Nothing new here, but it is good to see some hard numbers in the format war. The most reassuring aspect of these numbers is the fact that they once again mirror our previous indexes like Amazon.
Casino Royal (IMDb 7.9/10) is still the king in the next-gen battle and although there are few other titles for both sides that do well, many aren't selling that great. We'll put our money on the fact that many are still choosing to rent older titles, rather than buy them, effectively hedging their bets. The other interesting point to note is that, titles that are available for both formats and released on the same day, sell more copies on Blu-ray than HD DVD. For example during the week ending March 18th 2007,
The Departed (IMDb 8.4/10) on Blu-ray sold 3,057 copies vs 1,287 on HD DVD and while some like to blame the overall lead Blu-ray has on the fact that
Blu-ray has more titles available, this disagrees. This is fun and all, but as long as Warner can sell 4,344 copies of
The Departed instead of only 3,057, there is
still no end in sight to the format war.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Apr 12th 2007 3:16PM
seriously, you fruity fanboys need a hard kick in the ass. Nowhere in your blurb do you even attempt to point out that this so-called report is from Sony. Grow up already!
Ben @ Apr 12th 2007 3:20PM
The numbers from Nielsen VideoScan.
SuperChuck @ Apr 12th 2007 3:30PM
Maybe it's just the cynic in me, but does anyone find it odd that Casino Royale (a Sony property) is outselling the next most popular HD movie by 9 times?
chadow @ Apr 12th 2007 4:37PM
I am all for early adoption of technology, and usually am right in the middle of it, but I stayed out of this one ever since it started. For me its the most rediculous tech battle I have watched or cared about. I cant even believe they went ahead into retail this way. I have to say I kinda want to see HD-DVD on top because Sony pissed me off last time with the POS UMD format. Now when I hear the word format and Sony together I just cant help but close my wallet.
I wont spend a cent on it until one comes out on top and is adopted and the other bails. I am not sure if I represent a large percentage, but I dont buy movies anymore either. I used to buy movies every tuesday until the HD formats came out. And I wont.
Until then I get my HD on TV and "rent" HD movies on Xbox 360 Marketplace.
Aaron Rodriguez @ Apr 12th 2007 5:31PM
Why not also point out that superman returns on both formats is pretty much neck and neck and its been out long enough so people actually have it vs one or two weeks of sales.
30845 for bluray vs 28440 for hd-dvd. Stuff like drawing attention to the departed while ignoring other titles that dont share that conclusion is why people call you a bluray fanboy.
Xyzzy @ Apr 12th 2007 5:31PM
"Stuff like drawing attention to the departed while ignoring other titles that dont share that conclusion is why people call you a bluray fanboy."
I was going to mention that, but you beat me to it (although I do believe Ben is trying harder to be neutral... Maybe I'm naive).
And Ben, you do realize that Sony paying for the "research" means that Sony will come out looking good, regardless of the truth, right? Microsoft was/is NOTORIOUS for doing this - paying small research companies to give them positive press. It's business 101 really.
The Casino Royale numbers are especially slanted. Sony has been touting this as the "must own" movie for quite awhile (heck, they even advertised BD in the movie itself!) Talk on many forums are that they're doing "funny math," counting the free copies that were given away with the PS3 and things like that. It's highly suspicious that they'd have THAT many sold compared to even the next highest BD disk. Someone's cooking the books to make themselves look better there.
At least your readers are smart enough to see the spin in the article. :)
Also, the article clearly states that the numbers are not all-inclusive -- missing "some online merchants," as well as Wal-Mart. What online stores are those? Important information to note.
Your conclusion was correct though - the format war won't end for a long time.
Ben @ Apr 12th 2007 5:35PM
Those numbers are since inception, sure if I wanted to unfairly point out HD DVD's former lead it would have been relevant, but I wanted to use recent data post widespread release of the PS3. Honestly, I didn't even notice that till you pointed it out since I only studied the weekly results I included in the image with the post.
Grubert @ Apr 12th 2007 6:31PM
Nielsen VideoScan is considered to be the most reliable source of retail information in the field of home video.
WRT titles selected, just look at recent dual new releases:
Since launch The Departed has sold 38,993 units on Blu-ray and 23,454 on HD DVD. Babel has sold 8,610/6,422. Lady in the Water 1,220/952. Wicker Man 1,469/1,025.
Kevin Murphy @ Apr 12th 2007 7:29PM
3/18? From Sony? Seems cherry-picked. What about other dates? Titles that don't appeal to 18-year-old boys with PS3s for example.
MAK42868 @ Apr 12th 2007 11:27PM
My biggest question is: Who's buying 5th Element?!!?!?!?!??!!? :-/
GhostDoggy @ Apr 13th 2007 5:31AM
It has nothing to do with format, but rather content. What good is having a high-definition format if there are not enough minimum titles to get you to buy a player?
Personally, I could care less which format 'wins'. In fact, the only winner I am supporting is ME. So, if you are not going to make ME happy, then they are both losers to my wallet.
mike @ Apr 13th 2007 5:43AM
Dear god, is that how much HD-DVD/Blu-ray movies costs? Looks like I found another reason to wait tell I adopt. I always thought the movies were the same price as new DVDs 2 years ago ($25), and that DVDs had droped around $5 in price (I havent bought a DVD in 2 years yes lol)
$39.99 for a movie? I could spend less buying props and re-inact the film myself.
Xyzzy @ Apr 13th 2007 8:23AM
@mike:
That's the MSRP for the movies, but nobody charges that much (just like the MSRP for Casino Royale on DVD is $28.96. In the "real world," HD DVD movies (and I believe BD as well) are between $19.99 and $27.99 before sales, coupons, etc (lots of people get an automatic 10% off at Amazon.com because of a deal they had last year, for example).
Still more than regular DVDs, but nowhere near the MSRP :)
Dave @ Apr 13th 2007 8:47AM
Old news.
But the good thing is that i can finally say:
SUCK ON IT HD DVD FANBOYS!!!!
Denis @ Apr 13th 2007 9:19AM
Dave says "Suck on it HD DVD fanboys"
I guess that means you are a "Blu-Ray fanboy"? I hope you are enjoying your outdated Blu-Ray player since it is not final spec and will not support final spec :) Once movies using the final spec come out. You will not be able to play the titles with all of the new features (BD-JAVA) thanks to Sony rushing to get Blu-Ray out the door because HD-DVD had a head start and if they waited until final spec to release Blu-Ray then HD-DVD would have be entrenched too deep and Blu-Ray would have never been able to catch up.
Blu-Ray already out dated hardware....
Larry @ Apr 13th 2007 9:12AM
To me the big story isn't that Blu-Ray is narrowly beating HD DVD. The real story is how few of either format is selling.
Dave @ Apr 13th 2007 10:52AM
What do you mean pal?
Its hd dvd that is obsolete because its relying on old technology, the fading dvd tech...
BTW when i read such comment i see where the hd dvd sales come from. Miss informed people.
I got the PS3, and i play games in 1080p on Blu-ray, i dont think it will become obsolete soon :D Sorry to disappoint you about that.
chadow @ Apr 13th 2007 6:57PM
The PS3 has GAMES???
Leroy Vargas @ Apr 16th 2007 9:03PM
I don't consider myself a fanboy of any of the two raging formats, but Toshiba's intentions of releasing its very first SATA HD-DVD drive (& the only one soon to be in the computing market) solely to computer manufacturers forced me to buy instead Lite-On's SATA Blu-Ray triple-burner. Of course, when someone other than Toshiba releases a SATA HD-DVD burner for the general computing public, I'll snatch one and plug it in as just another SATA master drive (yes, in SATA, everybody is master, no more master/slave/cable-select stuff as found on ATAPI/IDE).
Kevin Murphy @ Apr 17th 2007 8:29PM
If it appeals to PS3 owners (i.e. young men), it will sell better on blu-ray, due to focused buying. Otherwise not.