UK & Xbox 360

[Scruff7]

kowenicki said:

FootballFan said:

selnor said:

kowenicki said:

Reasonable said:

In the UK the impression I get is that the 360 is seen as the best buy for money if you're not also into BR movies  as well as HD/Online gaming while PS3 is seen as the best buy for money if you are also into BR movies as well as HD/Online gaming.

The split in demand I believe nicely correlates with the fact that although HD TV sales have been okay in UK SD and DVD are still the dominant formats.

The Wii though does seem to have seen a drop in market awareness and 'must have' factor.  It's still selling well, but in general terms the marketing presence and sense of demand seems to be much stronger recently for 360/PS3 vs the Wii.

The 360 does have the advantage of being cheaper (albeit more on paper than reality prior to the 360s) and has, much like US, taken root as the console of choice for teenagers and young males, which has helped secure it's position in the UK as arguably the more dominant console of late (although LTD is still trails the Wii and will probably continue to do so).

I think the UK shows a very good split across the three consoles, in line with demographics and purchasing demand, with only the poor PSP looking (again, similar to US) like the black sheep of the family.

HD is massive in the UK.   Sky HD, Virgin HD, BT, Freeview HD and Freesat are extremely popular.

Yep. It's just BluRay isn't.

HD downloads are what loads of people here do. It's cheaper and more convienient. 

BluRay is a lot more popular than you might think. All major shops that sell DVD's has BluRays. Sure, the odd charity shop here and there might not have the media but pretty much everywhere else does...

I actually like Blu-ray... i own quite a few.  But there is a very simple reason why consoles are being released with larger HDDs now.....   Digital dowloads.    A 1 terabyte media server or HDD attached to your router is relatively inexpensive and would pay for itself quite soon if you downloaded HD movies as opposed to buying the blu-ray version.

This is a odd thing about the UK. people who download movies don't think Blu-ray is particularly big or important. People who buy Blu-ray don't think downloads are particularly big or important. HD broadcasting is definitely bigger, but having movies on demand on standard TVs didn't stop the massive DVD boom.

I know in London, blu-rays are slowly taking over from DVDs - just about every shop that sells DVDs have a blu-ray section. There's more space to blu-ray in shops and it appears to be increasing week over week. I've a few friends who buy Blu-rays, even my parents and girlfriends parents now buy them. I think most people are now know that Blu-ray is the accepted replacement for DVD, but they are still relatively expensive, and you can play DVDs on a blu-ray player, so people still buy crap, cheap DVDs and buy their favourites on Blu-ray.

Then there are the downloaders, but they seem to be very tech savvy people with really good internet connections. I only know 2 guys who do this, and they have some pretty awesome PC rigs hooked up.I know i can't download HD movies, takes too long and my 1T hard drive is nearly full already. plus, i like having physical media still.

I still think that most people are still buying DVDs though, cheaper and people are used to them and don't really care for the better quality visuals.

The real winners are HD broadcasting, where Sky has put their money, and they're probably getting the most success. If you want to pay the extortionate amounts they demand, you can get HD TV and movies on demand, but you can't keep them. They're the ones with the real success, Sky is huge in the UK.