Sony has announced that sales of Blu-ray titles in Europe are exceeding sales of HD DVD titles by up to a factor of 4-to-1. This decisive lead has forced studios such as Universum Film (Germany) and Studio Canal (France) to plan Blu-ray releases for this important Q4. Additionally, sales of standalone players has nearly caught up with HD DVD, reflecting a similar trend in the US where sales of Blu-ray players has surpassed that of HD DVD players.
most excellent! now if they could only get a 100 euro PS3 price drop it would move up to 5:1. So lets recap this. US is blu-rays worst market with a 61:39 ratio in favor of blu-ray; Europe is 80:20; Australia is 90:10; and Japan is 94:6 i believe. I don't see how Universal or Paramount can justify their positions.
I hope somebody can give me this news from neutral source (or better, from HD DVD camp), so I can add this to wikipedia. You know how wikipedians looks like?
So, let's recap:
Japan is 94.8% BD according to Nikkei
Europe WAS 70% BD (softwarewise), 94% BD (hardwarewise, including PS3 - or 70% to HD DVD if PS3 not counted), according to GFK
4 to 1 meaning now EU is 80% BD
Yes, it seems HD DVD's supporter in America is quite a lot, and that's the reason HD DVD stays in USA
I'll harp on this from here to eternity: It's all too easy to concentrate on the area of the world where one is from. I make this mistake all the time myself.
One must remember other parts of the globe and in just about every case...it's already setting up for a BD blowout if not already happening outright. :-)
Not much of a surprise to me. I think most other countries do a little more thinking and research before they go out and buy something. The good ole US of A is the home of the impulse buyer. I still see a lot of people at BB and other stores like it looking at HD-DVD and listening to those wonderful blue shirts who tell them it is the top of the two. I actually overheard one telling someone to just buy the Xbox with the add-on because it gives you both and HDMI is not important or any better. I tried to talk to the person afterward, well me and a friend to try to slap on some education, but this idiot went right back to the BB person and asked his opinion again. I saw this guy later walk out with an Xbox pro and the add on. Urge to kill rising.
E-Dogg....Scrapanatchi is correct. Here's the full quote from the BDA...
"At the same time the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced that Blu-ray
Disc movie sales across European territories are continuing to move ahead of HD
DVD. For example, in the UK market figures show BD to be outselling HD DVD by
a margin of 4 to 1. "
Still good news but they're not saying that blu-ray is 4:1 across Europe.
Every market that HD-DVD fails to secure helps to strengthen BD position in the US market. Ultimately studios are going to want one format across all borders.
I see this in my own country (The Netherlands) as well. Blu-ray is sooo going to win this format war. But eh..hey Sony, please reward us Europeans by making the PS3 a lot cheaper. I know a lot of people (including me) that want to buy it, but think the 600 euro ($853.50) price is way too expensive.
If these numbers are genuine then this is fantastic news!!
stockstar1138 where did you get your numbers? Just for interest. I would like to know where you got
your numbers for Australia.
I don't see HD DVD discs in all but 1 chain of stores and even the ratio in those stores is 4:1!! for Blu-
ray Would like to see the hard data :-)
Figures that the ratio would be skewed in the US (compared to the rest of the world) where:
A) Microsoft is a leading proponent of HD-DVD
B) Most consumers don't even understand that just because they bought a big TV they don't have High-Def content unless they have HD sources (i.e. Satellite, cable, Blu-Ray, etc.)
Come on BDA... keep those dollars flowing so that we can educate the masses and get this silly format war over with ASAP!!!
Well saljr some of us are not thinking straight, but some of us are. I know that I am a Blu supporter and had done my homework before jumping head first into the HD War. I think after this holiday season comes to a close and if WB decides to support Blu-Ray exclusively that will be the end of HD-DVD. It won't be an immediate death, but it will die eventually later in '08.
Now lets see companies like Apple and Dell include Blu-ray drives in all of their computers! I'd like to see a Blu-ray reader/burner on all top models and a Blu-ray reader standard on all other computer.
Well, this proves that having a region free format in some ways has a negative effect. Its alot cheaper to purchase HDDVDs from the USA than to buy them say in the UK. So almost all the people i know who own HDDVD buy from the states. result is deflated domestic sales, but increased USA sales, now you see why the US sales are the best for HDDVD worldwide, Simply put the USA is the best place to buy HDDVDs given current exchange rates etc.
the HDDVD release choice is also pretty sad compared to BD in the UK. I think will see 5-1 before to long in the UK if not Euro land.
I live in the US so this story isn't all that important to me. It's great that other countries are getting high-def there though. All-in-all though, if Blu-Ray does better in one country it can still fail in another.
As some have pointed out the 4-to-1 ratio was in reference to the UK market, but as we've previously heard Blu-ray accounts for 70%+ of software sales in Europe so the number should still not be too far off.
@ gandly
I live in Eurupe and I'm buying my Blu-Ray movies i the US too ... most of the European does. It ist not only the HD-DVD-fanboy who does.
I Think the numbers 4-1 is pretty real and shows the real picture. HD-DVD i loosing this war in Europe because MS is supporting HD-DVD. Europe do not like MS at all :-) And we don't want give them more power.
Ah I knew blu ray would pull through, here in Ireland, blu ray is really taking off, my friend swapped from HD DVD to blu ray PS3 coz he now can l=play great games as well as great movies, does anyone know if Constentine will come out on blu ray, I know its not a great movie but I like it..cheers..p.s. this is my first comment, its great to be part of this site, have been reading it for a while now..
Sony has announced that sales of Blu-ray titles in Europe are exceeding sales of HD DVD titles by up to a factor of 4-to-1. This decisive lead has forced studios such as Universum Film (Germany) and Studio Canal (France) to plan Blu-ray releases for this important Q4. Additionally, sales of standalone players has nearly caught up with HD DVD, reflecting a similar trend in the US where sales of Blu-ray players has surpassed that of HD DVD players. 
well 3/4 of us do lol 
