Spidey BluRay sales disapointing.

[drseid]

Dave, you obviously do not know the industry I work in very well. A studio has no interest in player sales, they have a interest in software sales. In this climate(war), the studios are not looking at CE manufacturers game plan, they are looking at how the game plan effects sales of software. Warner is looking at a few things, what titles are selling well, and which side is buying their titles in greater numbers. The only studios interested in Toshiba's game plan are the studios exclusively supporting it.



The PS2 is not a PS3. The PS2 was not built with DVD in mind, the DVD drive was used for loading games, and can play DVD's as a result of the drive. It's DVD playback was horrible, and so was its CD playback. This console was optimized for games, and games only. The PS3 is optimized for several things. It upconverts regular DVD's, plays bluray, fully optimized for SACD playback, has the ability to upsample CD and is very good at it. It is obviously optimized for audio and video, streaming and storying. You can swap out the hard drive for a larger size(something the PS2 cannot do). It is obvious that a different approach was given to the PS3 than the PS2. The PS3 can do everything your BDP-S1 can do and more. Your BDP-S1 plays bluray movies, so does the PS3. The only thing on the level that is different is what the external case looks like. I do not know who told you how the PS3 is viewed, but alot of folks are using them in their hometheaters primarily as a bluray player. On Bluray.com I asked how many people use their PS3 soley as a bluray player. In two days I got 10 pages of answers from users that use the PS3 as their primary bluray player in their hometheaters. It is time to rethink your PS3 perspective as obviously PS3 owners are buying movies as evidenced by its release, and the subsequent over taking of HD DVD in disc sales just two months later.



You and nobody else knows the attach rate of PS3 owners. I own the PS3 and I have over 200 bluray movies. The idea of "you have to have a standalone to be legit" is a false concept, and a HD DVD fanboy talking point(no offense but its true). Entertainment center have changed the game, and BR has proven that you do not need to sell standalones to drive software sales. The entertainment center is a new concept brought on by the PS3. You cannot dismiss it because it does not follow some traditional model. It expands that model. We are not sure of the long term impact of the PS3, so to make a statement that the PS3 will not drive any format long term is premature and uninformed. Its old line thinking.

Toshiba behavior does not concern me. I personally think they have a steep uphill battle against BR, I think their premature cost cutting of their players is going to hurt them in the long run, will chase other manufacturers away(it has already happened) and will not ensure long term health for HD DVD. They should have bargained more faithfully with BR, instead of trying to save face. Cutting prices has not helped their sales all that much in that they only have 150k more "standalones" in the field than BR has. What good is a $199 player when you do not have full studio support, and software prices are still over $20? I personally do not think player price is a problem, software prices are. Alot of folks bought $800 DVD players when they first came out.



Dave, you do not know what the true attach rate is. You are listening far to much to the HD DVD PG. Nobody has done a exhastive study on PS3 attach rates. If you listen to the HD DVD PG(and you obviously have) they claim they have a higher attach rate because they add in the PS3 when you talk about attach rates, and take the PS3 out of the equation when you discuss player sales. This is disengenious as it really tells you nothing but spin. Your thought process is way to premature. Since there has never been a entertainment center catagory it is new territory, and nobody knows what influence the PS3 will have going forward. The PS3 has pushed bluray ahead of HD DVD in europe, here in this country, in asia, in Australia and New Zeland. There is no where on this planet that HD DVD is doing better than bluray. As long as the PS3 is outselling HD DVD players, HD DVD will not catch up to bluray. That has been the case in the short history of this war. Any idea the PS3 can be discounted over time, is premature as there is no history of adoption rates or sales or disc sales based on a entertainment center.

I am not saying Warner (or anyone else in the industry) cares about player sales in and of themselves. They care about software sales as you mentioned... but in this case the standalone player sales will lead to future software sales. As such, they are interested. The players is a means to an end, but it is an integral part of the supply chain for the studios.

As for "entertainment center" versus "game machine" ... I personally feel that sounds like something coming from Sony's Marketing department. It is true it can perform many functions (as many other computers and game consoles can do), but gaming is its first purpose. That is not to imply you can't use it for other things (and many are), but the average person buying it is buying it for games. The people on bluray.com do not represent the average buyer IMO.

Attach rates are more of a gray area I grant you. It may be early days to make any conclusive statements as you correctly mention, but I don't think I am far from the truth in my statements based on plain old common sense thinking and analysis. Gaming machines or "entertainment centers" are not going to have the same attach rates as dedicated (sole purpose) players, IMO. Again, this is not to demean PS3 owners as I view the PS3 as a superb Blu-ray player (and quite frankly far better than my own). It just is not going to have the same amount of people buying it for Blu-ray movie use, as a dedicated player like my BDP-S1 will (as that is its sole function) or a Toshiba HD DVD player would due to many using it strictly for games. The exact attach rate can't be determined, but attach rate trends can be derived to a degree.

As an FYI, I actually ignore the HD PG's press releases as I consider them biased. I ignore just about anything coming from bluray.com by the same token (even though I confess I am a member), as I would argue most information there is equally biased. Just for the record, I don't go to "hddvd.com" for my information either. ;-)

---Dave