Xbox Head Proclaims Blu-ray Dead

[wraggster]

Microsoft has sided with Apple in a rare case of solidarity between the two companies, and declares that Blu-ray will be "passed by" as a high-definition format. In many ways, it's hard to disagree. US markets have seen the demand for legal digital downloads of PC games exceed sales of the physical object for the first time, and Apple famously refuses to put a Blu-ray drive in its Macs, as Jobs prefers to send people towards iTunes to download their entertainment. That said, there's an argument for physical media, too. A recent survey suggested that the majority of gamers prefer physical discs, and digital downloads have the secondary effect of entirely cutting out the popular market for second-hand films and games — a plus for publishers, but a big negative for the consumer.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/0...s-Blu-ray-Dead

[Hungry Horace]

whilst ISP's continue to enforce "fair usage policies" upon their users, by capping the download speeds of people who go over their limit, (a ridiculous notion in iteslf, given that these packages are sold as "unlimited") there will continue to be a demand for physical media... despite what MS & Apple might think.


Apple's failure to add a Blu-Ray drive to the MacMini is the only thing that has stopped me buying one to use as a media-center under my tv. Thank god the Ps3 has been hacked, because now i might save myself the £600!

[JLF65]

We all know the folks at MS are retarded. They've clearly never bothered to walk through the kinds of stores the average person frequents and noticed how much and fast BD has grown in the last few years. DVD has peaked, but BD is growing by leaps and bounds.

[nyder]

Remember, MS backed HD-DVD, so either they know about failing formats, or they just don't know about the market.

Most likely the latter.

[Eviltaco64]

Yes. Microsoft is right. Expect HD-DVD to be the winner of this format war.

..Oh wait.

[Stew2000]

HD-DVD? what's that then?

[Darksaviour69]

Blu-ray is in no way dead, but its doing as well in its "life to date" sales as DVD was doing at the same time in its life. Its seems most weeks this year (bar big releases) blu-ray is either on par with last year or doing worse. But I should point out that DVDs sales are also dropping compared to last year. At this point Blu-ray gets about 10%-12% of the video media disc market when it really should be closer to 20%-25% of the market to be on the same path as the DVD.

But I should point out that the recession would have been a factor and it might just take longer for it to take over the market.

Personally I think the quality jump between VHS<DVD for the mass-market was far bigger than the quality jump between DVD<Blu-ray, and people just are not as interested in Blu-ray. Also factor in PSN, Xbox live etc download film service which would take sales away from blu-ray.

[Eviltaco64]

I'm guessing that it's a bit slow now because it's right before the Christmas rush. I'm sure we'll see much better Blu-Ray disc and player sales by then.

I personally don't care for the format, though. I'm good with DVDs.

[DPyro]

I will always favour physical content vs. digital as you never know when the company selling you the digital content will cease to support it. At least with a blu-ray disc you will always be able to play it. DLC won't always be available for download, or have hard caps as to how many times and what you can download to.