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Blu-ray takes early lead in HD Format War
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 25th April 2007
Sony takes an early lead in the HD Format War and Blu-ray is outselling HD DVD by 2:1.
Of the 1.2 million high-definition discs sold between January 1st and March 31st of this year, 832,530 Blu-ray discs were sold, compared to only 359,300 HD DVD discs. In March, the situation was even more favourable for Sony's format, as consumers bought 335,980 Blu-ray discs and 119,570 HD DVDs.
Indeed, Blu-ray has already gone past the one million mark since its launch in June 2006, while HD DVD is still yet to break that barrier, despite being launched two months earlier. Current research shows that consumers have bought around 937,500 HD DVD discs.
Rather unsurprisingly, the current top ten chart for high-definition disc sales is dominated by Sony's format, with eight of the ten slots occupied by Blu-ray titles.
Given the choice on titles like The Departed, which was launched on both Blu-ray and HD DVD on February 13th, the majority have opted for the Blu-ray version, which sold 53,640, compared to 31,590 on HD DVD, according to the research.
I'm not quite sure whether these market research figures take into account the fact that Sony has been bundling titles like Casino Royale with its PlayStation 3 console, because those should be counted in total sales. The PS3 has undoubtedly had an effect on these figures, because it's lowered the barrier of entry for Blu-ray, because HD DVD players are almost half the price of the cheapest Blu-ray players out there. However, the HD Format War is still in its early days, so it's hard to pick a long term winner -- Sony has merely won the latest battle.
Have you invested into the HD market and if so, which way did you swing? Let us know in the forums.
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1) What country was the survey taken in? (I'm going to assume the US)
2) It was a survey, when people say that they bought a disc, did they mean that they bought a player with a disc bundled? Or did they buy a disc separately? (I see you noted this aswell for PS3s)
3) Where is the actual figures? The link is just to second hand values with no definitive source.
I read the other day that Wal-Mart will now begin carrying HD-DVD titles in its stores. I think that's going to have a huge impact to the market. Wal-Mart works very closely with the music industry, and it's known that whether or not Wal-Mart chooses to carry a particular artist can mean the difference between pop star and one-hit wonder. does this translate to the video industry?
Given Wal-Mart's ability to define a market, I wonder what impact this will have on home video sales. Will consumers continue to purchase Blu-Ray discs, or will people start buying HD-DVDs on the mere fact that they recongnize the letters, and because the discs are cheaper? Hey, it says "HD-DVD," so it must be better, right?
-monkey
In honesty there's hardly anything decent enough to warrant a purchase, i'm waiting for the BBCs Planet Earth to come out on HD. Its the only title i've wanted to get since i got the player..
Wal-Mart have a massive effect - their Black Friday, post-Thanksgiving sales drive of the 42" Panasonic plasma screen (where they sold the screens at sub-$1000 prices) has been cited as a factor for Circuit City closing stores and laying off staff.
Haven't all three sides already lost by starting this war in the first place?
At the rate we have seen the past years, I rather doubt there will be any long term victory to be had, because we will see the next format soon enough
br,
-btb-
Amazon listed it at 69$ for HD-DVD and blu-ray. the Discovery Channel listed it at 80$ ( for the Disocvery Branded discs) Who does the naration in the BBC version? This has to be one of the best series ever relieased on HDTV.
im just going to get a hybrid player, that way i wont worry
Bit-Tech is better than this.
That being said, looking atThis recent ars technica article you can see that the "2:1" angle is being pushed for a reason.
If blu-ray only sold 3 discs, and HD-DVD 1, then that'd be 3:1. Obviously "outsold" by 3-1 sounds better than "we beat them by only 2 discs". When the absolute numbers are low, it sounds better when you use percentages and ratios. It makes the lead seem bigger than it is.
So while discs to date, blu-ray has a lead of several hundred thousand, the best selling dvd of the week, moves 4million units. Thats one single title. Something like Peter Pan, which is not even a hollywood blockbuster, will do 2million units.
Taking the context into perspective and we see that these early sales numbers are too small to matter much. If we imagine that next-gen discs get 10% of the market that DVD's do, then all it would take is one single title, to sway the lead in either direction. And we aren't even there yet.
When the total sales of next gen discs to date, don't equal 1 week sales of a regular DVD, the numbers are just too small to get any real perspective.
Aggies
Someone wake me when this **** fit is over.
Phil
PS - Oh, puhleease, we're censoring?
I happened to see some of 'March of the Penguins' recently, and why they didn't get him to narrate the English language version I'll never know.
[/soapbox] :D
Both formats could still share the same fate as Laserdisc and BetaMax, they both had some numbers too at first.
This is opinion alone, I don't feel that Universal is a great studio - I mean there are some great Universal movies, but my DVD collection is quite lacking in Universal movies.
I simply hope this format war ends soon. I'll admit, I'm biased, I love Sony, and the PS3, and I dispise MS, Bill Gates, Windows and all things related to the X-Box 360. BUT I think the current studio support is pretty strong for Blu-Ray.
L J
I think you highly underestimate the Weinstein company, they are actually quite big and have their interest in a lot of shows, movies, etc.
IIRC they make a lot of TV.
It's hardly one sided, news comes as and when, and if a barrage of news related to HD comes at once, then so be it.
Knowing this war, they'll be summat on blue-ray soon
Personally I don't care, we all know it'll end with hybrid players, allowing people to get either format. At which point, it won't really matter what outsells what...