Is it a possibility neither will win that both will fizzle out in the market due to lack of interest?

(Sigh... Yet another the PS3 will be okay thread)

I find it funny that Playstation fanboys can say that an early lead in the format war means it is utterly impossible for HD DVD to ever catch up to blueray but an early lead for the Wii and 360 in the console war means absolutely nothing.

How long before they stop making regular DVDs of movies? Until then I won't shell out money for a new player... blue ray or hd dvd.

Also, why is this is the sony discussions thread? Shouldn't this be in sales discussion?

Exactly, unless this thread is about trying to vicariously act like Blu-Ray's success = The PS3's success, it really doesn't belong in a Video game forum.

@ Markus

There's are differences if you want to make this comparison. Top High definition movies now are quite abundant, unlike PS3 games, movies won't suddenly start to make use of the PS3's SPUs and make them stand out in comparison to the competition.

- If we look at the Blu-Ray line-up many more titles which sold well on DVD (or did well at the cinemas) will be Blu-Ray exclusives, much more so than is the case the other way around.

- The major PS3 blockbusters we already know to be under development are yet to be released. And it's not strange that these heavy hitters are being released later on as the games development of major blockbusters often span multiple years of development.

So, IMO there's little to no comparison to be made.

No like how the mp3 killed the CD!!!  Or like how we don't buy dics or CD's anymore, we just E-mail it to ourselves.  Having discs that can scratch, take up space and cost extra money is a thing of the past.  

I think Blu-Ray has the potential to kill HD-DVD as a viable movie format, just like Sony's 3.5 inch diskettes replaced 5 1/4 inch floppies eventually or CDs virtually pushed Philips' music cassettes out of the market. But I think Blu-Ray will not kill DVD as a format for many many years to come.

I do wonder why everyone seems to speak exclusively about Sony when talking about Blu-Ray disc as if they are the only involved party, sure they may have probably the best units available on the market today, but Sony is just one of many consumers electronics companies focussing on Blu-Ray right now (unlike HD-DVD which is supported by only Microsoft through their XBox 360 console and Toshiba). Consumer electronics companies pushing for Blu-Ray include Hitachi, LG, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Sharp, Philips, Samsung and Panasonic!

If Universal is the only big studio that supports HD-DVD now, then blu-ray is already pushing the HD DVD out of business. I just checked the price for blu ray movies again this morning....and the average price has came down about $1.40 in just a month and a half. So, Sony is about to see some better demand for their movies, and will see even more once higher levels of production force prices down to be $5 or $7 more than regular DVD's.... and they are only about $10 more now

I know that it isn't the exact same situation, that's a given. But they are comparable enough that I can point out the facts that I did.

 You say that they can't be compared because high definition movies exist in abundance? So do high definition games, they are just all for the Xbox360. The article states higher sale rates for blue ray movies, and Xbox360 games are selling better than PS3 games.

 And while most people are clinging to good old regular DVD's, the PS2 and Wii are dominating the sales charts every month.

 I'd say there is a lot to compare there...

@ Markus

That's kind of the point I was trying to make, people know what to expect from XBox 360 games. The initial line-up of XBox 360 did not quite push the hardware that much, now people know what they can expect from the XBox 360. I think the retirement of the XBox also helped to kickstart Xbox 360 sales, the PS2 is still going pretty strong globally and can IMO currently be looked at as Sony's entry product into Playstation gaming.

But with regard to PS3 gaming, things are only just starting to get interesting. Sure Resistance, Motorstorm and Oblivion are eye-catching games but Oblivion was already released quite a bit before the PS3 version hit the market.

With regard to HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray as a movie format, they regard movies people already have seen before on DVD or in the cinemas, and so we have a good understanding which movies are likely to perform better than others.