Quote Originally Posted by Robert-The-Rambler
How many people who buy a Playstation 3 are even thinking about BLU-RAY?
You can bet a significant amount. When I finally buy an XBox 360 or PS3, the HD player will weigh heavily on my decision. I'm amazed at how many XBOX owners played DVD's with them. The reason it isn't more was simple - the cost of getting a dedicated DVD player wasn't all that much. Not so with HD-DVD and BluRay. Not to mention PS3 does the job rather well.

Curiosity will lead many PS3 owners to 1 or 2 BluRay discs alone. Look on any web forum, in any magazine article, or any Sony marketing material, and the BluRay playing is front and center. People know what they're getting in to. The performance being higher than DVD quality should keep people buying discs for awhile. The question isnt' whether consumers buy PS3 for BluRay purposes, but rather, will people who already have a PS3 buy an HD-DVD player or additional BluRay player to satisfy their HD needs? The majority probably won't for quite some time, instead they'll build their BluRay libraries up and enjoy HD video until better, dediated BluRay players are cheap. That will lead to a far larger demand for BluRay discs than HD-DVD's. It doesn't matter what proportion of BluRay players are PS3 or dedicated players, only that the demand for BluRay is higher than HD-DVD because of it.

Do not dismiss the power of herd-mentality among consumers. As Wooch mentioned, the studios have largely held to their guns, contrary to what I thought would happen. If 16 of the top 20 demanded movies to be sold this year are exclusive to BluRay, then the demand for BluRay will be more. If BluRay is releasing more blockbuster titles than HD-DVD in the future, the software demand and sales discrepancy should continue to grow in favor of BluRay. Consumers and retailers aren't oblivious to this. What do you think the first question is out every buyer's mouth in BestBuy when they're looking at BluRay and HD-DVD..."So, what's selling more?" "Who's winning?". If the answer is BluRay early on, that will heavily influence decisions. Nobody wants to buy a loser. People will see the BluRay and HD-DVD sections - if BluRay has more, people will notice. So will retailers. They'll start siding with the winner too. Even the casual article in a local newspaper, internet site, or 30 second TV spot that mentions BluRay leading (like Wooch's HM article that mentioned 80%) will influence decisions. Follow the leader...herd mentality...

Most people who buy PS3's aren't 12 year old kids - their media savvy 18-40 year olds. I think we all may have underestimated Sony on this one, myself included. Everyone pretty much expected a close race to continue indefinitely, dragging on, or for HD-DVD to slowly pull ahead because of price advantages. Nobody ever thought BluRay would be approaching a 3-to-1 sales advantage over HD-DVD this early.

By no means is this over yet, but it's definitely significant.