Blu-ray could be the next UMD, says MS

[Ender]

 

 

MikeB said:

Ender said:

Although his wording is extreme, I agree with his general point. Digital downloads ARE the future, it just needs a few more years to develop. During that period I expect Blue-ray to continue to gain market share and surpass DVD in the home movie market. However, it's life and total sales will fall significantly short of DVD.

 

IMO digital downloads are part of the future like it was also part of the past. However full quality high definition movies still aren't feasible for digital distribution everywhere around the world. Many people have to slow and unreliable connections or no internet at all around the globe.

The market also is not ready for this. Of course Sony and Microsoft would love to cut out the middleman as much as possible. But most people still greatly prefer physical media for their full quality content (for budget content it's less of an issue). Disc sales are very important to shops and rental services, they are everywhere. Even VGChartz isn't ready for this as it still ignores sales of online distributed console content.

 

 

I think we pretty much agree with each other.  I agree HD quality movies aren't feasbile yet, however the writing is on the wall.  Yesterday I watched a 480p movie on hulu.com, which looked good (obviously not Blue-ray quality, but pretty darn good).  Additionally, netflix and blockbuster.com offer streaming SD movies.  It's not hard to believe in a couple of years there will be a viable means to download 1080p movies online, and a few years after that it becoming mainstream. Again, IMO Bluie-ray is more a stop gap medium for movies, and it won't be as huge has DVD or cassettes.  BTW, I’m not degrading Blue-ray, heck I plan to get one, but I honestly think the MS guy has a point.