Looks like PS3 Blu-Ray inclusive was RIGHT for Sony.

I think I remember saying something along the lines of "The PS3 will bring blu-ray to its glory" hd-dvd fanboys laughed at me for saying that and now I want to see what they have to say.

EDIT: there you go.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post11379208

bluray was an amazing choice for sony! best thing they could have ever done!

Blu-Friday, anyone?

Including Blu Ray has still put Sony about 8-10 million consoles behind in the gaming wars, and keeps the PS3 at a price disadvantage. Adding the support of another movie studio really doesn't affect the problems the PS3 is facing: price, the late start, and a disappointing series of what were to be blockbuster games.

If Blu Ray becomes the standard for high def movies, and the PS3 remains one of the better players, then it'll help move consoles. If those new PS3 owners are interested in movies, not games, that really doesn't help Sony in the console wars at all. Lowering the attach rate would actually hurt their chances of third-party developers doing exclusives.

Start kissing all the BOGO deals goodbye . No competition means monopoly and that will not be good for us consumers, lets see if we can have the battle linger on for some more time......

doubt it, studios love BOGO so they can sell movies. You see the Amazon spikes??

Oh come on, no more of this nonsense please.

Competition between HD and BD was ONE of the reasons for the great deals, but now the ONLY reason. Stop being blind and see that there were deals for DVD even though it was the only format.

hehe imagine if now that they have the "war" won they took the blu ray drive out of the ps3 and games went back to being on dual layer dvd. That'd be amusing.

Anyway, yeah, it seems their plan worked since they got the publicity for it (most avg consumers knew the name blu ray because of the ps3) and the sheer number of units out there made it easier for even the small % of them being used as blu ray players to trump hd dvd disc sales. I will say that many who went on about this being the trojan horse thought that way more PS3s would be used as blu ray players and it seems pretty clear that the % is quite small so it is successful but at the same time I would guess it also isn't.

In case anyone tries to take this as a negative post it isn't. I have a 60gb PS3 and think it is an amazing piece of hardware and am very glad I won it. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Right. I think it was very obvious to many skeptics even that the Sony trojan horse strategy was smart and likely would work especially after the Blockbuster Video move and the ramifications of that. Even people who favored the PS3 console the least and did not want to spend a lot of money on content for it - would still go to Blockbuster to rent the games, and of course they would see the BD movies there as well.

BD inclusion was a very effective strategy that has helped the format in a variety of small ways (such as the above) that add up to a very big deal.

Now even if the PS3 ends up with the least market share in the console war before the next cycle, the PS3 will still be considered a major success for Sony in what it has done for BD.

Great thread... Doesn't change the fact that Sony is still dead last int he console race. It may be good for all the BR fans that it was included in the PS3, but it's not as good for the game fans considering how the $600 price point is probably the reason why the PS3 isn't doing so hot right now compared to the 360 and Wii...

I just knew it would only be a matter of time before the cost of releasing in both formats prompted Warner to choose the more dominate format, and yes Blu-Ray is definitely more dominate (especially now). Don't get me wrong, I was once a huge HD DVD supporter and nothing in the world could make me see different. Eventually I kept seeing more and more of my favorite movies in the blu-ray format as exclusives and I eventually had the cash to make the jump to Blu Ray. The last HD DVD I bought was Transformers (the HD DVD exclusive) and exclusives are probably the only HD DVDs that I will buy now. I still think HD DVD will hang on for another year or two, but unless something dramatic happens Blu-Ray will win this war. Now it is only a matter of when. I do think it may be at the cost of the PS3 though. The PS3 as a Blu-ray player (that supports all resolutions) is awesome but as a game system with very few games at the highest 1080 resolutions and no scaler to support anything much beyond 720p, it is very lack luster. Sony wanted it to be first and formost a game system but through their own lack of support they have cut off a good size of the gaming community. That's for another forum though. As a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 has surpassed my expectations and I just love to fire it up. However (for me at least) about 90% of the time it's used to play a Blu-ray movie.

Ps3 costs $399 not $600.

Ps3 came out a year after the 360 , had literally ZERO games worth buying it for till ratchet and uncharted came out yet still sold pretty respectably and kept increasing its sales.

Now with blu ray being the clear winner and the 2008 sony games lineup being the kickass lineup it is, I dont thing sony has anything to worry about.

You really need to do a bit of research before making erroneous statements.

The PS3 sells for 399.99 for the 40g and 499.99 for the 80g. The PS3 sold more in its first year than the 360 and has been closing the sales gap between the two. There are almost 9 million now sold in 14 months. The PS3 is doing very well and BD has helped it and vice versa.

Nice.

Sony basically sacrificed the console war to win the optical media war. In total, it's a win for Sony for sure.

They did not sacrifice it at all. They took a gamble and bet on new tech. Now they reap the rewards. There is a HUGE amount of people who havent switched to next gen consoles yet. You dont lose a console war in 12 months , Sony is in it for the long run.

The price will stay low enough on the software to drive up sales.

The blu-ray hardware will continue to get cheaper but likely not as of quick of a rate as it has been lately. Let's not all forget that our Blu-Ray players are way more complex than our DVD players ever were and it took them a while to come down in price.

Blu-Ray was still a poor choice for Sony as far as the PS3 is concerned and the console wars. However it's looking like they will be the leader in the optical media war.

No he is pretty right in his assumptions. The PS3 is not doing very well in the console space and the PS3 is not closing the gap over anything. If you want to turn this into a sales-age conversation I think you may need to do some research on how poor the PS3 has performed in the console space. That whole PS3 sold more in it's first year is skewed because the 360 was under HEAVY supply constraints in it's first year. The PS3 was readily available almost immediatly after the initial launch.

This is a big win for sony in the format war but does very little for them in the console space.

This just isn't true, really it isn't. At a year in selling 9 million of any console is excellent. It is already tracking ahead of blank in overall worldwide sales. Anyone who keeps going on about the PS3 failing or not selling well is only looking at US numbers and is not telling the whole story. The PS3 is now outselling the 360 worldwide. The Wii is in a class itself and differs in competition that the 360 and PS3 have.
BD helped the PS3. Ps3 helped BD. There are BD owners who are over 50 that bought it for BD only, then tried the demo and now many are gaming. Keep up the nonsense and lies about the PS3 and there will be many to counter with facts as opposed to your or others wishes that the PS3 fail.


look at the numbers for hardware sales here. Overall worldwide sales. Two months ago the 360 was at 40% while the PS3 was at 16 percent. One month ago the PS3 gained two percent and the 360 lost two percent. Now look at the charts.


http://www.vgchartz.com/?dg=1

Sony has sold around 8-9 million consoles. That is in no way a failure, but it is definitely 3rd place behind Nintendo and Microsoft. For Sony and Microsoft, this console generation will last 5-10 years (they hope) meaning the race is far from over. Sony's problem with the PS3 has been software pure and simple. Now that is becoming less of an issue but for someone who already owns an XBOX360 the decision to buy a PS3 is still a hard one as many games are multiplatform. Sony's console exclusives for 2008 could change this, and for people who don't currently have a console the PS3 is a no-brainer. All multiplatform games (with the possible exception of The Orange Box) look and perform identically on the PS3 and Xbox360 and this will only continue to be the case. The exclusives set the systems apart and until Metal Gear Solid 4 or Final Fantasy 13 ship, the PS3 lacks a set of exclusives that make buying the system more attractive to people who already own a console.

PS: I own all three consoles. I've played plenty of games on all 3 and while the 360 gets most of my gaming dollar, I can very easily see myself buying multiplatform games for the PS3 once Playstation Home is released. I've been using the console a lot since I bought a new TV and it's really grown on me.

I just got a Sony PS3 which was my Christmas 2007 present to myself. I got it primarily as a game playing device BUT the fact that it can play Blu-Ray movie discs is very nice and I have to admit that I have (so far) bought one Blu-Ray release (the 5-disc BLADERUNNER set) and I just got "300" today from NetFlix and it will be my first Blu-Ray movie watching experience other than some Blu-Ray trailers I downloaded from the Sony PS3 store.

This puts me in a very odd place though because I always thought that HD-DVD made more sense as a format than the Blu-Ray format but SONY and their damn PS3 got me so I guess I am a "Blu-Ray person" now.

BTW I paid $499 for the PS3 (the 80GB model) plus another $24.99 for the Blu-Ray/DVD remote so if you don't count the games that is a total of about $550 + sales tax. Not a bad price for a game console AND a high def movie playback device.

My only "regret" is that my two year old HDTV is only 1080i and not 1080p but the Blu-Ray trailers I downloaded from the Sony PS3 store did look substantially better to my eyes than a standard DVD Video disc.

I still don't understand all the people claiming that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are not "needed" as regular DVD Video is "good enough". Apparently they either still have SDTV's (which most people do seem to have that make such comments) or they have a really "small" HDTV. Mine is a Hitachi 51" 16x9 CRT Rear Projector and looks rather awesome despite only being 1080i.

As for games I have only played (aside from some downloaded demos) the included MOTORSTORM which is OK but I suck at it LOL

I have DRAKE'S FORTUNE which is freakin' awesome and I rented CONAN which I find highly enjoyable even if it is a GOD OF WAR clone but it's a fun game ... although the boss battles have become nearly impossible and I'm stuck at roughly 60% into the game (using a walkthrough as a guide it seems I'm about 60% into the game) but I simply CANNOT beat the boss at the end of the 7th level. I may have to return this rental without finishing the game which sucks. Maybe I'll buy it in the future if the price ever comes down on it.

Next purchase will probably be HEAVENLY SWORD and/or the GAME OF THE YEAR edition of OBLIVION (which I've yet to play in any version despite it being around for a year or more now on other platforms).

As for Blu-Ray I'll be happy with NetFlix for now but BLADERUNNER was an essential purchase and my favorite movie of all time is DAWN OF THE DEAD so that and DAY OF THE DEAD will probably be my next Blu-Ray movie purchases. I guess I should be happy that ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT decided to go Blu-Ray since I am a horror movie fan and probably have more ABE DVD Videos than any other one company/studio.

First VHS ... then LaserDisc ... then DVD ... now Blu-Ray ... man o man will the upgrade factor EVER stop!!!

I already own DAWN OF THE DEAD on Beta, VHS (two different versions), LaserDisc (4 different versions) and DVD Video (3 different versions). The insanity of it all !!!

Still waiting on my Blu-Ray internet purchase of BLADERUNNER ... I so cannot wait to watch it! My favorite version is the so-called INTERNATIONAL CUT aka the Criterion LD released version. Saw this movie in the theatres when I was all of 10 years old or so ... was my first "R" rated movie LOL

How is the PS3 outselling the 360 worldwide when there is no hardware data in europe? and the 360 is trouncing the PS3 in NA. The only region were data exists and it clearly shows the PS3 beating the 360 is Japan.

The only data in europe we have is the software charts which show that 360 software is in a league of its own.

You have no right to presume those assumptions just like how I would never say the 360 is outselling the PS3 worldwide.

Look I own a PS3 & 360 and back Blu-Ray. I own well over 50 BD movies but to some how say everything is all rosy for Sony in the console space is silly and if your gonna throw out shipped numbers (which is what MS & Sony go by) then that puts the Xbox 360 at 17.7 Million WW. I doubt the sold-through for the 360 is 17.7 Million.

As a console the PS3 is still struggling on the hardware and software side. They still have hurdles to over-come. This announcement does nothing for the PS3 as a gaming console. It does make Sony decision to include Blu-Ray a smart choice for the optical media war.

Now if they'll just get DTS MA I'll be totally content

Congrats to Sony and the BDA for winning the war though.

Worldwide, the PS3 sold more than the 360 in Nov and Dec. The PS3 is gaining popularity. It won't beat the Wii, but it will probably surpass the 360 totals in 2 years.

I have all three consoles. Somehow I just new BD would win, but I still bought the 360 add-on. Let me just say that I TOTALLY prefer the PS3 as a home media center than the 360 elite that I have. I just upgraded my PS3 hard drive to a 320 gig SATA drive that cost me less than 200 dollars. Now I pretty much have a computer that stores all my music and photos, can go on-line, play blu ray movies, play ps1/2/3 games, play sa-cds, and all through hdmi connected through reciever and tv. I get the best sound and picture with the PS3. I have spent less than 2500 dollars for ps3/reciever/hdtv, and basically have one of the best hd media centers money can buy, for not that much money at all. I know many people out there loved HD-DVD's, but I would seriously buy a PS3, even if you don't play games, you buy a 40gig, replace the hard drive, and you have yourself a nifty little hd media center.

I would say that it has sucked to see some titles get pushed back so the development could be better by it's release time. The most recent was Haze but it will be for the best. It's just a new hardware thing. Something Microsoft knows too well with it's Vista issues. Sales of the PS3 are strong thanks to the games that are on the way out for this next year and it's price drop putting it only $50 above the 360. Now if they'll just release Home there won't be anything left for people to nit pick the system about. But with the games that have been released I've had plenty of fun and have even skipped playing some game just because I don't have the time to play them even though they looked interesting (Vegas and GRAW2).

Where are you getting your data from? especially considering the december data for NA hasnt been released yet.

ehhh console discussion in the BD software section....not the brightest of ideas.

Probably vgcharts. Even though they are educated guesses and get ajusted as official numbers come out it looks like even if the average margin of error moved in the positive for the 360 it would still be a tie. I think the estimates were the PS3 up 219k for the 1.75 months before the new year. So at worst its too close to call. Far from getting beat bad as alot seem to think.