Microsoft came into this generation thinking that digital distribution was the key. They made a deal with Toshiba to attach an external HD-DVD player to their Xbox 360 knowing that it wasn’t a proven format. All didn’t go too well for Toshiba and their HD-DVD players as Sony’s newer high definition format, Blu-ray, put HD-DVD out of business. Sony made a smart move by including a Blu-ray player in every PlayStation 3 that gave Blu-ray the boost it needed to gain ground and eventually surpass HD-DVD in sales. Blu-ray was the obvious victor here and continues to rise in sales and become more and more popular.

Now it wasn’t a loss for Microsoft because they knew HD-DVD wasn’t a proven format. Matter in fact, it was a very smart move to not include a HD-DVD player in the 360 knowing that Blu-ray holds more space and supports more audio formats. They would have been stuck with a dead format and would have wasted a lot of money. The thing is, Microsoft has stated that this generation is all about digital distribution, and stands by their word. If so, it looks as if Sony is actually about to dominate in that area also with the recent announcement that they will be releasing fully fledged games on the PSN. They already have started their digital distribution passé with Socom Confrontation, Burnout Paradise, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and Warhawk. Right now they are two steps ahead of Microsoft in Microsoft’s own vision. But also Sony has proven that it is not all about digital distribution as Blu-ray sales continue to rise and shatter records.

So now we have Sony playing the role of Blu-ray format and are about to take control of the digital distribution from all angles, meanwhile Microsoft seems to be stuck in a position of overwhelming fear that Sony might take over digital distribution before them. Microsoft does have a signed contract with Netflix and does have arcade games on Xbox Live, but Sony also has a video store and PSN games. Sony has brought full next generation titles to digital distribution and will be continuing to do so. And at the same time Sony is building Blu-ray as the high definition format of the 21st century which is the complete opposite of digital distribution. Microsoft better look out because Sony is really kicking this year off with some big things and huge blockbuster titles.

http://www.thegameraccess.com/2009/02/sony-dominating-microsofts-goal/

HD format of the 21st century is a wee bit of an exagerration no?

It will almost certainly be obsolete within ten years at the most.

Hopefully Sony enable backwards complatibility in the PS4 for those downloadable games so you can atleast transfer and play them.

One problem Sony might have is that they want developers to take advantage of the space on Blu-Ray but ultimately that going to make the game impossible to distrubute digitally. Because all 360 games are capped at 7GB, it's in a better position to open the library up for download. But would MS want to?

I hate the thought of everything being downloads. I'd much rather have the disk.

Blu-Ray wasn't a proven format either, and was a huge gamble for the PS3 as it was built in. Remember Paramount went HDDVD exclusive and for a few weeks it looked like Blu-Ray was in trouble. WB out of nowhere decided to go Blu-Ray exclusive which changed the entire format war, as they had the bigger catalog of all the HDDVD supporters. Everyone took a risk, but you say it hurt microsoft. Right now it's helped them as they got their system out first, and have been able to keep the price below the PS3. Digital Distribution is the future, and both systems do it well. You mention the PS3 has full downloadable games, but then again so does the 360 with the Xbox Classics. It's only a matter of time before they do bigger releases as well. Digital Distribution is one area neither will have a problem with

i don't know about you guys, but i'd rather have my games on discs. I don't care about movies as much though.

@captDS9E

first of all no format is proven at first...but right now blu-ray has proved itself that it can stay...

Paramount going HDDVD exclusive wasn't such a big deal especially because most of movie studios were in favor of BD anyways...but around that time...Paramount was one of only 3 studios to back HDDVD....whereas BD had more than 10 studios...which includes Sony, Columbia, Lions Gate, Fox, Miramax, MGM, Disney, WB, New Line, and more

BD always had more supporters...even before the launch both BD and HDDVD

this is a link to show you HDDVD supporters vs BD supporters...notice the date...this was written about 6 months b4 the release of HDDVD...and if you notice...WB and Disney announcing BD exclusive should not really have surprised anyone...because WB and Disney never supported HDDVD in the first place

http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-state-of-the-s-union-s-division/

and the only companies that manufactured HDDVD players were Toshiba and Sanyo...BD players were available from many different companies...including sony, phillips, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, and Sharp.

the only time BD ever looked like they were in trouble was when $100 HDDVD players were being sold at Walmart....but even then...the closest market share between the 2 were 51% for BD and 49% for HDDVD...most of the times...it was around 65-70% BD and 30-35% HDDVD....if you look at week of Oct 21 2007...that was when Walmart announced the $100 HDDVD player...

this is a link to BD vs HDDVD statistics of their market share...

http://www.blu-raystats.com/MarketShare/Historical.php

the downloadble games that is mentioned is about same full games that you can find at stores...not classics...it's like if you can download Halo 3 and Gears from Live...

I may have got the wrong impression but I don't think Microsoft thought digital distribution of next gen games is the key to their console success.

He didn't say it hurt the 360. He said it was smart not to include HD-DVD on the 360 and it was smart to just make the HDDVD player an add on... So what are you talking about?

Also those are XBOX classic games. Those are not new titles being produced as digitally distributed games. They're just old games, just like the PS classic games. It's kinda hard to compare the 2 to new current generation games. And no one said either one would have trouble with digital distribution. The point of the article was that the Sony is realizing Microsoft's vision better than Microsoft is with digital distribution.  

THAts wat i thought