Blu-ray and HD DVD, a brief history in the Format War

Negorissimo said:
Very true Tauro, price is a big factor in this war going on. The best example is the Wii, that ironically doesn't even play DVDs...
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Actually Nintendo announced that in an update soon it will play DVD's. It's a fairly useless feature, since if you have a Wii there's pretty much 0 chance you don't have a DVD player; but it'll at least be there.

And the small little note saying that it's barely more expensive to make a BLU-RAY than a HD-DVD, far less than people had made it out to be.
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I found that a little hard to buy, mainly because he didn't link to the article that provided the proof; especially when he provided links for a lot of other articles. I hadn't heard exact figures as to the costs, and I'm sure they've come down since it first came out, but I'm finding it hard to believe an article with such an apparent bias without any actual proof.

I also like how he completely omitted how HD-DVD has been kicking blu-ray's ass in hardware sales(non-PS3) for a long time now; but that's just part of the bias.
 
Bajaratt said:
Actually Nintendo announced that in an update soon it will play DVD's. It's a fairly useless feature, since if you have a Wii there's pretty much 0 chance you don't have a DVD player; but it'll at least be there.


I found that a little hard to buy, mainly because he didn't link to the article that provided the proof; especially when he provided links for a lot of other articles. I hadn't heard exact figures as to the costs, and I'm sure they've come down since it first came out, but I'm finding it hard to believe an article with such an apparent bias without any actual proof.

I also like how he completely omitted how HD-DVD has been kicking blu-ray's ass in hardware sales(non-PS3) for a long time now; but that's just part of the bias.
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It's a bit of a irrelevant talking point when the PS3 is the best purchase for as Blu-ray player for people who don't even play games. The stand-alone argument is tired and whiny. The reality of it is that the disc sales are all that matters to the studios.

And in the US it's 2-1 Blu-ray:HD DVD.
In Europe it's 4-1 Blu-ray: HD DVD.
And in Japan it's something like 19-1 Blu-ray: HD DVD.

The only reason that HD DVD is getting crushed the least in the US... is because Toshiba and Microsoft are taking all their losses on the hardware here to build up their base. How long they can continue to bleed money I have no idea. I'll just say taking losses on hardware for standalones isn't like with game consoles. You don't make enough on royalties to make it back. Every HD DVD player sold over that $100 sale would have to have an attach rate of around 1200 movies to break even.
 
No cookie for old news.
 
Micheal Bay saying that Microsoft wants to spearhead direct downloads, they don't really care about the format war. I repeat, old news.
 
While I'm not doubting what he's saying is true, he's also not the most objective of sources since he's still pissed that the studio went to HD-DVD and he didn't get to make as much money as if it was released on both formats. It loses some significance because of that fact.
 
From a financial standpoint, he has every reason to support HD DVD as much as possible to bring more people to buy the player and then get more people buying his movie. It's like saying you expect Bungie to bash the Xbox cause they'd make more money being multiplatform.
 
Firestreak said:
From a financial standpoint, he has every reason to support HD DVD as much as possible to bring more people to buy the player and then get more people buying his movie. It's like saying you expect Bungie to bash the Xbox cause they'd make more money being multiplatform.
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Not quite. Transformers was going to be released on both, but then the studio went HD-DVD only; so he lost a bunch of money and now he's completely pissed off at HD-DVD. Yeah, he can make more money from releasing in both formats, but he's pissed that they forced him to release in only one.

The Bungie analogy doesn't work because Halo wasn't going to be multi-platform(it was mac-only until it was bought out, then xbox-only); it was always a single format.
 
Since when did Free Radical make the same decision the studio did?

You can stop trying to find a company, it really doesn't matter. I already said I believed what he was saying, and only commented that he's not a very objective source for that kind of information given his already public outcries against Microsoft. I don't think he's lying, but I don't trust everything he says about Microsoft because of his history with them.
 
Haze was going to be multiplatform and went PS3 exclusive. Since then, they've been complimenting the PS3 hardware.

Transformers went from multiplatform to HD DVD exclusive, since then Michael Bay's been bashing HD DVD.

The concept that someone has bad credibility by bashing the format they're exclusive to is ridiculous, even by your standard Bajaratt.
 
Free Radical went PS3 exclusive with Haze, but they aren't upset about it, so they'd have no reason to bash PS3. Bay, however, is upset about being on HD-DVD only, so at least a chunk of his credibility goes away, is what I think Baj was getting at.
 
Firestreak said:
Haze was going to be multiplatform and went PS3 exclusive. Since then, they've been complimenting the PS3 hardware.

Transformers went from multiplatform to HD DVD exclusive, since then Michael Bay's been bashing HD DVD.

The concept that someone has bad credibility by bashing the format they're exclusive to is ridiculous, even by your standard Bajaratt.
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Yes, it's completely impossible for someone to be biased when a decision they strongly disagreed with was forced on them and they've been bitching about it ever since. Obviously he's perfectly impartial to Microsoft who forced him to do something he didn't want to do, minus the fact that he's bashing them non-stop. It isn't a difficult thing to understand, someone is vocal about their disdain for something, they're not going to be very credible when it comes to dealing out negative comments about them. They're going to spin them a bit based on their bias. Since you've missed it both times I've said it, let's try a few more times to see if it sinks in.

I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.
I AGREE WITH WHAT HE'S SAYING ABOUT MICROSOFT.

I'm only pointing out that he's not the most objective(as in non-biased, since you don't seem to understand that) source, because of his public outcry against them on this very topic. The fact that you're arguing otherwise is a new level of stupidity.

The difference of Free Radical going PS3 exclusive is there wasn't anyone in the company that outright opposed it, or at least they haven't been publicly complaining since the decision. If there had been, than that person wouldn't have been an objective source for information about the faults of the PS3. They can still report factual information, but they're still not the best source because of their obvious bias.
 
Well that's different than what you've been saying. He's been against dropping Blu-ray support from the start, that doesn't mean his position as someone whose movie is HD DVD exclusive makes him less credible when it really makes him more in the scheme of things. Someone bashing the format they're selling a product on isn't very common.

Also just going to put out his statement sounds a lot more like him stating a fact he knows and not mere speculation, and he knows a lot more about studio politics than any of us.
 
Firestreak said:
Well that's different than what you've been saying. He's been against dropping Blu-ray support from the start, that doesn't mean his position as someone whose movie is HD DVD exclusive makes him less credible when it really makes him more in the scheme of things. Someone bashing the format they're selling a product on isn't very common.
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No, that's what I've been saying all along.
Me said:
While I'm not doubting what he's saying is true, he's also not the most objective of sources since he's still pissed that the studio went to HD-DVD and he didn't get to make as much money as if it was released on both formats. It loses some significance because of that fact.
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Me said:
I already said I believed what he was saying, and only commented that he's not a very objective source for that kind of information given his already public outcries against Microsoft. I don't think he's lying, but I don't trust everything he says about Microsoft because of his history with them.
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There's both times I said I agree with what he said, but that he's not being objective, apparently I have to say something nine times for it to sink in. Learn to read already.

That still doesn't change that he's not very objective when it comes to Microsoft. He had a decision he ardently opposed forced on him, and he's been incredibly vocal about how he disagrees with the decision; that means he's not objective.

Also just going to put out his statement sounds a lot more like him stating a fact he knows and not mere speculation, and he knows a lot more about studio politics than any of us.
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This is exactly why I say I believe him, because he's more likely to be informed than most people on what's really going on. That doesn't change his lack of objectivity.
 
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Fire is probably just confused, because he is so used to have everyone disagree with everything he says regarding MS and Sony.
 
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