After today's Paramount/Dreamworks announcement, what do you think will happen this holiday season, and how will the outcome affect the first half of 2008?

Speculate all you want, this is just for fun, in the same vein as the BoxOfficeMojo threads :P


I think if the Chinese players hit streets before black friday, things could get really interesting. Even if they dont, G2 players from toshiba should be dropping in price after G3 players become available.

After today's announcement HD DVD will have more movies to offset the ones from the blu-ray camp, I think if HD DVD picks up momentum on both hardware and software, which it will, we could realistically be looking at more studios either switching sides, going neutral or exclusive by Q2 2008, if not earlier, If I had to pick, it'll have to be Warner going exclusive and Disney going neutral.

Who else wants to play? :p

Oh no, this is going to start a flame war. Especially when bluray fans start coming in.

Well I don't think any other studios will switch sides or go neutral before the end of the year.

We can only hope but if BD gets one more dropped it's going to really heat up since then it will about about even!

HD DVD will come close to doubling the number of HD DVD players sold, simply because the price is going to be right for mass adoption and consumer familiarity with "DVD". HD DVD will be an easy, logical choice and it will be something new for many. There will likely be many incentives to buy HD DVD with free titles, lower standalone prices, tons of advertising, awesome HD DVD exclusives like Transformers, Shrek 3, The Bourne Ultimatum, Star Trek, etc. It will be a fantastic holiday season for HD DVD.

I think that HD DVD now has a major coup. Before it just had a splash of exclusive 'must haves' (imo) with Heroes, BSG etc. However, the BD camp states catalogue is most important. HD DVD has said players and price are most important. Personally I think it is a mixture of both - they are not mutually exclusive. Player price is important to get HD into J6P's home. However, if the content is not there for them, they won't buy into it. If the content is there (lets assume from the BD departments stance) it does not matter, if the players are expensive then J6P still will not buy in.

Now, onto the content. Previous tit-for-tat arguments were things like 'Matrix vs PotC'. I don't buy this. BOTH were catalogue releases and have their followers that will buy anyway. But, the man on the street (including myself) would not go and buy a HD player and double dip on something I already have on SD (that can be upscaled reasonably). Even if I had an HD player, I think harder about double dipping than buying a release that I do not already own. Where the sales lie is with the new releases. This is why titles such as 300 and The Departed/Casino Royale (to a lesser extent) had 'good' HD sales comparatively.

So, why is Paramount important? Simply because they have some of the biggest NEW releases of the studios. Sure, Spidey3 will do well, there is no doubt. But, so will Shrek3 and Transformers. HD DVD has not 'gained' anything materialistically - we already had Paramount's support. However, BD has LOST this support. This means that this in effect will sell HD DVD players to the masses (if the players hit the right price point) rather than BluRay. Once the masses have bought into HD DVD then they will look for HD DVD content only. If it cannot be found on that format that they now own, I suspect most will settle for the SD version. J6P does not have relatively unlimited cashflow like some of the enthusiasts.

This also means that I do not find the Fox title announcement that inspiring as no doubt, there are some good films there, but every one I like, I have on SD already. I'm not going to buy a BD player just to be able to double dip.

In essence, this is a MAJOR deal for HD DVD. I don't think it will change other studios' stance one way or the other before the end of the year. But, 2008 is going to be extremely interesting now.....

I think this will help out HD DVD a lot in the future. Paramount/Dreamworks decided to go HD DVD exclusive which means there will be less releases on Blu-ray. This will also help spread the word of HD DVD more. This holiday season is vital for the HD DVD camp. I am glad they made this move. Once people see more releases being released on HD DVD, they may take a dive into HD DVD.

Well this announcement pretty much said the format war will not end, probably ever. It's going to go on until both formats are obsolete or until dual format players are affordable.

fritzilla

The HD DVD forums will see an exponential increase in the number of posts made in Klingon.

"In the year two thousaaaaaaand, in the year two thousaaand...."

The HD DVD forums will see an exponential increase in the number of posts made in Klingon.

"In the year two thousaaaaaaand, in the year two thousaaand...."
Which has me wondering how many posts were made in this area of the forum today (Blu-ray & HD DVD Areas). I bet it was a record.

I find it interesting to think that everyone has said the format war will just continue on forever now. If Warner goes HD-DVD exclusive than I believe very strongly that it will end Blu-Ray for good, considering Warner brings New Line along with them. We're one more studio away from the format war being over, which I guess was where we were 2 days ago as well.