Blu-ray Software Sales Surpass HD-DVD

Blu-ray software sales have now surpassed HD-DVD for the first time the week of December 24 and they did so by an impressive 20 percent. The sales gap is expected to widen further in 2007 based on research conducted by Twentieth Century Fox and Blu-ray is expected to outsell HD-DVD by a 3.5-to-1 ratio by the end of the first quarter. One of the driving factors behind the growth in sales is the PlayStation 3 (PS3), which was launched on November 17, 2006 in North America. The PS3 has been selling out at retail outlets since it was launched and despite shortages Sony has been able to meet its target of shipping 1 million PS3s in North America by the end of 2006. What's even more impressive is that they did it faster than their top-selling PlayStation 2 (PS2) platform did when it was launched. Sony is now targetting 6 million PS3 consoles shipped worldwide by the end of the fiscal year (end of March 2007). While many have doubted the effect the PlayStation 3 would have on the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD it's hard to argue with the numbers. Blu-ray sales are up 700 percent since the mid-November launch of the PlayStation 3 and other Blu-ray players from Sony, Panasonic and Philips. According to a recent survey by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) of over 10,000 PS3 owners, 80 percent indicated they will buy Blu-ray movies and 75 percent said they use the PS3 as a primary device for viewing movies. However, this shouldn't come as such a big surprise as those that have bought the PS3 might as well take advantage of the Blu-ray playback capability, which still is the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market at just $499. The content advantage that Blu-ray enjoys is another major factor that should become more and more evident now that the Blu-ray exclusive studios (Disney, Fox, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate) are starting to release more titles in the format. When looking at the 20 top selling DVDs of 2006 almost all were released by movie studios supporting Blu-ray, which means that titles such as Pirates of the Carribean and Cars will only be available for Blu-ray. The content advantage should further shift in Blu-ray's favor as the format neutral studios (Warner, Paramount) catch up their Blu-ray release schedules with HD-DVD so that the same movies are available for both formats. Overall the Blu-ray backers are confident that it's only a matter of time before the Blu-ray format becomes the dominant format in the US market, just as it already accounts for 96% of the market in Japan.
Source: Blu-ray.com | Permalink	Relevant for:

Adam_uk  » Jan 09, 2007	Show comment Hide comment
Err research conducted by FOX, that will be non biased then! Sales up 700%, give us hard numbers please! What utter propogaga. Things such as this do not really help do they? I want both BD and HD DVD for the films not the drivel their marketing departments can come up with.

Marwin  » Jan 09, 2007
"I'm selling 70,000 discs a week. Sales are doubling every week. ... Average PS3 owners buy 6 discs." said Mike Dunn, president worldwide of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

thunderhawk  » Jan 09, 2007
Awesome. Same reports by more members of the BDA and the HD DVD Promotion Group! Very good news for the format. It just builds the fundamentals of a victory... One format please! Thanks. =)

Adam_uk  » Jan 09, 2007	Show comment Hide comment
Sorry- how would you know the average PS3 owner buys six discs?, I see that you could find out the average sales per BD unit, films sold divided by players sold. But for the PS3? How if I bought a PS3 one day and a film the next, or from another store. A nonsense stat, still maybe true, the current PS3 games are not really worht playing (and I own one).

Iceman_II  » Jan 09, 2007

I disagree, no more a nonsense stat than the HD-DVD group quoting accessory sales of 38 disks a year. Its really rather simple, when you register your PS3 on the Sony Store network, you enter in an email... and click that little box about getting emails from Sony. All they have to do then is pick a random yet statististicly significant sample, and send this random sample an email asking "how many BD have you purchased" based on well established data on statistical polls, and margins of error, you can determine what projected sales were. given a number of 6 discs per, you would need a margin of error of 16% to even budge the number, and you can beat that margin of error with a relatively small sample size. See, its NOT a nonsense stat, granted it could be, but it all depends on how they collect the data.

Dave  » Jan 10, 2007
Awesome news! Keep up the good work Blu-ray!

GasCat  » Jan 10, 2007
I bought a PS/3 and 4 movies. I use it for more than games.

TheDaddy  » Jan 10, 2007

The 6 disc average per PS3 buyer is due to the fact that buying a PS3 during the holiday season required buying a bundle including 6 - 10 games & 2 blu-ray movies. The first wave of PS3s included a copy [free] of Taladega Nights [Blu-Ray] as well. Not only have Blu-Ray sales spiked but so have rentals of Blu-Ray titles from Blockbuster.com & Netflix. Almost every Blu-Ray title available from either has a short wait or longer... The PS3 has generated tremendous interest in Blu-Ray that simply wasn't there before 11.19.2006. Especially based on the cost of a Blu-Ray player or recorder. Sony HAS connected with an audience where the children play games on it & the parents watch movies on it....the PS3 is much more than just a video game console. After all the negative press for the past 2 months it looks like Sony will emerge unscathed with an even larger consumer base......they have really widened their demographic.

haushausman  » Jan 11, 2007

The PS3 is the most powerful gaming machine on the planet to date. To build a PC with the same power would cost over $5,000. Built-in web browser, SD memory port to view my photos, Blu-Ray player with amazing audio output, and an amazing gaming machine (wait till software catches up...). Xbox rushed out 360 to make X-mas last year. Not back-wards compatible with reg. X-box and the $300 HD-DVD add-on makes it about the same price as PS3.. not to mention it's NOT NEARLY as powerful. Sony is losing money on every PS3 sold due to BD technology being so new (the 10 processors inside using threading technology helps too); but they know they'll make up the lost revenue with games and the eventual conquest of the format war with the PS3 being their Trojan Horses. Blu-Ray discs are also better technology than HD-DVD. BD has much larger storage capacity (using mutliple data layers). And with ever increasing file sizes, the future will demand this. Sony F'd up with beta players years ago and tried making it exclusive to Sony. They learned their lesson and more manufacturers are onboard with Blu-Ray than HD-DVD so far. I've already purchased multiple BD movies. Using my PS3 hooked up to my 61" HD Samsung DLP TV w\ Dolby 5.1 surround is truly an amazing thing (up there with sex). This format war will be over before we know it. I just hope the already steep BD prices don't go up after the competition is dead. Long live Blu-Ray.

haushausman  » Jan 11, 2007
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6510291-1.html Did a little research. HD-DVD is in worse shape than I thought. I'm just glad I haven't wasted a penny on HD-DVD. The link above is worth checking out... and a little shocking.

Dave  » Jan 12, 2007
Adam_uk, do you know that one of the most selling items is the PS3 remote, outselling xBox`s addon? Also study shows that 80% of PS3 owners care more for movies than games because PS3 is a top quality Blu-ray player ... Do some research before you post!

Vagrant  » Jan 13, 2007	Show comment Hide comment
"The PS3 is the most powerful gaming machine on the planet to date. To build a PC with the same power would cost over $5,000." haushausman, why are you so retarded?

aredo  » Jan 13, 2007

Currently the main issue is that practically no BD nor HD-DVD titles are encoded using H.264 but just MPEG-2 (which can deliver nice results in HDTV but even 50GB doesn't allow a very good bitrate at 1080p resolution) and VC-1 (aka WMV9 HD which is nothing great at all compared to MPEG-2). H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) is the best codec which was selected to be used for the new discs to ensure proper quality at up to 1080p resolution on HDTV displays and at 1/3rd the bitrate that MPEG-2 would need to achieve the same results. However the Studios are not using H.264 encoding, yet...

HD-DVD  » Jan 14, 2007

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HD-DVD is by far the better choice and is going to win in 2007. You dont realize that there is already 10 million xbox 360's out in homes. And with that said, SAY JUST HALF of those 10 million 360 owners buy the HD DVD add on for the 360 look at those numbers in favor for HD DVD. There is no doubt the playstation 3 will be an excellent gaming machine; however, for blu ray to win the format war playstation 3's are going to have to surpass the xbox 360 sales. I dont see that happening because of the lead and future for the 360. Halo 3 and Halo wars alone are going to sell xbox 360's over playstations. I havent even mentioned the price difference, average people are going to go for the better buy and HD DVD is cheaper in price not quality which will also give advantage to HD DVD. Only time will tell but in my OPINION HD DVD is going to pull ahead and remain ahead in 2007.

iceman  » Jan 15, 2007

The Xbox 360 add-on has been out for quite some time now and has sold 92,000 copies up to date, so please use facts when discussing. A major disadvantage with the add-on is that it can't be used for games, only video, while the PS3 Blu-ray drive can be used for games as well. Hideo Kojima, the developer behind MGS4 recently said he wants to use 50GB BD discs for MGS4, I think that game will blow away most games. The PS2 console has sold over 100M copies, I think some of the PS2 owners are interested in the PS3, especially since it's backwards compatible with their existing games collection. Currently there are far more BD players out in the market and they are also selling faster than the HD-DVD players, thus increasing the gap. Same story with the movies, as the article says, BD movies are now outselling HD-DVD movies and increasing the gap every week. Regarding the price advantage, I guess you get what you pay for, you can get a very good BD player AND awesome game machine for $499/$599 and you can get a Toshiba HD-A1 for $400 or a Toshiba HD-XA2 for $1000...

haushausman  » Jan 15, 2007

I just recieved my PS3 Blu-Ray Blutooth remote and it's great. Completely turns the PS3 into an amazing Blu-Ray player. And it's Blutooth so pointing it at the PS3 is not required. The only disadvantage is the buttons do not light-up. But my theater room is not that dark so it does not affect me while watching movies. As for HD-DVD's comment, check out this link: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6510291-1.html. You may be in for a bit of surprise. Might want to change your name to Blu-Ray And have you seen the amount of new releases for Blu-Ray verses HD-DVD. The titles are huge blockbusters and more numerous. I give HD-DVD another year before it's absolete.

HD-DAVE  » Jan 15, 2007

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Learn from the facts, people: Sony has yet to release even their first generation standalone blu-ray disc player to the market ( here in Canada at least), whereas second Toshiba / RCA / etc are already selling their second generation HD-DVD machines, including one with true 1080p output. The Tosh HD-A2 model is selling for half the price of the crappy Samsung BD1000 player that started the blu-ray format off with a decided "CLUNK". For the same price as a blu-ray player a smart person can get an HD-DVD unit and have enough left over for something like 20 discs !! 10.4 million Xbox 360's have been sold, and if sales of the HD-DVD add-on drive continue even at current rate of 50,000 units per month (it has sold 100,000 units in the two months since release, and is sold out EVERYwhere here where I live - I was lucky to find one - indicating huge demand), the installed base of HD-DVD players will come very close to equaling that of PS3 by the end of 2007. Down the road, even if only half of the people that own 360's buy the HD drive add-on the installed base will be two to three times the number of PS3's out there. Also keep in mind the harsh reviews of blu-ray discs - Mpeg2 artifacts and noise do not give this format The Look and Sound of Perfect that has been proven true of almost every HD-DVD. MAke your choice carefully... I did. Good Luck!

iceman  » Jan 16, 2007

Ok, now I'm picky, but 10.04M Xbox360 has been sold. If there's such a HD-DVD add-on demand, why is it in stock on Amazon and several other places? And why is the PS3 remote always sold out? And you seem to be living in September 2006 regarding the video reviews. VC-1 ,30GB: http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/excalibur.html MPEG-2, 50GB: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthreads/dvd-review.php?sequence=1809

HD-DAVE  » Jan 16, 2007

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Sorry Iceman - 10.4 million is correct. Refer to http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/05/xbox-360-hits-10-4-million-announces-iptv/. Amazon is perhaps the worlds largest online retailer, so Microsoft would A. have thousands of drives shipped to them at any given time, and B. would not want Amazon to run out because that would look bad and put off consumers. As for image quality, regardless of whether blu-ray titles look better now than in september, the initial reviews put a bad taste in many many peoples mouths. Especially since some of the most famous demo titles in the world, such as the Fifth Element, looked like crap. In the end , price and software availability will be the deciding factor - not how many PS3's have been sold, not how many similar baseless claims the blu-ray camp makes or claims. You would do well to check out http://www.thedvdwars.com - where you will see HD-DVD leading or far ahead of blu-ray in every sales category. The only Tie is in # of titles...and given that 41 studios now support HD-DVD, with more to come thanks to online petitions from HD-DVD customers (to Lions Gate, etc), the discs are cheaper, and players are 30 to 40% less expensive, HD-DVD will continue to be on top. I'm glad I chose this format.

iceman  » Jan 16, 2007

Multipaaaass! How many times have I heard the 5th Element argument.... I looked at nexgenwars.com where Xbox360 were at 10.04M, so I thought you got the number from there. Anyway, theoretically there could be 10M HD-DVD add-on players, but it's currently 92,000. PS3 now has 2M units out (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12408) and thus 20 times more BD players than Xbox360 add-on players. HD-DVD fans loves to point to thedvdwars.com and Amazon, which is a very skewed and inaccurate way to compare sales (http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3572). You can check out the sales at dvdempire.com: http://www.dvdempire.com/index.asp?userid=99365235303148&tab_id=60&site_id=69&site_media_id=0 see where the momentum is? And 41 studios? Oh common Soon you will be saying that Disney, Fox, Lionsgate and Sony Pictures are about to switch side or become neutral and the circle will be complete. Let this rest now please and we can have this discussion again in July =)

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