Sony Corporation (SNE) > Articles
bids
8
8
Sony Corporation (SNE)
Paramount drops Blu-Ray support
Paramount drops Blu-Ray support
GamesIndustry - August 21, 2007
Submitted by Making_Waves (706) at 8:08AM PST on August 21, 2007
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced today that they will exclusively support the HD-DVD format on a worldwide basis.
The first title to be released exclusively on HD-DVD will be Blades of Glory, followed by Transformers and Shrek the Third.
"We decided to release 'Shrek the Third' and other DreamWorks Animation titles exclusively on HD-DVD because we believe it is the best format to bring high quality home entertainment to a key segment of our audience--families," said CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Discussion - Submit a comment
bids
1Laoldar posted on Sony Corporation (SNE) at 3:22PM PST on August 21, 2007. RE: Paramount drops Blu-Ray support@Alchemy,
Does anyone really know what the sales are like for both formats? Or the costs involved in manufacturing? HD formats are probably not bringing in much profit right now (if any) due to the upfront costs of spending valuable manufacturing space/money on niche formats. Blu-Ray's higher cost of production is probably working against it here.
DVD isn't going to be replaced anytime soon and I can only imagine the amount of money being wasted (by all parties involved) in fighting a war that consumers don't care about.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 182 ]bids
2Alchemy posted on Sony Corporation (SNE) at 2:32PM PST on August 21, 2007. RE: Paramount drops Blu-Ray support@welshbloke, your points are well written, but I hate it when people say HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray is an industry vs Sony thing when it isn't. HD-DVD is the Toshiba format, not an industry accepted format by any means and no less proprietary than BD. If anything, Blu-Ray is the industry format as nearly every consumer electronics manufacturer supports Blu-Ray Disc. However, many manufacturers are increasingly supporting both formats.
Paramount's decision certainly extends the HD wars. I wonder what was the true financial incentive that got them on board, as limiting your media content to one part of the consumer base is never the way to optimize profits.[ Elite ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 408 ]bids
2welshbloke posted on Sony Corporation (SNE) at 8:49AM PST on August 21, 2007. RE: Paramount drops Blu-Ray supportI personally have not written off HD-DVD and this would seem to add some weight. How this will affect Sony and more importantly the PS3 will remain to be seen. I still think that the critical mass has yet to happen and in all honesty it will be the HD-DVD who will arrive with the cheaper consumer boxes coupled with the potentially cheaper discs that could still swing this against Sony. Dual format does not help Sony due to the cheaper manufacture costs incurred in tooling to HD-DVD.
For all those that would bemoan Paramount for extending this war, I would point to the fact that HD-DVD is the natural successor (DVD Consortium) and it is Sony's desire to get a format out the door with mass acceptance and some film houses seeing a way out of DVD royalties that made this the war it should of never been.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 60 ]bids
8Making_Waves posted on Sony Corporation (SNE) at 8:08AM PST on August 21, 2007. Article: Paramount drops Blu-Ray supportParamount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced today that they will exclusively support the HD-DVD format on a worldwide basis. The first title to be released exclusively on HD-DVD will be Blades of Glory, followed by Transformers and Shrek the Third. "We decided to release 'Shrek the Third' and other DreamWorks Animation titles exclusively on HD-DVD because we believe it is the best format to bring high quality home entertainment to a key segment of our audience--families," said CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.[ Elite ] [ Level 14 ] [ Rank: 706 ]
About Us - The simExchange is the video game stock market and the source
for video game sales forecasts.
4
I've been following the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray battle as well and here are some numbers I've found from a CNET article posted on August 15th. According to the article an estimated 3.7 million high-definition discs have been sold lifetime, including 2.2 million in Blu-ray and 1.5 million in HD DVD through the end of July 2007.
If these numbers are accurate it shows that the format wars are still in their infancy and that there is every chance that either one or both formats could still fail or possibly be relegated to a niche status like the laserdisc. I agree with you that DVD is not going away anytime soon and I believe DVD will still be the dominant format for this entire generation of video game consoles. It's just speculation on my part but I believe that neither format will truly take off until both parties come together and work on a single disc solution.