Blu-ray: A 2008 Holiday Hit?

[FinalEvangelion]

Comrade Tovya said:

FinalEvangelion said:

Comrade Tovya said:

FinalEvangelion said:

Comrade Tovya said:

SpartanFX said:
^^^actually,,the disk will have a high price since the manufacturer stopped producing it(the have to contract an entire manufacturing line to start production again for disk and optical)

also no use for movie watching.(no support)

also they still have to pay Toshiba for using their technology.

 

A) It would be no more expensive than how Nintendo does it with their optical drive technology... and it is only used in the Wii (and previously the GameCube)

B) You can't watch movies on a Wii, and it's still destroying MS & Sony.  Obviously people don't care it can't play movies.

C) The royalties for HD DVD were very small during the battle between Toshiba & Sony, and now that Toshiba has abandoned the technology, the royalties would be even less than before... but the cost would be negligable.

 

It's a possibility, although it may not go with the consumer as well if they made that statement (thinking 3-4 years from now).  Sony does not have complete control over BD (they can't alone reject or accept licensees of the format).  It is not as proprietary as people think it is to them.  I can't see it being much different than the Xbox 360s ability to play CDs (a format co-patened by Sony), or PS3's capability to play WMV/WMA.

 

Oh no, I don't mean Sony would try to block a move to use BD technology (nor could they), I mean I'm not sure that MS would be willing to pay the enormous licensing fees associated with it.  Now if Sony were to drop the fees significantly lower by the time the next gen is here, that could change.

But if the new generation were to start today, I guarantee that MS would skip over BD and do something different.  BD capability started off as a strength for Sony when this generation began, and has since turned into a liability.

BD technology has made the PS3 too expensive to dominate the market, and the enormous space capabilities on the discs are way more than is needed (at the moment).

I actually don't think this generational gap between Sony/MS & Nintendo is as big as a deal as some think.  Considering the mass market largely sees the XBOX & Playstation as the same sort of gaming system and the Nintendo as something different, there is the possibility that had only one of the systems (PS3 or XBOX 360) been around for this generation, there sales number would probably be pretty close to being the combined total of their sales now... in other words, neck-in-neck with Nintendo.

I think the fact that Nintendo went their own direction, and the other two followed the same general path caused them to eat at each others market share... and left Nintendo alone to capture their own niche and market share.

Hmm, maybe Sony & MS should join forces in the next gen and make a PS360?  

I think that if Nintendo does integrate HD & hardcore games in the next generation, not all 3 manufacturers will be able to survive viably for a third straight generation.

 

How much does Sony conrol the licensing fees for BD?  I'm legitimately curious.  How much of the decision for licensing costs is between Sony and BDA (rest of the companies)?  Yeah, if MS were to start today then it would be something different.  But, recently, MS has accepted the existance of BD through Vista (they didn't before - only HD DVD).  I assume that requires a small license fee.

 

Next Gen, PS420 would be the appropriate name.  And actually, that console would sell well just on name itself.

 

@elnino334 - only DLC I've bought ever was XBL and PSN material, for some anecdotal evidence.  Many of my friends have gone Blu that initially rejected the idea, with several more on the fence.  That's some anecdotal evidence there.

 

I think the licensing fee scheme for Blu-ray takes a degree in mathematics from MIT to understand.  So good question.

Can you imagine the stability of Sony hardware & Blu-ray combined with the superior OS & online service MS provides?  That would be a killer system.  Probably never going to happen (both Sony & MS want to lead their own ship way too badly).  But one can dream I suppose.

 

Well, Square and Enix merged.  Wouldn't seem like a big deal outside of Japan.  But in Japan, no one would ever consider the possibility.  If Nintendo had decided to use the same power level this gen, then MS and Sony would be having alot more trouble with third party support.  They have the funds to do that next gen, but I think they try to stay away from the MS vs. Sony rivalry.