Bruce wrote:

> The business model for console games in this generation is not a good one. Games are very expensive to
> develop but most make a loss, it is only the occasional hits that keep the industry going.

Not relevant. ALL MEDIA MARKETS OPERATE THIS WAY -- film, radio, television, you name it. Most media works fail to recoup their costs (not that this means they're bad works of art - sometimes they can be quite wonderful, but audiences don't understand them or can't access them). A few hit the lottery and subsidize everyone else. It's the same with the NFL, the NBA, or, for that matter, national governments (rich parts of the country help out poorer parts of the country). It's a system called "democracy" -- the greatest good for the greatest number, and it actually works pretty well.

A more interesting question: investors are, by nature, attracted to the highest rate of return. But why should greedhead investors control a medium as powerful, rich and amazing as videogames? What about us, the fans who make or break franchises? Or are we just sheep to be sheared, so as to facilitate some rich rentier's Swiss chalet?

I wounder when sonyhaters will stop waiting for Playstation 3 death ... in the end of the ten years life cycle?

what i find funniest is hd-dvd disks somehow beat out blue ray disk sales per customer .... though i feel that must be due to clearance

http://hothardware.com/News/Bluray-Adoption-Still-Sluggish-HDTV-Sales-Up/

Sunday, June 21, 2009 - by Shawn Oliver 

It's a tough time for Blu-ray to be really hitting its stride. Many consumers are still wary due to the battle with HD-DVD, 

and frankly, many are still content with DVD. In too many cases, upscaled DVD looks "good enough" for consumers, 

and only those with oodles of disposable income are willing to fork out for Blu-ray. Blu-ray player prices are still 

relatively high, and the actual movies are way expensive compared to the same titles on DVD. Plus, the install base of 

DVD is so high, it's tough for many to start building another movie library on another format.

Those reasons and more are what is keeping the interest in Blu-ray rather low according to a new study by Harris 

Interactive. Currently, 11% of Americans own an HD-DVD player, while just 7% own a Blu-ray player. Crazy, right? 

More Americans own HD-DVD right now than the "winning" format, Blu-ray. To be totally honest, we aren't so shocked 

by the news. When HD-DVD was around, it was far and away the "budget" format for high-def. The players were 

cheaper, the films were cheaper. In other words, it was a format more ready to thrive in a down economy. Blu-ray was 

always viewed as a niche format for those absorbed in A/V, not the common man's format. 

Today, BD is still fighting that stereotype, but the prices aren't helping it win many folks over. Of course, many folks own 

a Blu-ray player in that their PS3 will play them, but people are still not jumping to join the BD bandwagon. The lag in 

adoption can't totally be blamed on the economy, though. During this same time period, HDTV ownership is up. In the 

survey, nearly half of respondents stated that they own an HDTV, which goes to show that HDTV ownership isn't 

necessarily a prerequisite for Blu-ray adoption. With HDTV stations becoming more and more the norm, many folks are 

spending their TV watching time on high-def programs, not Blu-ray. Compared to May of 2008, some 12% more people 

own HDTVs. 

The survey also found that on average, consumers purchased approximately 6 Standard Format DVD’s in the last six 

months compared with 1 in HD format (HD-DVD .7 vs. Blu-ray .5). Take a look at these PS3-specific findings below to 

put an even clearer spin on things:

Source:  Harris Interactive 

When Blu-ray player or PS3 owners are asked specifically about standard versus Blu-ray format 

purchases, the results suggest a mixed bag of behaviors with some price sensitivity indicated: 

Only one quarter plan to switch to Blu-ray completely (25%), while one third of Blu-ray or PS3 

owners claim that most of their movie purchases are now on Blu-ray format (32%); 

Two in five are waiting for Blu-ray format prices to come down before they buy more (43%) – and 

a quarter buy Blu-ray regardless of price (25%); and, 

Only 1 in 5 appear to be replacing or duplicating their existing standard format DVD library with 

Blu-ray format (21%), and over a third say they only buy movies on Blu-ray format that they 

currently do not own on standard definition (37%). 

All told, we still see Blu-ray adoption a long ways from taking off. The economy isn't helping matters, and Blu-ray just 

doesn't provide a good enough incentive to convince users to switch from DVD. We'll ask you: have you switched to 

Blu-ray? Are you holding off? Do you think DVD is "good enough?" 

On a side note, I was thinking that Activision-Blizzard's threat about the PS3 may have less to do with the PS3 as it does with the whole Playstation "Brand" of consoles ... When you add up all of the software sold for the PSP, PS2 and PS3 this year the total represents less than 1/3 of all software sold on home consoles and portables; and when you look at it from Activision-Blizzard's perspective (a company with massive PC revenues) the Playstation "Family" of consoles probably represents less than 20% of all revenue.

Knowing that the decline in software sales for the PS2 can't be slowed down or stopped, and the PSP isn't in a much better position, about the only platform Sony can do anything to improve software sales long term on is the PS3. With how quickly software sales are disapearing from the PS2, about the only way Sony can maintain their "importance" with publishers is by increasing their PS3 software sales at a rate which recovers this revenue for the publishers.

Geesh, why are you supporting the ridiculous "4M+" statement? It's blatantly false for all but the most expensive exclusive games imaginable.

This guy is still around?

Didn't he say the Wii would be dead by this time next year due to not actually using any data... then when i and others called him on it... by using data poorly.

So he's finally given up on that and is now just talking abut stuff that's been in the media for a while and exagerrating it eh?

Better to ignore the ex-codemasters guy.

If Activision didn't release sucky games then we wouldn't know which games were cool. And then the cool games would suck because then there wouldn't be any sucky games to compare them to that suck worse.

If you need X sales to turn a profit and a game cost Y to produce and the difference between the two is either a loss or a small profit you would be justified in considering redeploying your resource.

I do not know the figures but the general feeling is bar a very small bunch of titles Activision have probably not made much money from supporting the PS3.

Whether this results in a price cut early or a reduction in royalties is probably here not there but for the threat to work it has to appear real. I think most people have choosen to feel that it is not real but I am not so certain.

Not really on topic and bit left field., was this posted by mistake??

 That said I purchased my HD DVD player after the format flopped because it was the cheapest upscaler around at the time and the movies were like almost free. Managed to get a pretty good collection. I do miss that I cannot continue my collection at times but this is easily put to rest when I remind myself of the HD equivalent cost and how well upscaling works in general.

I apologies i know it was off topic but i was responding to some one else in this thread, one who seemed to think blue ray was a saving grace