I guess it was a coincidence that before the PS3 was released HD DVD was outselling blu-ray at a near 2:1 factor, with the same strong studio support, yet never won a SINGLE week a month after the PS3 was released, even after they gained support from a new studio?

You are fooling yourself my friend. Blu-ray stand alone players have sold far less than HD DVD players. Now, either there are lots of PS3 owners buying movies, or not many HD DVD owners buying movies. I honestly think you know the right answer to that.

Of course blu-ray couldn't have won without all the studio support and the companies backing it. But, if it had all those things, and no PS3, this war would be in a close tie, or HD DVD would have won.

Spoken like a true fanboy

If you actually bothered to analyze the numbers you would see that the ps3 is continueing to improve and with the gradual price reductions it will eventually hit mass market price. As far as the transition from dvd to hi def goes, once the hi def war is finalised the whole entertainment industry will get behind bluray because there is money to be made as profits from dvds have stagnated hence the main reason we are going to a new format. (besides the improvement in picture and audio quality)

The fact that bluray players can also play and upscale dvds will help further in the transition. At the end of the day it is the electronics giants and the movie industry which will force the consumers to go to a new standardised format.

As with all new technology it is expensive when it starts off but it inevitably goes mainstream. So the never ending argument that bluray will have a tough time replacing dvd's when it becomes the chosen standard is laughable. The only question should be how long it will take and not if it will take place.

 Edit- By the way this thread is about the hi def war. How did you bring the wii into this conversation??

Though I do not agree with his entire post, Happy Squirrel said the most intelligent thing in this thread. He explained the main reason people buy a console, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE THEY KNOW ALREADY HAVE IT!!!! This has been true in every past generation of gaming. It could be even more true this generation because online gaming allows actual play between friends and family.

Sony and Microsoft are close enough in sales and momentum that this reasoning may not (yet) apply to them a great deal, but the Wii is miles out in front. Finalsquall, the only way the PS3 is ever coming close to the Wii is if the Wii's lifespan ends LONG before the PS3's. And Nintendo are not Microsoft, they will sell the system as long as there is someone who wants to buy it. There is no chance the PS3 will catch the Wii before Nintendo's next console hits.

Prove it. I'm basing this off of established surveys, and the fact that the PS3 is rarely cited as a reason for companies switching to blu-ray. Where's your proof otherwise, aside from insisting I have to be crazy? 

At best, the PS3 prevented HD-DVD from winning. Yet you cannot allow it to be anything less than the reason blu-ray got here, because you want everyone to believe that this was a foregone conclusion, as though economics is actually predictable. If it was, neither company would have done this the way they did.

You just guessed, and there are no points for guessing. You really don't seem to want to admit that.

I guessed the Wiimote would help the Wii sell better, but I'm not going to lie I knew it would be the runaway success that it is.

No, because:

1) Most people don't have HDTVs.

2) Half of PS3 owners don't even know that their system can play Blu-Ray movies, and likely even less care.

3) Most people don't care about the next-gen movie format wars, or don't want to upgrade their entire movie collection (again).

 4) DVD sales outsell all HD formats by several orders of magnitude.

5) Most people buy game consoles to play games, not to watch movies.

You're going to get called a delusional fanboy. 

LordTheNightKnight,

BR killed the HD DVD BECAUSE of the PS3
Without the PS3, HD DVD would have win : more features, cheaper, bigger userbase ...

and ur sentence :
""It's been a big lie that HD-DVD prevented blu-ray from doind that""
is senseless : sure HD has still not reached mass market but the format war (HD DVD/BR) was a big brake for early adopters : BR and HD DVD were eachothers killing themselves !

"It's been a big lie that HD-DVD prevented blu-ray from doind that"

That' HD-DVD prevented high definition movie growth. You can't prove me wrong by getting my words out of context.

You have to proveme wrong with EVIDENCE. Any slipup in my words ONLY prove I stated my point incorrectly, NOT that the point in itself is wrong.

""You just guessed, and there are no points for guessing. You really don't seem to want to admit that.""

==> u were guessing too,
u just have guessed wrong this time

""Prove it. I'm basing this off of established surveys, and the fact that the PS3 is rarely cited as a reason for companies switching to blu-ray. Where's your proof otherwise, aside from insisting I have to be crazy? ""

==> LOL, surveys ?
where are the links ?

and more important, if only 50% of the PS3 owners use the PS3 as a BR, u can add +5M to the BR player userbase. If we consider the BR player userbase is something like 1M WW, it is a 500% boost !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!