LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp. on Thursday said it remained on track to roll out its PlayStation 3 game console by spring 2006 despite industry speculation that the scheduled launch could face delays. (...)Interesting stuff here. Sony seems very eager to reassure investors that everything is on track. So much so, perhaps, that we may suspect the opposite.
A spokesman for Sony, the No. 1 provider of game consoles, said it was still targeting a spring 2006 launch for the PS3, which is key to maintaining its lead in the game console market against Microsoft Corp., which recently launched its competing Xbox 360 console.
Larry Probst, chief executive of the No. 1 video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc., said last week that he believed Sony's console would not be available until fall 2006.
The PS3 also is central to Sony's push of Blu-ray, its next-generation DVD technology, against a rival DVD format known as HD DVD, created by a Toshiba Corp-led group. (...)
Failure to reach a unified front has paved the way for a standards war between Blu-ray and HD DVD, reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax clash decades ago, which confused buyers and turned into an expensive loss for many companies.
Many industry insiders have expected that splashy launch of Sony's PS3 console to give Blu-ray an edge and deliver a huge base of players for Hollywood studios looking to sell compatible DVDs.
A spokeswoman for the Blu-ray consortium said the group was still on track for a spring 2006 launch, indicating other manufacturers would be rolling out Blu-ray players at that time. "When Blu-ray launches next spring, there will be both hardware and content," she said.
Rival HD DVD, which is supported by Microsoft and Toshiba, is planning to roll out hardware and software in the spring 2006. Any delay in the launch of PS3 would be seen as a plus for HD DVD.
"The PS3 was touted as being the first high volume Blu-ray player. You want to have an installed base of players if you put out the movies," said Richard Doherty, analyst with Envisioneering, an industry research firm.
Said Mark Knox, a spokesman for the HD DVD camp: "It's not going to be much of a battle until both sides are actually on the field and we have a sneaking suspicion that that won't be for quite a while."
Source: Reuters
Thanks to: Joystiq
EDIT The so-called ´Father of the DVD´, Warren Lieberfarb, has made some interesting comments regarding the Blu Ray / HD-DVD format war. The former president of Warner Home Video is credited with masterminding the unified DVD format. In a recent speech at the European Video Perspectives conference he had some pretty strong words about Sony. Ars Technica writes:
Lieberfarb launched right into Blu-Ray versus HD DVD, but his comments were somewhat surprising. He stated that Hollywood had been "duped" into blindly following a battle between game consoles instead of making a decision based on their best interests. Sony, of course, is pushing Blu-Ray hard by including a BD-ROM drive in the Playstation 3, due some time next year. Microsoft, while not initially including a HD DVD drive in the XBox 360, is a strong promoter of the HD DVD standard and may in the future utilize it in their game console.As unlikely as it might now seem, if there were such surprises they could indeed break Sony´s back.
The speech then focused on Sony, who Lieberfarb accused of acting in a less than savory manner:If you ever read "The Art of War," you will see all of Sony's moves, including taking all its enemies in the same tent and then leaving them empty-handed, are things that they have done historically. They did the same thing to Matsushita and Betamax, they did the same thing to Matsushita on compact disc, they did the same thing to Matsushita on the digital video camcorder.Lieberfarb (...) is currently working as a consultant for Microsoft and Toshiba. Speaking frankly on the apparent tilt in favor of Blu-Ray, he admitted: "It looks like we lost, because there are six studios supporting Blu-Ray and only three supporting HD-DVD. But you know, there's always surprises."
Source: Ars Technica
Thanks to: Gizmodo
21 comments:
Interesting.
They might end up fighting each other to the death and Nintendo may very well win!
But I digress. If Sony's Blu-Ray investment fails, they will lose much money, considering how much it costs...
Absolutely. I am highly sceptical of both formats. As many observers have pointed out, most people are still in the process of changing from VHS to DVD. What would they need a new format for? Admittedly, owners of HD televisions might want to take advantage of a ideo format that is capable of HD resolutions. But market penetration is still very low worldwide - even in the US it will not be the standard for years to come (2008 is the earliest estimate I have seen). And even given the demand for such a new format, Blu Ray will cost more than HD-DVD. Sure, there is the studio support tipping the balance in favour of Blu Ray. But remember Laser Discs? Remember Betamax and Video 2000? Remember Atari Lynx and Sega game Gear? All superior products that failed because of a lower priced competitor.
DVD Sales have peeked and the market is not in the midst of a VHS to DVD transition. We had it three years ago. DVD's on sale @ Walmart for less than $5.00 is a big indicator of this. When was the last time you saw an ad for a movie on a VHS cassette?
The products mentioned, did not fail simply becuase of a lower priced competitor - it was a lack of industry support and desirable content. If a product having lower priced competition means it will ultimatley fail, then why is the Gamecube third in this generation, behind two products that cost 50% more?
Hi Anonymous. Some good points there. of course, a lower-priced competitor will not necessarily win. Economics is never that easy (no science is, unfortunately). What I meant to illustrate is that the consumers will not always go for the best quality at any price. In fact, I believe those examples show that pricing can give you an edge over quality, not the other way round.
About the transition from VHS to DVD: Of course we are not in the middle of that transition anymore. I never said that. But while the market has moved on (you are totally right about there being virtually no VHS tapes around in stores anymore), the consumers haven´t. At least not totally. I myself have still a large VHS library that I haven´t updated to DVD yet and I consider myself somewhat of a tech freak. Also, consider the issue of the recordable medium. here, the VHS tape may still be the weapon of choice in most markets. Older generations (like our parents, for example) may have adapted to watching DVDs. But do they record onto it yet? Since when are DVD burners standard in PCs? Who actually uses hard-disc recorders these days? I am sure you will find that outside of the younger demographic essential to videogames there are millions of people still using VHS, who are still in the process of updating to DVD, be it as a playback or recording medium. All these people are certainly not ready for another format. Nor would they want one.
you will say WOW
What seemed to be a faker has just proved himself to be real.
check here for a revolution
http://nintendo-revolution-nside.blogspot.com/
Oh, well. Welcome back, Gemini. Read the comments in your latest post. I like the "50 percent of my blog is bull crap and the other 5o percent is real." quote. What´s the 50 precent that´s real? The dates? The HTML header? The design template? *lol*
Well, we´ll find about those 50%. Just answer my question.
Dude, I quote - "As many observers have pointed out, most people are still in the process of changing from VHS to DVD."
If that's not saying we are still in the process of changing over from VHS to DVD, then I'm going to have some serious words with my English teachers of many a year ago.
Consumers HAVE moved on from blank VHS tapes. How many VCR's are available in Circuit City and Best Buy versus thier offerings of hard disk recorders and DVD Recorders? How many choices or blank tape do you have over blank DVD-R discs? Hard disk recorders ARE mainstream in the US and Japan. Cable & Satellite companies have made sure of this with their inexpensive DVR and Tivo offerings.
And don't take this as a personal swipe, but if you really consider yourself a 'techy', and your happy to watch the 240 lines of poorly saturated resolution and analogue sound over the DVD alternative that offers at least four times the resolution and a far higher audio bandwidth of the same or a lesser price - then your 'techiness' would not be in the consumer electronics market. I know I sold my 400 VHS tapes to a buddy of mine over 5 years ago and he hasn't watched one of them since he got himself a DVD player.
PC's with DVD burners? So what's your point? You can't compare the PC market's lack of success with DVD-R archiving to VHS's ability to play the latest Disney offering. In fact, this actually adds fuel to the HD-DVD / Blu-Ray fire. If DVD-R is such a flop on PCs, then what does it matter that Intel & Microsoft have backed HD-DVD? As you have told us with DVD-R and PCs, who cares and who uses it? Thus it becomes an irrelevant and mute point in the format war.
@Anonymous: Just for the record (and your English teacher): I believe we are still in the process of the transition from VHS to DVD. I never said we are in the midst of it. Obviously the transition is almost complete. But note the word almost. Here´s why:
I do consider myself as somewhat of a techie - but I am not made of gold, so I simply couldn´t update my one-hundred plus VHS collection to DVD overnight. In fact, most people will not have gotten rid of all their VHS tapes yet. Especially when you consider recording.
Best proof is this: How do your parents record television programmes? How does your aunt or uncle do that? I very much doubt the majority of their generation has DVD recorders. With DVDs being as cheap as they are, there is less of a need to record from tv. But for that purpose, a lot of people have kept their VHS players. And DVD recorders mainstream in the US? Maybe, but I wouldn´t be sure if you don´t have concrete figures. And considering other markets, DVD revorders are far from mainstream. DVD players are still selling better than recorders, at least in Europe. Here is a quote from the Recordable DVD Council, www.rdvdc.org:
"´DVD Recorder market in Western Europe will surpass DVD Player market in 2007´ according to Mr. David Millar, Principle Consultant of Understanding and Solution, London."
That reaffirms my point of view: DVD is still a mainstream playback medium, but not yet accepted as the mainstream recording medium.
By the way: If you are so keen on the maximum amount of lines on your tv signal... do you live in the States? Receiving that lousy NTSC standard? You can´t have been THAT much of a connoisseur until you got your HD set (if you have one now).
Concerning Gemini: I asked him to verify his identity again by asking his friends developing for Nintendo which hotel guests are booked into and again he faltered. this is what he replied:
I never answered that same question when you first asked me. Because i simply don't know the answer, i came out and have told you that my blog is 50 percent fake and 50 percent and that is the truth. I cannot ask the developers i know about which hotel, as they will simply not tell me. They don't want non insiders to know that sort of information. I know these developers, but i am not a nintendo insider. But I am very close to the games industry and just know people, you could say i am a bit like you. except i don't do journalism, i work with many different coporations, sorry can't name them. (...)
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Here´s my reply:
Okay, you have missed this opportunity. "They don't want non insiders to know that sort of information." That´s a ridiculous statement. Why would they want to keep that a secret? It´s not a secret - it´s just peripheral info that only a Nintendo developer would know. It just can´t be found on the net. I, however, could get this information within a few days. I have direct access to Nintendo. If you also did, you would answer the question. Instead, you are making whimsical excuses... so you simply have no such access.
I mean, you are trying to tell us that you are in contact with Nintendo developers who are willing to share some basic info on the Rev - but won´t name the hotel Nintendo booked them into? Nice try, mate. You´re one big whooping fake.
I agree, nice try, Gemini.
Well, that was an easy one to crack.
Sorry, I´m a bit dense. Please explain.
@Retroelectro: You took the words out of my mouth. I couldn´t have said it better. By the way, do you know what kind of sense Anonymous claimed to have made out of Gemini´s cryptic comment? It doesn´t seem so obvious to me. Maybe Gemini logged on anonymously to generate a bit of hype? That was product_number_18´s idea anyway.
There are two anonymouses in the last few replies (me being the second and third ones). It was 'an easy one to crack' as in he failed to create a good story and fool us, essentially blowing any cover he had.
Oh, I see. I thought you meant to have deciphered something from that seemingly cryptic BS he posted...
The remaining secret-what is it all about?I think it might not be too hard to guess.If it was related to the controller the only thing that comes to mind as a logical or plausible addition would be the rumour which made the rounds about it being somehow resistant to being tilted.If they got something else up their sleeves related to the controller then I really don't have a clue what it could be.Any ideas?And since they showed the functions of it,why would they hold back any information if the secret really was related to the controller?I read somewhere that the remaining secret could be the ability to hide behind real world objects,a rumour that derived from the TGS trailer where a person hides behind an armchair in a game which seemed to mirror a fps.This sounds a little fanciful to me and you ought to take it with a grain of salt.Irrespective,the recent GamesIndustry.biz article quotes a developer who seems to be partly initiated about Nintendo Revolution.He makes a very interesting comment about the GPU which leads me to believe that the remaining secret should have something to do with it."A bit of a black box" and "..nobody's seen the hardware yet" are the lines that really caught my attention and made me think about it.Does anybody commemorate Outcast for PC?It was released in 1999 and used a different rendering method called Volumetric Pixels or short voxels rather than polygons,allowing for a larger,busier world to be rendered without top hardware!The use of a different rendering technique would match the statements of the developer about the GPU,the general philosophy of Nintendo and the implausibility of the secret being related to the controller quite to the point if you ask me.
Fala - I guess we are on different planets.
My DVD collection is pushing 400 and it didn't happen overnight.
I've have owned a 56" HDTV since June 2001.
My Tweaked Panasonic DVD player can actually play NTSC, PAL or SECAM. I don't notice much difference, if any, between them when watching DVDs.
My parents (who live in the UK) actually have 2 x Sky+ DVRs.
I guess we're still in the midst of transferring from Horse & Cart to Automobile too then, huh, being that people all over the world still use that method of transportation? (Even in the US -gotta luv those Amish...)
Anywhooo. I'm done here. Just another one of those bloggs where everyone is right and everyone else is wrong.
Yawn.
hey anonymous (two posts above), tilt resistance is just plain PATHETIC. Geez! Is that all you can think about? Open up your imagination! And hiding behing furniture is also pretty fucking LAME, and plus it cant be used everywhere. Do you really see Iwata coming in the kodak center, wobbling the controller around in his hand saying: you cant see it right now, but the BIG secret weve been holding for a year is the fact that I'm having trouble tilting my hand? L.O.L. forget about it, and forget about stereoscopic vision (it cant be done on all tv sets), forget about visors (too expensive and too complicated for non gamers to approach it). Think cheaper, simple, INGENIOUS, unexpected, FUN, applicable (whats the use of hiding behind furniture in a game like metroid??? Youre in fucking space, for christs sake
). You guys watch too many movies and you lack the goddam imagination.
What the hell does
SOON
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VV
EVER
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VV
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mean I'm sorry but this just proves Gemini's fake
it seems, to me, to be a type of poetry (based on the number of syllables and the way it's arranged - haiku?). Check out the BrokenSaints website for some examples.
Search engines take too much time to index the newest info on electronics catalog
So that's why i come to blogs but many of them are not really updated or focused on their primary topic
How come ?
Nic1141
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