do you have any idea what your talking about.

Honestly.  What's the point of totally making up crap and posting it? 

It's quite a gamble, but the payoff is huge if it works.  Not like they had much choice though.  They couldn't leave the blu-ray player out of the PS3 or it would look like they weren't confident in their own format.  Particularly to stockholders.

Also, winning the HD format war gives them new weaponry in the console war.  Particularly when games start to need a new format.  Everyone will either have to shell out to Sony, or come up with a brand new format for games.

No body knowns how much sony will make off Blu-ray so please stop assuming that they will make "billions" on it. Remember they will most likely be sharing the "profits" with other members of the association.

I think it was Sony's intention to win both "wars" at the same time. I really don't think they wanted to sacrifice their videogame supremacy to win with the HD format.

I don't think it is worth it. They have already built up a brand name that is now synonymous with gaming and that is priceless.

@man--every company makes mistakes--


For Nin it was the carts they stuck with--for Sony it will be the Blu-ray

First off - I agree we don't know what we're talking about. No one here has any figures about how much Sony stands to gain from Blu-ray dominance.

Secondly - I agree there plan was to dominate both, not either/or. This is a disaster for Sony, but winning the format war could still be a saving grace, as would PS3 coming in 2nd and achieving profittablity (lifetime).

Third - This format war stalemate is another disaster. I doubt Sony expected anything but domination by now. As long as the formats are competing both are losing as people play 'wait and see'.

Forth - Technology is changing too fast for Sony to wait this out. By the time Blu-ray 'wins' and starts to make Sony serious money, it's could become obsolete. Downloads, Video-on-Demand, newer, better Terra-byte disks are all going to threaten blu-rays lifespan. And that's what we already have, something totally new could be out in 2-3 years that changes everything like Ipods did to music.

Firth - Of the people I know who have HD TV's not a single one bought it for HD. They got it because of large screen size with none of the bulk of regular tvs. They all use dvd's on them and none of them really understand what HD-DVD/Blu-ray really are. Yes, if Blu-ray became dominate then the industry itself might phase DVD out in time, but consumers will do little to help this themselves.

In conclusion - Sony took a big gamble with the PS3 and it is not paying off. Best case scenario at this point would be to break even and call it a wash.

I don't know about other countries, But Australia is going HD (digital) on all its free to air channels, so we all need digital set top boxes to watch TV at all. . That with it will bring the desire for more HD TV's.

Therefore the HD format war will be more wide spread as the community become more aware. In Australia - Blockbuster and soon to be Video- Ezy will only rent out Blue Ray. HD DVD is pretty much non-existent and Blue Ray is getting it's name out there, through the PS3, advertising etc. There is one ad shows HD in all it's beauty, and the guy is using a Sony remote :P

Now Australia is a small region, so who gives! But generally Australia reflects Europe. BR has more foothold on Europe than HD DVD. Japan is 90% of the market, which leaves the NA. BR is winning there as well. So when it all comes together globally, BR is becoming the clear winner.

When people find out that the ps3 is more than a console, then BR will benefit as well the ps3. So in turn, BR and the PS3 will help each other and gain more foothold globally. NA is going to be the hardest region for the ps3, that is until BR wins. It's all about patience and Sony continually pushing both the ps3 and BR that will eventually achieve it's goal of being an industry leader once again.

Not really ...

The Gamecube's optical disc was based on a format proposed by Panasonic when the DVD spec was being created; this was a CAV disc and offered lower latency, and faster seek times, that DVD which would result in smaller load times but was rejected because it had a (slightly) lower capacity.

If HD-DVD failed as a format for movies and disc drives it would make an ideal gaming format because it would be difficult to copy ...

You know, maybe Sony don't give a rats ass about their losses because they have every intention of selling out at the end of the gen and leaving the gaming business. Maybe Sony are so focused on ensuring Bluray success and movies that they are just going to run the PS3 at a massive loss to gain, do price drops, get the PS3 to ensure Blu-Ray domination and after that has happened sell their gaming assets off and focus solely on movies once Bluray is firmly established and generate massive profits that way.

It wouldn't exactly be a stupid idea.

 But in Australia HD DVD is actually gaining marketshare and major retailers like JB Hi-Fi have gone from Blu-Ray exclusivity to multi-format support.