none to spare. In copyright news, finally a content provider that has the right idea. Instead of pursuing layers of DRM, the band Nine Inch Nails will release their new album through P2P using a donation based system … you decide how much you want to pay for the music, and of course, no DRM. Doing it this way really “goes with the flow” of how content is distributed on the Internet, and bypassing the studio system has many advantages (least of which is getting 95% of your profit back, which otherwise would have belonged to the studio). Using a system normally used to distribute pirated content has many advantages, one of which is ease of use. Jumping through hoops just to buy some DRM infested crap just doesn’t work anymore. And to prove this point, a new study confirms that piracy is better than the real thing. Better content, easier delivery are all reasons why people are choosing the piracy route, rather than through official channels. Studios are obviously worried, but is it really hurting them? Movie ticket sales broke new records again in 2007, despite movie piracy at an all time high. Is piracy helping to sell movie tickets, as people watch a low quality version of a film, likes it, and then decide to watch it proper in the cinema or on legally purchased discs?

    Moving quickly onto HD, BD-ROM is set to take off in 2008 following Blu-ray’s victory in the HD format war. The most interesting part of the story is a revealing quote which suggested that BD burner prices are high because of low yield issues. It seems low yield is a problem that Blu-ray suffers from a lot, with disc pressing a huge problem causing releases to be pushed back time and time again due to insufficient manufacturing capacity. To ensure capacity though, new factories will have to be built. And consumers will end up having to pay for them. Some reports suggest that both Blu-ray player and disc prices have gone up since the demise of HD DVD, and you can’t really blame the BDA, studios or CE manufacturers (and online rental stores) for doing so, because the format war has been costly on top of the cost of developing a new format. There is certainly less Blu-ray disc sales than before, and even the redemption offer for 5 free discs seems to be over now with no signs of it coming back. Competition is good for the consumer. But there is no competition to Blu-ray now, apart from competition from within (which will be somewhat limited, as everyone involved do not want a price war to drive down profit margins just yet). Further evidence comes straight from Sony, who says that they do not want to license Blu-ray technology to Chinese firms in order to lower prices (their stated reason is “piracy”). Sony has ruled out $200 Blu-ray players coming this year, and they hinted that you might have to wait until the end of 2009 to see Blu-ray players match the 2007 price of HD DVD players, and even then, it’s probably just a basic Profile 1.1 player that won’t play a lot of the special feature content on the majority of discs released at that time. One way for player prices to drop is for HD DVD firms to get involved, and Microsoft is the first to suggest they may join the Blu-ray bandwagon and release an add-on drive for the Xbox 360. Nothing more specific than that, unfortunately. Microsoft has also released the HD DVD emulator for the Xbox 360 for free (used to cost a few thousand dollars) – with this software, you can test your HD DVD projects and HDi content without having more specialised equipment than a Xbox 360.

    The HD DVD fire sale continues, although I have a feeling the best is yet to come. Prices continue to drop, now to as low as $8.50 for selected titles. I’ve written a bunch of blog entries on this already, so I won’t waste too much time on it again. Suffice to say that I’m still pretty mad about JB Hi-Fi Online and their Planet Earth ordering fiasco – read more about it here. And I guess it sort of belongs in the HD section – Pioneer has responded to rumours that it will cease development of plasma screens and move onto LCD (the plasma vs LCD battle is just as fierce as the Blu-ray/HD DVD one, along with the numerous unfounded rumours being reported by allegedly reputed news sites). Pioneer will continue to release plasma TVs, except that the panel these TVs used will now be outsourced, instead of being manufactured by Pioneer. The rumour (I know, I know) is that Panasonic will take over, and Pioneer will share their design secrets with them. If true, this is good news because Panasonic’s Viera range is already pretty good, and with some infusion of Pioneer technology, both Pioneer and Panasonic plasmas will continue to be at the top of the pile in terms of picture quality. The best plasma screens will always look better than the best LCDs, and will remain so until new TV technology becomes available (I’m putting my money on OLED, but not before 2010). 

    And finally in gaming, PS3 firmware 2.4 will be released in the US summer, and will feature in game XMB for messaging. There is no word that it will feature Blu-ray Profile 2.0 support, or DTS-HD MA decoding – the only two features lacking from the PS3’s otherwise excellent Blu-ray capabilities (but to be fair, no Profile 2.0 player will be available anytime soon, although DTS-HD MA decoding would be nice to have since many titles now use this new audio format and it sucks to be limited to plain old DTS 1.5 Mbps). A new Xbox 360 SKU may also be on the way, perhaps featuring a 60 GB hard-disk. I think getting rid of stability issues and lowering the noise level should be Microsoft’s main priority, because a quiet, non RRoD’ing Xbox 360, with a large hard-drive, will be a must-have even for existing 360 owners, let alone new users.

    Okay, so that’s it for this week. I have to get back to fixing the new server. I’ll see you next week.

    Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4 | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (9 March 2008)

    Weekly News Roundup (2 March 2008)

    Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

    The month that can never make up its mind as to how many days it should have is finally over. Down with February. Long live March. I love March, not just because it’s the month that contains my birthday, but this is usually the time that I start to feel like the new year is officially here, and now in transition mode as per January, or the confused-as-to-how-many-days-it-has mode that is February.

    The fallout from HD DVD’s death continues. Analysts have finally caught onto what I’ve been saying for months now, that Blu-ray’s victory owes much to the BDA’s love for copy protection, as it does to any other factors like the PS3. With DRM being public enemy number one these days, it’s funny to see DRM winning a major format war. I think Toshiba should have promoted the more consumer friendly nature of HD DVD more to the public, in terms of both region coding and less DRM, but I do understand why they didn’t. To do so would have opened another battlefront with DRM and region coding loving studios like Fox. It seems Toshiba really did not like the studio’s way of doing things, and they have now officially released DVD region-free firmware for several of their HD DVD players (or the XE1 at least, install 2.5 first and test to make sure, since once you go to 2.8, getting back to 2.5 is hard and only 2.5 has the region free patch) on their website (at least their Australian website). Unfortunately, it was this pro-consumer, anti-studio attitude that eventually lost the war for them. While as a HD DVD supporter, Warner was not our best friend in the format war, but at least you have to commend them for not supporting region control. Universal and Paramount too. F*ck Fox and their region coded and BD+ discs. Speaking of region control, there is now a new software for the Nintendo Wii that breaks region control (PAL and NTSC) games to work on your Wii. Simply insert the disc, it does its work, eject the disc and insert your game disc. Not sure if Nintendo intend to close this loophole with a firmware patch, or whether they even care about enforcing region control or not.

    In HD news, the fallout from HD DVD’s death … wait, I’ve already used this line. Anyway, the big news for HD DVD supporters mourners this week has been Paramount’s (and Dreamwork’s) rather harsh decision to pull all their upcoming HD DVD releases. Just like what they did when they pulled Blu-ray support, with total disregard for consumers. If it wasn’t for their region-free stance, they have done nothing to help either HD format with both low quantity and quality releases. In my last blog entry, I talked about fire sales, and with Paramount stopping HD DVD releases, I think their fire sale will be coming shortly. I’ve started a thread in the forum to talk about HD DVD fire sales, and I will be posting news of any new fire sales there, and in the usual places. The fire sales here in Australia have attracted a lot of buyers (some genuine, while the people who bought 350 discs and 5 copies of each movie trying to take advantage of genuine buyers are scum of the Earth), me included. It’s surprising, but I feel lucky that I’ve bought into HD DVD, as the cheap $8 discs is something so rare, it hasn’t even happened regularly to DVDs yet (at least no in Australia). For the HD DVD movies I’ve bought to be released on to Blu-ray would take months, if not years, and it would still probably be the exact same content, but at 5 times the price. The only risk now is having discs, but not being able to source a player if people’s current players die. But that may not be a problem for long, as HD DVD might live on partly in another format. The DVD Forum (the official body that controls the DVD format) is continuing its support for the China-only CH DVD format, which is basically HD DVD with a different set of software. If CH DVD is a success, then chances are, one will be able to source a HD DVD player without too much problem in the future, which bodes well for those that have dipped their feet into the HD DVD fire sales.

    Moving onto Blu-ray now, those worried about price rises now that Blu-ray has no competition will be startled to see a new Blu-ray player being priced at nearly $17,000! Obviously this is not a sign of things to come, but it’s still funny the price some people are willing to pay. I bet it’s not even Profile 1.1. Better news for those of us who don’t earn 7 figure incomes, Sony has announced two new Blu-ray players to be released in the latter part of the year. Both might eventually be BD-Live (Profile 2.0) compatible, although the cheaper of the two players, the BDP-S35,  might not have enough persistent storage to quality as a BD-Live compatible player, without you adding external storage through a USB thumb key. Not the most elegant solution, so I think the more expensive BDP-S550 is the way to go. It even has 7.1 analogue audio output, plus on-board decoding of all the major HD audio formats, so it looks like a good one. The more cynical side of me thinks Sony held back the news of these players until the format war looks to have ended, as it did not want to upset fellow CE manufacturers in the BDA. Now that Sony owns the one and only HD format, it looks like they won’t just sit back and let the other companies take advantage. Monopoly time …

    Netflix is also set to take advantage of the conclusion of the format war. They will quadruple the number of Blu-ray titles available to rent, but may raise monthly subscription prices as a result. They’ve been harping on about raising prices for ages now, so don’t be too surprised when it happens. And while not strictly HD news, the people over at Secrets of Home Theater and Hi Fi have released an updated review for the PS3’s video playback performance. The previous review was criticized for only testing the then most updated firmware, which did not even include DVD upscaling. But unfortunately, the new result based on the latest firmware did not improve the scores by much. I’ve tried to explain the situation in the link above, and I think most people feel the same way: The PS3 is an excellent Blu-ray player, a more than adequate DVD upscaling player, but don’t expect it to compete with top of the line dedicated upscaling players as that’s not what it is designed to do.

    To segue effortlessly from HD/video to gaming, this middle of the road story about the PS3’s new PlayTV (turns the PS3 into a DVR) feature will be DRM free. Good for Sony for taking a sensible approach to DRM for once. Let’s just hope people don’t take advantage of Sony’s lapse and turn the PS3 into the mother of all video piracy machines.

    Segueing now to gaming completely, LucasArts will now produce games on the PS3 and then port it over to the 360, as opposed to doing it the other way. I don’t think this is because they luuurve the PS3 more than the 360, it just make more sense from the developer’s point of view to do this as it will mean better games for both platforms. Developers have often complained about porting 360 games to the PS3, since the PS3 has several design bottlenecks that is not easily solve when doing ports. It’s much better to design the game for a system that is more restrictive, and then port it over to the less restrictive/easier environment. And finally, Dead Rising, the game I’m still playing at the moment and the game that I played so much that caused my 360 to RRoD, has been sued for infringing the copyrights of the Dawn of the Dead franchise. So let’s see, Dead Rising is a game about a zombie outbreak and survivors holding up in a shopping mall. Dawn of the Dead (both movies) is about a zombie outbreak and survivors holding up in a shopping mall. Sorry, but I just don’t see the connection.

    Over the next week, I will be bringing you details of a new competition that I will run on Digital Digest, prizes courtesy of Roxio, the makers of the famous Popcorn and MyDVD series. The prize includes copies of their latest DVD production, copying and conversion software, as well as a grand prize of an iPod. More details when they are available.

    Okay, that’s it from me for this week – I’m going back to look for more HD DVD fire sale details, credit card in hand …

    Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Video Technology, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (2 March 2008)

    Weekly News Roundup (24 February 2008)

    Sunday, February 24th, 2008

    Welcome to the first weekly news roundup post the HD format war. Upon hearing the news of the war’s end, did you let your emotions get the better of you, go up to complete strangers to hug and kiss them? And did you then get arrested and placed on probation for being a public nuisance? No? Umm … me neither. I didn’t do any of that, honest. 

    This week has all been about the end of the HD format war, so either there has been very little copyright news (or very little news that would be considered relevant/interesting), or that I haven’t been paying attention as usual. I’m sure the MPAA and the RIAA got up to their usual tricks, that some politicians took their money to support a new legislation, and that some hacker found some way to hack into some DRM. So basically nothing new.

    And of course, the big news of the week is that, yep you guessed it, Apple has dropped the price on the iPhone and iPod touch! Oh, and Toshiba also dropped something. I think it was called HD DVD. The news that HD DVD supporters didn’t want to hear, but probably thought was only a matter of time, did come on Tuesday (Japanese time). I’m sure Toshiba could have held on a little bit longer, but it would only be to wait for a miracle, that sadly, won’t happen now. You all know how I feel about HD DVD, and Blu-ray, and if you didn’t, you can read my latest thoughts (pre-Toshiba decision) here. While I’m sad that a consumer friendlier format like HD DVD didn’t work out, I’m not overly fussed as I’ve been supporting both formats for a while now. And by supporting, I don’t mean going onto Internet forums and gloating and posting FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) posts, but rather in the more practical way of forking over cash to buy stuff. So one format that I’ve bought into has died, the other has grown stronger as a result, which means I’ve not lost anything. In fact, not only have I not lost anything, I’ve picked up a few things too – like no less then thirteen HD DVD titles for an average of $USD 7.01 including postage (titles include Evan Almighty, Knocked up, Casino, Carlito’s Way, Jarhead, Rambo Trilogy, Deer Hunter, Apollo 13, Spartacus – and a few more items at the same low price which if not out of stock, includes Shaun of the Dead, Smoking Aces, The Kingdom and The Thing). The rush for these discounted Universal titles has created such as storm here in Australia that it caused disruptions to several leading online stores, and stock sold out within a matter of minutes. Which just goes to show that low prices is the most consumer friendly feature of all.

    Anyway, in the aftermath of Toshiba’s announcement, the HD DVD exclusive studios all eventually followed suit and headed towards the Blu camp. Both Universal and Paramount has announced that they will now support Blu-ray, with Universal unsure of what to do with their HD DVD lineup, while Paramount and Warner appears to be willing to continue releasing movies on HD DVD for the time being. So the chance of more bargains like the one I listed above from Paramount and Warner remains high, and my credit card awaits patiently as well. And for those slightly worried about not having a player to play their HD DVD discs, then the good news is that LG still plans on releasing dual format players for the future, possibly both standalones and computer drives. I suspect Samsung, which seem to do everything LG does, will continue to do so as well. And word is that Sharp will release a player too, since I think they provide the laser diode for these dual format players. What isn’t so clear is the details of Paramount and Universal’s switch to Blu-ray, like which titles will be available and when. I’m guessing 3 to 6 months before we see the first Blu-ray title, and for the Bourne Trilogy and Transformers to be in the starting lineup. There is also the chance that if Paramount still has some recalled Blu-ray versions of Blades of Glory and other titles that were shelved following their defection to HD DVD, that these might be released first. What is also not so clear is what Microsoft will do in regards to a Blu-ray add-on drive for the Xbox 360. The initial rumour was that one will be available within 6 months, but then Microsoft issued a (somewhat soft) denial for a drive being available in the short term. I guess they don’t want to be seen as supporting a Sony format, not when they’re still at war with them in the game console arena.

    So the focus now turns to whether Blu-ray can become the next digital video format to replace DVDs. Certainly the end of the format war, and format confusion, will help. I will go over two Digital Digest polls soon in regards to this issue, but suffice to say, Blu-ray has a long way to go before it can even call itself a competitor to DVD. Even with Blu-ray and HD DVD combined, discs sales have only been half of what DVD did after the same initial period. While player sales have been fine, thanks to cheap HD DVD players and the PS3, the low attachment rate of Blu-ray movies and the generally low rate of sale of HD DVD, has all contributed to the low disc sale figures. And the high prices when compared to DVDs won’t have helped (remember that when DVDs first came out, there was no “low price” alternative, because VHS often cost more, not less, than DVDs).

    And while I’ve harped on about Blu-ray manufacturing costs and such in the past, a new type of BD recordable could start to lower cost of BD blanks. Dubbed LHT BD-Rs, and developed by Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi and Maxell, these use organic materials to lower production costs. Unfortunately, and this has been somewhat of a Blu-ray trait, is that compatibility problems might occur with earlier players. Some players can be updated through firmware to read these new BD-Rs, while others will have to be replaced. Might be best to hold off buying a BD burner until something concrete materialises.

    I’ve also harped on about Blu-ray region coding and how it sucks, but there might be a solution now for the PC at least. Read my Blu-ray Region Free Guide to find tips on possibly making PowerDVD Ultra and WinDVD BD region-free for Blu-ray playback.

    And finally onto gaming, as promised, the January NPD figures have been released and analysed. While it looks like Blu-ray has helped the PS3 to beat the Xbox 360 and nearly beat the Wii, remember that both the Wii and 360 had serious stock shortage problems thanks to last month’s record sales figures for both consoles. The PS3 took advantage efficiently, but the Wii and 360 are still the consoles to beat, in the US at least. And thanks to consoles becoming more and more like PCs in terms of functionality (media sharing, Internet browsing, movie downloading …), PCs are now struggling to stay in the gaming market, at least here in Australia. For me, I’ve not played less games on the PC, but I’ve definitely played more on consoles (not surprising, considering the current 3 main consoles are the first ones I’ve owned since the SNES). I still prefer PC gaming, mainly because I prefer strategy games, and first person shooters using the mouse/keyboard combination. But I can definitely see the appeal of console games. And some say that the increased spending for console gaming has led to decreases for movies, which I would have to agree with. So in some way, the success of the PS3 as a game console might actually hurt Blu-ray.

    [PLEASE INSERT INTERESTING, IF NOT FUNNY, CONCLUSION TO ARTICLE. AND DO NOT FORGET TO MENTION “SEE YOU NEXT WEEK”]

    Posted in Computing, Electronics, Gaming, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (24 February 2008)

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