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Weekly News Roundup (21 December 2008)

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

Only one more WNR before Christmas folks, and two more before its 2009. Can you really believe that? That somehow time is linear and that the years go up, rather than down, is really just amazing to me. You know what’s also amazing? Coleslaw.

In Copyright news, the MPAA has linked an increase in piracy with the current economic climate. For once, I actually agree with them. Piracy has always been linked to what people are willing and able to spend, and with Hollywood consistently making increasing profits, the MPAA need to take a look at that and realise why the piracy rate is so high.

The MPAA continues their fight against movie websites, suing three more this week bringing the total to 13. But illegal downloads continue, which again links to the point above. Make it affordable, or people will look elsewhere.

The lawsuit against Australian ISP iiNet continues, and iiNet are ready for a legal fight which could start in February. As part of the preparation for the lawsuit, AFACT (the Australian MPAA) spied on iiNet’s users who used BitTorrent, and even planted a ‘copyright infringing’ user into the mix to prove their point. Does that leave a bad taste in your mouth? It does mine, and I’m not even an iiNet customer. Why should corporations or organisations representing corporations be allowed to spy on us? In this case, the information was used to sue another company, but what if they used this information to sue individuals? Oh wait, they’ve done this before. Ethical, moral and legal considerations seems to be second concern to these people, not if it gets in the way of protecting their profits.

SecuROM - the culprit behind all this DRM nonsense

Software publisher Ubisoft is dropping DRM for the new Prince of Persia game. But don’t get too happy yet, because “It’s a Trap!”. They are doing it to prove that having no DRM still means a high piracy rate, which might get people to go and buy it prove a point, which is a scenario that they’re happy with too. It’s a win win for them really. Ideally, we as users should buy the game if we like it, and not buy it or download it if we don’t. A low piracy rate + a low purchase rate should send the right message if the game turns out to be crap (early reviews say the game is pretty good, but not an instant classic or anything). I don’t think DRM actually increases piracy, I just don’t think it stops it. And since it doesn’t work, it only annoys legitimate users, which is kind of counterproductive. Back to the game that started all this negative publicity for PC gaming DRM, Spore now has reduced its own DRM. And all it took was a massive public protest and out-lash. And don’t forget the baddies behind all this is SecuROM, and guess who publishes it? That’s right, Sony. The fact that half of SecuROM’s wikipedia page is filled by the “controversies” section says something, doesn’t it?

High Definition Onto Blu-ray news now, and it’s been a great week for Blu-ray. Well, actually it was last week, but the sales figures have only come out for “TDK Week”, and they are spectacular. More than $60 million is sales for the week is amazing for Blu-ray, considering the year’s previous big release, Iron Man, did less than $30m. But while this is great news for Blu-ray, it was also good news for DVD, because the DVD version sold tons as well. And the DVD version did better against Blu-ray for TDK compared to Iron Man as well, at least on dollar volume. The Batman has saved Christmas.

HD DVD Combo Discs could make a comeback, but this time in Blu

The first day figures for TDK had the Blu-ray version selling at 30% compared to the DVD version in the US, Canada and Britain. Worldwide numbers from a week later had the Blu-ray market share drop to about 13%, which is still an impressive set of figures (this number would have been closer to 3% this time last year). Still, I think something is missing from Blu-ray, as the migration from DVD to Blu-ray hasn’t really materialized for the average consumer. What might help is Blu-ray combo discs. Remember HD DVD combos? Remember HD DVD? Anyway, combos were HD DVD discs that had HD DVD content on one side, and DVD content (playable in any DVD player) on the other. Some discs even had both formats on the same side, although the HD DVD side was limited to a single layer (15 GB). Well, it might be coming to Blu-ray as well, and I think this will be a good idea for Blu-ray, despite the BDA ridiculing the HD DVD people for doing it. If HD DVD had decided to tough it out and were determined to use everything in their arsenal, then they could have made every DVD release a HD DVD combo, instantly taking the HD DVD to DVD sales ratio to 1:1. Blu-ray can now do this as well, if they’re desperate enough (will lose a lot of money in the process though).

And finally in gaming, there’s a free Xbox Live Arcade game available at the moment. I’ve downloaded it, and you don’t need a Gold account either. The way that Xbox Live has been integrated with the Internet is now quite impressive. I was actually able to log into my Xbox Live account on my PC, and schedule the download of this free game to my Xbox 360 all without turning the console on. Plus, my Fallout 3 achievements from my PC version of the game now shows up in my Xbox 360 gamer profile, and vice versa. PC gaming is on the decline, but it’s still huge for certain types of games, and if Microsoft can pressure publishers to include “Games For Windows” in all PC games (thus making sure that an Xbox 360 version will exist with the same set of achievements), then that will be a big boost for the Xbox 360 as well.

NPD November 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

Overall, there’s a lot of good news for the Xbox 360 at the moment. The Wii is doing amazing things in sales, but as you’ll read about in my November NPD sales figure analysis, the PS3 is struggling. Sales are down compared to last year for all three of Sony’s console platforms, which isn’t too surprising given the current climate, but it’s made worse by the fact that every other console increased in sales: Wii, Xbox 360, DS, some by significant numbers (Wii – sales up 108%!). Some analysts are blaming this on poor HDTV sales. This kind of make sense, except the Xbox 360 is also a HDTV requiring console, so why has it not dropped in sales? I think the PS3 is supposed to drive HDTV sales, not the other way around, to be honest. But the easy solution is to drop prices, but Sony won’t do it claiming the PS3 is still the best value console around. That’s true, but value is relative. It’s as if a car manufacturer includes all extras as standard, except the price has been raised by a couple of thousand. Yes, it’s good value if you need all the extras, but what if you don’t want a sunroof? Then the car is just plain expensive, despite it being worth the price. This is basically the effect of the PS3 also being a Blu-ray player. In another year, Sony could have afforded to take a loss and drop prices, but not in a year where their predicted profits could drop by a massive 72%.

That’s it for yet another week. There’s no holiday break for DVDGuy, so I’ll be back same time next week with another news roundup. Even if there isn’t any news to write, in which case I’ll ramble on about something. So same as usual then.

Posted in Copyright, 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 (21 December 2008)

Game Consoles – November 2008 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Monday, December 15th, 2008

The November 2008 NPD figures are in, and this has been a bumper month for game console sales, breaking some records in the process. The overall picture is pretty predictable though, but still, some of the numbers are simply amazing, especially given how soft the retail sector is supposed to be right now. 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 November are below, ranked in order of number of sales (November 2007 figures also shown, including percentage change):

Wii: 2,040,000 (Total: 15.4 million; November 2007: 981,000 – up 108%)

DS: 1,560,000 (Total: 25 million; November 2007: 1,530,000 – up 2%)

Xbox 360: 836,000 (Total: 12.4 million; November 2007: 770,000 – up 9%)

PSP: 421,000 (Total: 13.4 million; November 2007: 567,000 – down 25%)

PS3: 378,000 (Total: 6.1 million; November 2007: 466,000 – down 19%)

PS2: 206,000 (Total: 43.2 million; November 2007: 496,000 – down 58%)

NPD November 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

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

My prediction last month was:

No big surprises next month, I don’t think, so I won’t even bother making a prediction. Same as before. Which I guess is a prediction of sorts.

There weren’t any big surprises in the order of most popular consoles, compared to October, but were a few big surprises. Some very good, some just good and some that’s quite bad.

Let’s start with the very good, and just look at those Nintendo numbers. Wow! I’ve included November 2007’s sales figures as well for comparison reasons, and Wii sales grew a massive 108%! That’s right, it doubled in sales and then some. The DS did less well, but still maintained last year’s amazing numbers. That makes the Wii the most wanted device of the holiday period three times in a row now. To compare how amazing selling more than 2 million Wiis is, less than 4 million Blu-ray players were sold in the entire 2008 period! So the Wii sold more in one month than Blu-ray in six, even though Blu-ray players are now dropping to prices below that of the Wii.

Then we have the less excellent, but still good surprise and that’s the Xbox 360 managing to outsell the same period from last year by 9%. That may not sounds as good as 108% (!), but the Xbox 360 started the year very badly and it looked like this was going to be the year that the PS3 spanked the 360, but then with a few strategic price cuts, the NXE, some hit games (see below), it fought back extremely well. The Xbox 360 is quickly establishing itself as the current-gen console of choice for “serious” gamers (and by serious, I mean those that have probably more than one console at have, have owned a previous-gen console, and those that actually care about the fact that the Wii is not HD). Well maybe not the console of choice, that’s a bit early to tell, but at the very least, it’s in with a shout, which is more than what you can say for the original Xbox. Microsoft will be pleased, no doubt, because they know they’re not really competing with the Wii – they’re competing with Sony’s PS3.

And of course, there’s always a chance of a bit of bad news. Unfortunately, all 3 pieces of it came Sony’s way this month. Compared to the same time 2007, all 3 of Sony’s gaming devices dropped in sales. And they weren’t just superficial drops, but significant ones – 19 (PS3), 25 (PSP) and a massive 58% of the PS2. The Sony “eco-system”, to borrow the term from Microsoft, isn’t look too healthy. Of course, this is just a month, and we’re comparing current-gen consoles to a previous gen one (PS2), as well as two other “premium” (read: expensive) alternatives to other similar devices, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that expensive stuff sells less as well than cheap stuff in harsh economic times. What is worrying is that, for the PS3 at least, it wasn’t even able to maintain last year’s sales figures, despite prices dropping, value increasing, and Blu-ray now selling 4 times as many as last year. That’s negative growth, a recession, if you will. And to let your main rival, the 360, sell twice as many console as you do in the crucial holiday sales period, that’s just not good enough. Especially if it’s because you decided to release an even more expensive SKU (the 160GB) when people want value, not features. PlayStation Home, a beta just released a few days ago (why still beta? It’s been in the works for years!), will help, but then again LittleBigPlanet was supposed to help as well, and it didn’t, falling completely off the sales charts this month (see below).

I don’t want to keep going on about it, especially when everyone else is doing so as well, but having a Blu-ray drive in the PS3 seems like a mistake, at least from the console war point of view. It has helped Blu-ray win the format war, but the other Blu-ray manufacturers are now not happy about the PS3 being the Blu-ray player of choice, and Sony may have to keep the PS3 prices high to placate them. And do games really need Blu-ray? Probably not this generation, especially if you look at all the hit games that have managed to say under 8 GB. I still think a Blu-ray drive would have made more sense in the PS4, and perhaps the PS3 could have had different SKUs that had built in Blu-ray drives for movie playback (only), while the mainstream version is cheap and uses good old DVDs. This would still help Blu-ray in the HD format war, but no hinder the PS3 in the console war. Sony’s hope is that the PS3 will remain competitive and become the PS4 due to software updates and other innovations, which I guess is not all that unrealistic and perhaps their big plan all along. We’ll have to wait and see if this works, because Microsoft can come out with a Xbox 720 or whatever, with Blu-ray playback and the “sexiness” of the PS3 probably for cheaper, and then Sony is back to square one.

Now let’s look at the software sales charts, and the very good surprise here is for Microsoft. The number one and number two titles all belonged to the Xbox 360, selling a combined of nearly 3 million copies, that’s more than 1.2 million more than GTA IV, this year’s best selling game. That’s especially good for Microsoft because one of these titles, Call of Duty: World at War, is actually a multi-platform release, meaning they are winning in an area that counts for game developers when they decide how much effort each multi-platform release will get. To compare in more detail, the PS3’s best selling game this month was also CoD: WaW, but it was outsold by the Xbox 360 version by a 2.3:1 margin. That’s even more amazing when you consider that for hardware numbers, the Xbox 360 only outnumbers the PS3 by 2:1 – so this shows that Xbox 360 gamers buy more games than PS3 owners, and games is where the money is at. And CoD: WaW is actually more expensive on the Xbox 360, at least on Amazon. The number 1 title was of course Gears of War 2, a Microsoft exclusive, which is great news for Microsoft’s game developers as well. Sony’s response to Gears of War was Resistance, and the sequel to that hit game was also released this month, making it the other PS3 game in the top 10, but selling considerably worse than GoW2. Both are exclusives to the platforms, and one sold 4 times as many as the other with only twice as many consoles. And where’s LittleBigPlanet? In fact, even the other Xbox 360 exclusive, Left 4 Dead, outsold Resistance 2. Left 4 Dead is developed by gaming giant EA, but no PS3 version was produced. The Nintendo hits are still all there, with Wii Music creeping in at number 10. All they need is a Wii Sports 2 and they will lock up a huge share of the software charts for a long time to come. Overall, the Xbox 360 held 46.5% of the top 10, the Wii closely behind at 40% while the PS3 lags behind at 13.5%. Here’s the complete list of the top 10 software sales:

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360, Microsoft) – 1,560,000
Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360, Activision Blizzard) – 1,410,000
Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii, Nintendo) – 796,000
Wii Fit w/Board (Wii, Nintendo) – 697,000
Mario Kart w/ Wheel (Wii, Nintendo) – 637,000
Call of Duty: World at War (PS3, Activision Blizzard) – 597,000
Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii, Activision Blizzard) – 475,000
Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360, Electronic Arts) – 231,000
Resistance 2 (PS3, Sony) – 215,000
Wii Music (Wii, Nintendo) – 202,000

And that’s it for another month. Steady as she goes, is my prediction for next month. I can’t see PlayStation Home, a beta at that, helping to sell too many PS3s, and with no price drops in view, I can’t see the current situation change much. The next time you read this feature will be 2009, and I will try to have a 2008 summary up as part of this feature, or another blog post. It should be interesting to find out who had the most number 1 releases, who sold the most hardware and software, and all sorts of other stats. See you then, and have a happy and safe holiday period.

Posted in Gaming, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 2 Comments »

Game Consoles – October 2008 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Monday, November 17th, 2008

The October 2008 NPD sales figures are out, and there are no big surprises. There is the usual sales bump associated with the holiday season, and we get to see the Xbox 360 price drop in full effect, plus LittleBigPlanet and how it did for the PS3. 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 October are below, ranked in order of number of sales:

Wii: 803,000 (Total: 13.4 million)

DS: 491,000 (Total: 23 million)

Xbox 360: 371,000 (Total: 11.6 million)

PSP: 193,000 (Total: 12.9 million)

PS3: 190,000 (Total: 5.7 million)

PS2: 136,000 (Total: 42.9 million)

NPD October 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

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

My prediction last month was:

The next month should see an increase in sales all around, but I suspect it will be the same as this months in terms of the ranking, the Wii ahead by quite a bit, the Xbox 360 following with the PS3 third (in between are the portables, while the PS2 is sixth). Common sense really. See you next month.

Looks like I was right on the mark there. Not too hard as basically it’s the same as last month, with more sales. Actually, last month’s figures included 5 week’s worth, while this month’s is only 4 week’s worth. This explains why the figures show some sales drops, but despite having a week less to work with, both the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 rose in sales. Taking this into account, Wii sales rose by 46.1%, Xbox 360 sales rose by 33.7%, but PS3 sales only rose 2.4%.

The Xbox 360 price cut continues to pay dividends for Microsoft, as it outsold the PS3 once more, although not by the 2:1 margin that analysts originally predicted (although it was pretty close). This is looking like a very good holiday season for the Xbox 360, and software sales reflect this too (more on this later on). A 33% sales increase in a month is fantastic, especially when PS3 sales only rose a pitiful 2.4%. No doubt the current economic crisis and the high cost of PS3s are a contributing factor, as well as the price crash of Blu-ray standalones making the PS3 a much less attractive prospect for potential Blu-ray owners. The PS3 looked like to be running away with it earlier this year, but with price cuts and key software releases, Microsoft are now back in it.

The Wii continues to thrive, and if you want one this holiday season, you better buy one now because it looks like stock shortages might still be an issue if sales continue like this. It’s amazing to think that the Wii could be the “must have” item three holiday periods in a row!

The same cannot be said of the PS3, which is struggling now due to Sony’s insistence on not dropping prices. On value, I agree that the PS3 is worth the price as you get an excellent media hub, game console and Blu-ray player. But as things are developing, now is not the time to go for premium hardware, even if it is well worth the price. The continued sales surge of the much cheaper Wii and (after the price drops) the Xbox 360 shows that price is the main factor in driving sales, not features. At least for this holiday. Time is still on Sony’s side though as their superior hardware can last longer without a major update than either Nintendo or Microsoft’s console, and Blu-ray’s gradual uptake will help too. But you can’t but feel that this holiday season, especially with the long awaited LittleBigPlanet being released, should have been Sony’s if only they dropped prices just a little bit.

It was about this time last year that I started the NPD analysis feature on this blog, and so we actually have the sales data from exactly a year ago to compare right here. The two monthly charts from a year apart actually looks very similar, with the PS3 doing better than the same time last year. The Wii is clearly the winner though, and to a lesser extent, the DS. Both have actually managed to keep up sales, and in Wii’s case, increase them significantly. Sony’s other two products, the PSP and PS2 just cannot keep up, while the PS3 has made up some ground, but not significantly enough to suggest it will beat either the Wii or the 360 in the current generation console war, not yet anyway.

Moving onto software sales, this is another big Xbox 360 month. While the Wii has overtaken the Xbox 360 in the total number of consoles figures, the Xbox 360 continues to outperform the Wii in software sales, although the difference is much less so than a year ago, thanks to the must-have trio of Wii Fit, Mario Kart and Wii Play. And this may be the problem for the Wii. Other consoles have top games come and go every month, but the Wii’s top entries are always dominated by these three titles. This is a good thing in that it shows that sales of these games/devices can stand up to the test of time, but less so for developers trying to market Wii games and seeing none of their efforts reaching the top 10. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, has successfully taken the number 1 spot so many times this year and all with different games, and from different developers. This month, it’s Fable II, a Microsoft own production (and obviously exclusive to the 360/PC) that took the top spot. The PS3, due to the lower number of consoles out there in people’s homes (and many of them servicing as media hubs/Blu-ray players, rather than game consoles), continues to do poorly. LittleBigPlanet, which has received rave reviews, should have been the title to kick start the PS3’s software dominance, but it was barely able to command a spot in the top 10 (of course, we’ll have to wait until next month’s figures to see if this was due to it being released later in the cycle than the other games). I must say I’m a bit surprised at LBP’s low sales volume, being outsold by Sony’s other effort (SOCOM). Last on the list is Dead Space, a very capable game that is currently scaring the bejesus out of gamers (and onlookers) all around the world. Overall, the Xbox 360 had a massive 54.9% of the top 10 sales with 5 titles, the Wii next on 31.7% with the same 3 titles as usual, and the PS3 at last place with only 13.4% of the top 10. Here’s the complete list of the top 10 software sales:

Fable II (Xbox 360, Microsoft) – 790,000
Wii Fit w/Board (Wii, Nintendo) – 487,000
Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, Bethesda) – 375,000
Mario Kart w/ Wheel (Wii, Nintendo) – 290,000
Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii, Nintendo) – 282,000
Saint’s Row 2 (Xbox 360, THQ) – 270,000
SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation (PS3, Sony) – 231,000
LittleBigPlanet (PS3, Sony) – 215,000
NBA 2K9 (Xbox 360, Take-Two) – 202,000
Dead Space (Xbox 360, EA) – 193,000

So that’s it for this month. No big surprises next month, I don’t think, so I won’t even bother making a prediction. Same as before. Which I guess is a prediction of sorts. Anyway. See you then.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 3 Comments »

Weekly News Roundup (9 November 2008)

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

CNN's fake holograms were pointless

Obamania is sweeping the world. I watched the election coverage because I love elections, or anything where you get to find out a result at a set date (sports, exams …). I think I can be considered quite knowledgeable on the US election, at least this one, so once I saw PA go blue, it was pretty much all over for McCain. Ohio, Virginia, Florida all going Obama’s way just meant that, as I had predicted, the election will be called for Obama once the polls close in the west. I’m sure the networks would have preferred it to have lasted a bit longer, but there’s only so much one can take in regards to fake holograms. The most disappointing thing for me was that I had put some money on Obama winning between 311 and 338 Electoral Votes, but he got (it looks like right now) 365 EVs – it’s all Indiana and North Carolina’s fault (plus Nebraska’s single split EV). I did put money on Obama getting more than 338 to hedge my bets, so I didn’t lose any money, but I didn’t win any either which was a shame.

Better news is that it seems my third replacement PS3 (fourth overall) is problem free at last. Fingers crossed. I did go computer shopping, but I ended up buying a system that’s totally different than the one that I thought I would buy last week. That’s just so typical, isn’t it. And despite all the distractions, there happened to be quite a bit of news this week, so let’s get on with it.

Starting with copyright news. Following up on last week’s news about MPAA winning against the Chinese DVD manufacturer GoWell. Apparently what happened was that GoWell made a DVD player that played back copied CSS protected discs – not ripped discs, just discs that you copy with Windows Explorer or something which is still encrypted. Normal DVD players won’t play these files, but GoWell made one that did, which is why it got into trouble with the MPAA. GoNotSoWell, it seems.

Real Networks want the public's help in their fight against the MPAA

In the other MPAA case, Real Networks is appealing to the public for support. They are promising free licenses to RealDVD for all trial subscribers once they win the case. If a free license isn’t important for you, then making a stand against the MPAA is. They may have had a case against GoWell, but CSS in itself is a ridiculously crap encryption that can be broken just by sneezing on it, and to see so much money being wasted on licensing and defending just seems like such a waste. Also a waste is all the money the MPAA spends on lobbying politicians, and no sooner had Obama accepted McCain’s concession, the MPAA issued a statement to clarify their intent to work with the new administration on matters of copyright. The kind of people who voted for Obama, especially the younger generation, won’t stand for yet another administration that’s far too friendly and accepting of the MPAA’s position, and I hope President-Elect Obama stands firm on the principle of fair use.

BD+ broken?

Copy protection schemes, like Blu-ray’s BD+, are only effective when people aren’t actively trying to find ways to circumvent it. But people are, and they have, which brings the dream of Blu-ray playback on Linux systems one step closer. Remember that CSS was broken as a way to get DVD video working on Linux, so you would think that the BDA had learnt that lesson and officially licensed a Linux based decryption software to prevent people hackers from doing it the hard way.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to fighting piracy. Stick or carrot. The stick approach, like what EA has been doing lately and getting into trouble with, doesn’t seem to work too well. EA has had to back down time after time, but stories of more snafus won’t help. This time, EA forgot to print one character from the CD key for the game Red Alert 3 and their solution is for customers to guess it by entering all 36 possible options (or send in a picture of their improperly printed CD key for verification). If there was one company that could do without one more DRM related scandal, it was EA. The other approach, carrot, is to not try and prevent people pirating stuff, but work with it for everyone’s benefit. A new technique for online video sharing sites allows ads to be inserted into videos whenever copyrighted work is detected. Not the most ideal solution, but it’s better than having the video removed. One can also fight piracy on the pricing front, and that’s what Warner is doing in China with low-cost online rentals. Why can’t they do low-cost online rentals here? And even the lack of copy protection can be seen as a promotional tool, with DRM-free MP3s now getting a new “MP3 100% Compatible” logo to promote the fact. The anti-DRM movement has helped to fight piracy more effectively than DRMs, it seems.

High Definition Let’s move onto Blu-ray. Sony/Universal are coming out with a vending machines that sells Blu-ray movies and PS3 games. It’s funny that Universal is helping Sony out, because if you look at the companies that have contributed most to Blu-ray, it’s Paramount (Iron Man, Transformers), Warner (I Am Legend, The Dark Knight) and now Universal. All three were HD DVD studios, two of them exclusive until the very end. Interesting.

The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is set to break all Blu-ray sales records

The other HD DVD exclusive party was Wal-Mart, and now they’re bigging up Blu-ray too by devoting more shelve space to Blu-ray for the holiday shopping season. The low cost players that have started to arrive will suit Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy, something that wasn’t possible last year this time which forced them to go HD DVD exclusive for standalone HD players. The lower hardware prices, movie sales and in-store promotions are all part of the big holiday promotional push for Blu-ray, which is set to cost up to $25 million dollars. Money well spent, or waste of it during harsh economic times? Regardless, analysts all predict Blu-ray player prices will nosedive in the next month and a bit. HD DVD’s price crash was seen by probably the very same analysts as a sign that it was doomed, but this time without any real competitors around, the outlooks if fairly different. The Dark Knight on Blu-ray, which is predicted to sell by the truck load, and coupled with cheap Blu-ray players, should see uptake increase. If it works, this could be the most significant holiday season for Blu-ray – the one that decides whether it can replace DVDs, or merely supplement it as a niche format.

And as I normally like to do at the end of the HD section, there’s a bit of news about H.264. DivX 7 is nearly ready for release, with the first beta player being released with H.264 support.

And in gaming, PS3 sales bottomed out last week, but bounced back during the week thanks to GTA IV I think. Just goes to prove that games sell consoles, more than the other way around. Unfortunately for the PS3, it has the lowest attach rate (the average number of games people buy for the console) out of the big 3, with the Xbox 360 way in front followed by the Wii. The Xbox 360 being released earlier helps it, plus the lower prices of the console. The Wii and it’s fun (and hype) factor is helping it too. The PS3’s excellent Blu-ray and media hub functions, is making things worse when it comes to games attach rates. Console manufacturers make money off games more than consoles (that’s if they’re not losing huge amounts of it by selling them below cost, like Sony does with the PS3), so attach rate is everything (especially if your consoles has sold in greater numbers, like the Xbox 360).

In other PS3 news, firmware 2.52 has been released to fix problems with 2.51 which was released to fix problems with 2.50 (which was released to fix problems with …). Sony really need to do better release testing when it comes to their firmware, and there are more reports that 2.52 is borking PS3s by making the not reading disc problem appear after updates. It’s only a matter of time before someone launches a lawsuit, if Sony’s not careful. Sony is also patenting a Wiimote like controller for the PS3.

Will we ever see a slim, sexier Xbox 360?

The NPD October figures should be released next week, and it is widely expected that the Xbox 360 will do extremely well thanks to recent price cuts. But Microsoft is hinting that the last round of cuts will be the last round, period. It was always a matter of time before price cuts are so large that they no longer make any financial sense. The next logical step, at least in my mind, would be for them to make a more reliable and “sexier” version of the 360 – doing that, even for higher prices, will drive sales.

One company not looking to drive up more sales is Nintendo, who thinks they will have enough Wii stock for this holiday season, but you never know. If you want one for Christmas, for yourself or as a gift, please take my advice and buy one today, just to be safe.

And that’s all the news we have for this relatively busy week. Obamania will subside I think, as reality of the current situation sink in (two wars, global economic crisis, terrorism, disease, environmental disasters, and of course the big one, movie piracy). Those of us that have wasted countless hours following the election will now have to find something better to do, so the question is then can we fill our empty lives with something else to worry about? Yes We Can!

Update: The real picture of the Xbox 360 Slim, now that it's available

Update: Seems a lot of people are finding this page on Google or somewhere when searching for pics of the Xbox 360 Slim, so instead of providing just the pic for the prototype one, here’s the real one to the right.

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 (9 November 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (2 November 2008)

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Only two more months to go before the year’s out. I just remembered that it’s now more than a year since I started the WNR. I really didn’t think I would keep this going for so long, since my attention span when it comes to these sort of things is pretty short. It’s been far longer than that since my last new computer though, so I’ve decided to get a new one this month, maybe even as soon as this week. I posted my buying specs in the “If I were to buy a new computer today” feature I wrote this week. Yet another refurbished PS3 should be arriving tomorrow, fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed that it’s finally okay this time.

Let’s start with copyright news. The Viacom vs Google legal battle continues with Google claiming that Viacom’s copyright cops are more than capable of controlling content on YouTube, so there’s no need for Google to intervene. It certainly does seem that media companies are surprising apt at providing and controlling content online, mainly for promotional purposes. You can’t really have it both ways though, to use the Net and it’s viral characteristics to promote your stuff, while clamping down on sharing and free expression.

21 months for doing this - fair sentence or too harsh?

Ever wonder what kind of punishment you get for camcording and bootlegging films in theatres? 21 months is the sentence for a guy who did just that and got caught. Was it worth it? Depends on how much money he’s made already and how much of it has been stashed from the sight of the police, I suppose. I don’t mind the authorities going after the providers/source of pirated content, it’s when they go after the users of it that doesn’t sit well with me. Those stupid “you wouldn’t steal a car” PSAs at the start of DVDs also don’t sit well with me, and apparently, it’s not just me. The latest movie length episode of Futurama features a spoof of the well known anti-piracy clips, which is ironic because I suspect these Futurama episodes are one of the most pirated shows around.

Can’t believe that the DMCA is now 10 years old. It seems it was only yesterday that it took its first steps to trample on consumer rights. The EFF has been keeping a document of all the unintended consequences of the DMCA is an updated document, and you can read it here. Lots of stories about how the DMCA has hurt not pirates but consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. At best, the DMCA has been ineffective. At worst, it’s one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever come out of Washington D.C, and knowing all the crap that comes out of there, that’s saying something. Digital copyright is an important issue, but surely there must be some common ground between content owners and consumers, because neither group can exist without the other. Will the “Change We Need” feature changes to the DMCA? Doubt it, not as long as Hollywood’s deep pockets are helping those in Washington D.C stay in Washington D.C. But we can always hope …

Further proof of the DMCA’s reach, as Hollywood this week successfully sued Chinese DVD player manufacturers for not complying with CSS copy protection. Now I don’t actually know what was behind all of this, just how a DVD player can help to break CSS. Was it because it upscaled DVDs to 1080i through DVI (against the CSS license)? Was it because it could play copied CSS encrypted discs across a network (also against the CSS license)? Or did it have a hidden menu setting that could allow CSS to be turned off (does nothing really)?

A Digital Copy standard for DVDs on the way?

But even Hollywood seems to be trying to find a way around CSS, by providing digital copies of movies along with the DVD. The DVD Forum is currently discussing this, and I think it’s a good idea. To try and stop people making digital copies is just plain silly and pointless. Might as well cash in and provide them with it in the first place. The problem now is that every studio have their own standard in regards to digital copies (Sony’s one plays on the PS3/PSP, Fox’s one is iPod compatible …). If the DVD Forum can sit down and add digital copy support to the official DVD specs, then that’s a move in the right direction. I just hope they don’t stuff the specs with DRM. At the very least have no more than tagging type DRMs, because anything more, and the digital copies are useless. The next logical step would be to have establish a similar standard for Blu-rays as well.

High Definition Speaking of Blu-rays, the format is apparently dead, according one slightly pessimistic blogger on ZDNet. The last few week’s worth of Blu-ray sales data has been very positive for the format, so I don’t really understand where all these “Blu-ray is doomed” stories are coming from.

Bringing back the free movies promotion may help Blu-ray this holiday season

But I can understand the frustration seeing Sony apparently trying very hard to ruin a perfectly good format, with lousy hardware pricing (only now becoming more sensible), marketing, licensing and many other things which helps to fuel Hollywood’s greed at the expense of actually getting Blu-ray into people’s homes. But I think things have changed a bit recently, and I think the fear that Blu-ray may be doomed has actually forced Sony’s hand somewhat. There are new hardware promotions (free movies are back), pricing deals that bring together studios and online retailers such as Amazon (see some of them here – lots of new hardware deals recently, like the Amazon/Warner $100 off deal). The range of good releases have been very helpful for the format as well. In fact, all of this reminds me of last year, except it was HD DVD doing all of this, which may or may not be a good sign. With the exchange rate problems here in Australia, and local high pricing, I haven’t purchased a Blu-ray movie in ages. The last one I got was the Godfather Trilogy Blu-ray, which I only purchased because the online store I got it from made a pricing error, so I got it for $USD 30 express delivered. Now that’s value for money.

Speaking of value for money, some Netflixsubscribers are not seeing it in the $1 extra per month that Netflix charges for Blu-ray rentals. I don’t rent that many movies, so I can’t comment, but $1 doesn’t seem too much for me.

Also some good news on the H.264 front, as Windows 7 Media Center will natively support the format that is now widely used on everything from cell phone video to HD broadcasts. I’m sure Microsoft originally intended their VC-1 codec to have taken over the industry in the same was as H.264, but it didn’t work out and so supporting H.264 is the only logical step left. It’s not the first time Microsoft tried to get people to use one of their proprietary formats, failing, and then go back to doing what they should have done in the first place which is to support the industry approved format.

And finally in gaming, Sony’s recent huge losses on the market means that the PS3 will not get a price cut, as Sony says they have a business to run. To be fair, the PS3 is selling well enough given the high price, and prices can always come down when desperation calls for it. Sony will just have to hope that by that time, the cost of manufacturing a PS3 will have dropped enough so they won’t have to lose their shirt to provide discounts, to prevent the PS3 falling further behind. In other PS3 news, a new hotfix firmware has been released to fix several problems with the 2.50 firmware. The forced 60 Hz output is what caused people to report the black & white display problem, for TVs that don’t support PAL 60 I guess.

Microsoft’s new Xbox Experience comes out this month, and there are several previews up for it already. One of the new features takes something from the PS3 playbook by offering HDD installs for games, and testing shows that it only shaves a few seconds off the loading time after the several minute long install process (plus all that HDD space used up). I would be more interested to see what effects it has on performance, as streaming from the HDD should be faster than from a DVD right?

So that’s another week over and done with. The US elections this week, so don’t forget to vote, even if you’re not actually a US citizen. Just write who you want to vote for on a piece of paper and send it to “Election Counting Place, Washington D.C., USA” – remember, every vote counts (except ones of this type, possibly). Also, this is the 58th WNR I think, which is just amazing to me because it only feels like the 55th one what with all the fun I’ve had writing it. I’m going computer shopping this week as well, so I may not have as much time to find and post news. At least that’s the excuse I’m going with this week … see you in 168 hours time.

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

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Archive for the ‘Xbox 360, Xbox One’ Category

Weekly News Roundup (21 December 2008)

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Weekly News Roundup (9 November 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (2 November 2008)

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