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Forums - Sony Discussion - What if Sony had released Playstation 3 without a Blu-Ray Player

HD DVD would probably have won, 360 would probably be in third place (assuming PS3 launched much cheaper without BR).

I think the Wii wouldn't have sold quite as well but it's of course hard to be sure. I still think it would be in 1st place, but with less sales, with PS3 not too far behind and 360 a fair way behind.

the recent 360 price attractiveness is based on how well the console managed to sell with PS3 out, but I believe it would have seen a big, immediate drop if PS3 had been much cheaper with DVD drive only.



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fadetoone said:
It wouldn't play any of these PS3 games I have.

Are you sure about that i think you could be wrong lol

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alpha_dk said:
I don't know why people are assuming HD-DVD would win. All it would have done would be to force more competition in the standalone realm; lower prices, more features and competition, and the formats battling on their own merits. Is everyone who is saying Blu-Ray would have lost also saying that Blu-Ray was worse than HD-DVD? Because even HD-DVD was too expensive for the mainstream at that point, so it would still have been a battle over the technophiles, which I am not so confident HD-DVD would have won...

I think many of the movie studios that were Blu Ray exclusive (if not all besides those that are owned by Sony) did so because Blu Ray was going to be in every PS3.  They would have expected PS3 to sell very well and (like me) saw no way HD DVD could possibly win. 

If Sony hadn't trojan horsed Blu Ray I sincerely doubt those companies would have been Blu Ray exclusive.  This would have resulted in a very different format war. 

HD DVD sold more standalone devices by a wide margin despite the fact that Universal was the only exclusive studio.  The HD DVD players were much more advanced than the blu ray ones and was the device of choice for tech heads even with the more limited movie selection. 

Blu Ray discs may be better due to capacity and scratch resistance but on a hardware level in terms of capability and price there was no contest.  With level footing movie selection and no blu ray in PS3 I don't see how blu ray would have stood a chance.  The war would still be on by now (and universal players would probably have meant the war never ended) but I think HD DVD would have been way ahead in sales. 

It is a huge pity that the decision was taken out of the hands of consumers as a result of Sony having the most successful video game brand ever.  

 



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The PS3 would be cheaper probably selling pretty good, but they would lose probably all there third party exclusives and we'd have games looking no where near as good as what they look like now.



Dannagar said:

What would be the state of Playstation 3 if Sony had released it with a regular DVD drive instead of a Blu-Ray player? What would it's price point be? How many PS3 users would we see today? What are your thoughts?

 

 The ps3 would be in a much better position right now, instead of struggling like they have been.  The worst thing they did was add the blu-ray player.



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The PS3 would either be in second very close to the Wii or in first place. Price is the number 1 factor for the PS3 being third. The Wii would have been treated more like the Gamecube, even if it did better because of the Wiimote.



tuoyo said:
alpha_dk said:
I don't know why people are assuming HD-DVD would win. All it would have done would be to force more competition in the standalone realm; lower prices, more features and competition, and the formats battling on their own merits. Is everyone who is saying Blu-Ray would have lost also saying that Blu-Ray was worse than HD-DVD? Because even HD-DVD was too expensive for the mainstream at that point, so it would still have been a battle over the technophiles, which I am not so confident HD-DVD would have won...

I think many of the movie studios that were Blu Ray exclusive (if not all besides those that are owned by Sony) did so because Blu Ray was going to be in every PS3.  They would have expected PS3 to sell very well and (like me) saw no way HD DVD could possibly win. 

If Sony hadn't trojan horsed Blu Ray I sincerely doubt those companies would have been Blu Ray exclusive.  This would have resulted in a very different format war. 

HD DVD sold more standalone devices by a wide margin despite the fact that Universal was the only exclusive studio.  The HD DVD players were much more advanced than the blu ray ones and was the device of choice for tech heads even with the more limited movie selection. 

Blu Ray discs may be better due to capacity and scratch resistance but on a hardware level in terms of capability and price there was no contest.  With level footing movie selection and no blu ray in PS3 I don't see how blu ray would have stood a chance.  The war would still be on by now (and universal players would probably have meant the war never ended) but I think HD DVD would have been way ahead in sales. 

It is a huge pity that the decision was taken out of the hands of consumers as a result of Sony having the most successful video game brand ever.  

 

I mean, I agree that HD-DVD wouldn't have kicked the bucket, I just am not sure that it would have 'lost' yet, unless you define 'lost' as 'not won.'  I think they would still be competing, and probably be getting smaller slices of a larger pie.

Personally, I preferred HD-DVD due to the lack of region coding, but Blu-Ray would have been a better choice in the data medium for PCs, etc.  I am pretty sure there could have been a market for both to survive.  I don't see the need for either of them to 'lose' if there had been no BR in the PS3 (or even optional BR in the PS3).  Frankly, either solution would have lost to digital distribution sooner rather than later anyways, so it's a moot point IMO, but that's not a topic for this discussion.

All I am saying is there could have been a market for two separate optical disk-based high-capacity standards.  DVD+R didn't die off because DVD-Rs existed, and vice-versa.  They complemented each other in a way that HD-DVD and BR very easily could have done as well.



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Blu-ray drive wasn't around $150 of PS3 price at launch? So that means PS3 would cost just around $700 to make at launch. Not that big of a difference.



 

 

 

 

 

disolitude said:
alpha_dk said:
I don't know why people are assuming HD-DVD would win. All it would have done would be to force more competition in the standalone realm; lower prices, more features and competition, and the formats battling on their own merits. Is everyone who is saying Blu-Ray would have lost also saying that Blu-Ray was worse than HD-DVD? Because even HD-DVD was too expensive for the mainstream at that point, so it would still have been a battle over the technophiles, which I am not so confident HD-DVD would have won...

HDDVD would have won because...

- HD DVD sold much more standalone player than bluray once you subtract PS3.

- HD DVD had both the DVD and HD DVD copy on one disk so customers could have gotten the HD DVD copy even if they had only the DVD player

- HD DVD were cheaper to make as they are the same size as DVDs and the manufacturers didn't have to change the size of the machines used to press the damn things

- Finally, players and movies wee slightly cheaper on HDDVD.

 

I thought standard DVDs weren't on all HD DVD discs? And what's that about the size? Physical size? I don't know about you but at least my PS3 uses DVD-size discs but they are Blu-ray instead of DVD.

Well, the price being a lot cheaper, Sony might even be at more direct competition with Nintendo instead of struggling to reach the second place. Depending on the interest the current userbase has in BD, Sony might actually have lost a significant amount of sales. Still, I doubt MS would be at a very strong position right now



haxxiy said:
Blu-ray drive wasn't around $150 of PS3 price at launch? So that means PS3 would cost just around $700 to make at launch. Not that big of a difference.

 

Stand alone Blu-Ray players costed more that a PS3 if you recall at the time of its launch. It's been estimated that the Blu-Ray Drive costed Sony $350 to implement on to the PS3 (at launch).