James Delahunty
6 Feb 2007 8:59
We reported a few days ago that figures from Nielsen VideoScan showed that Blu-Ray began to close its gap on HD DVD in January, outselling the format by a ratio of up to 3 to 1. Sony has been quick to use these figures along with its own research to declare the Blu-ray is winning the format war over HD DVD. As you might have guessed, Sony research also includes the PlayStation 3 (PS3).
Sony took an online survey that 100,000 PS3 owners took part in. The company claims that 90% of respondents had watched a Blu-ray movie with their PS3 already, and 80% planned to buy more Blu-ray releases. The Blu-ray camp has not been shy about admitting that PS3 plays a major role (if not the biggest) in Blu-ray's possible success over HD DVD.
The next-generation DVD format war has been so intertwined with the console war that experts believe they will decide the outcome of each other. The PS3 has an internal Blu-ray drive and Microsoft released an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, selling 92,000 units before the end of 2006.
The PS3 will boost up the number of Blu-ray players in homes, but each Xbox 360 add-on drive sold has "definitely" been bought to play HD DVD movies - you get a Blu-ray player with a PS3 whether you are interested or not. Those on the HD DVD side will tell you that Sony's survey is just a "survey" and nothing solid or official and that VideoScan's ratings can be explained by the lack of new HD DVD titles.
However, those on the Blu-ray side can rest assured that the console will continue to sell, eventually leaving millions of homes with functional Blu-ray players and no add-ons necessary.
Source:
GamesIndustry.biz