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Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray
Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray
Xbox-Scene - January 8, 2009
Submitted by deftangel (291) at 1:24PM PST on January 8, 2009
Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices division at Microsoft, responding to a question asking when and if the Xbox 360 would adopt Blu-ray technology, said that there were "a lot of reasons" why the company has no plans to do so-chiefly, low consumer demand.
"It's not a feature we get a ton of requests for," Bach said. "When you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list."
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1KultofCows posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 10:26AM PST on January 12, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@apujanata,
I think you are pointing out an important difference between DVD and Blu-ray. When DVD emerged, consumers benefited from an immediate improvement to their SDTV experience over VHS.
For consumers who don't have HDTVs, a Blu-ray player does not offer them any immediate value.
Many consumers do have HDTVs today, but many of them also have not been used to HDTV signals. I know many people who own HDTVs but don't have HDTV cable service, Direct TV, or HD OTA. However, once people see HDTV service, such as watching a sports game, they clearly see the benefit of 720p or 1080p content over SDTV. Gamers already see that today. Given the demand we've seen for HD sports, television programming, and video games, it makes sense that movies will eventually catch up as well.
Anecdotally, I do have many friends who buy Blu-ray movies. After watching Blu-ray, now some of them will only watch a movie if it's on Blu-ray. Afterall, who still wants to watch the Super Bowl on SDTV? EVERYONE prefers to watch it on HD.[ Admin ]bids
1OuterHaven posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 2:42PM PST on January 10, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@apujanata,
Once everyone get an hd tv, which will greatly increase marketshare are price drops in next 2 years, Blu-ray sales will skyrocket and the price of BR DVD will come down.[ Guru ] [ Level 17 ] [ Rank: 570 ]bids
1apujanata posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 2:36PM PST on January 10, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@deftangel,
What is the figure for Blu-Ray disc sales compared to DVD disc sales ? Any graph for their first two years ?
From the article itself, it seems that the reason for the low # of Blu-Ray disc sales is because Blu-ray are 30% higher than DVD.
One other possible reason is because Blu-Ray player have DVD upconverter feature, which will give better result for DVD disc movie when played on Blu-Ray player. AFAIK, DVD player didn't provide upconverter feature for VCD (Video CD) in DVD's first 2 years.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
2deftangel posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 10:49AM PST on January 10, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@OuterHaven,
That's a very unsophisticated comparison. If the number of Blu-Ray players is so high, why aren't Blu-Ray disc sales doing dramatically better than the first two years of DVD sales?
The decision to not put blu-ray in the 360 has been absolutely vindicated. They're sitting pretty with a machine 8m sales ahead and half the price with a whole lot of momentum despite being dramatically behind Sony last gen.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 291 ]bids
2OuterHaven posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 8:40AM PST on January 10, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@welshbloke,
U d realize Bluray has done much better than DVD ever did in its first 2 years.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/06/blu-rays-first-two-years-outpaces-dvds/
"Now after two years after the introduction of Blu-ray, it appears to be gaining steam even faster -- and during the worst economic crisis of our time. According to Richard Greenfield of Pali Capital, in two years there were about 1.2 million DVD players sold, whereas Blu-ray stand-alone player sales are estimated to be at 2.5 million -- no this doesn't include PS3s which are expected to be at 8 million."
Of course Bach will say they dont want blu-ray, it would be pointless to put it in now, they would be saying their competitor was right and they were wrong.[ Guru ] [ Level 17 ] [ Rank: 570 ]bids
1welshbloke posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 2:33PM PST on January 8, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@deftangel,
I think I would of liked a combo HD DVD/Blu Ray drive as an option. I realise that Blu Ray may not be setting the world alight but neither was HD DVD. I think the multiple option routes and the add-ons were nothing short of a master stroke which is why it would be a shame to see it ruled out completely.
Of course as per the recent spin doctor release submitted by Sony they have a different take on that. All I can say to Sony is I would not of purchased a second PS3 whereas I did purchase an Arcade as a second machine.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 60 ]bids
1deftangel posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 1:26PM PST on January 8, 2009. RE: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-Ray@deftangel,
This should put the final name in the Blu-Ray 360 coffin. If Microsoft were going to do it, CES would have been the time and place to announce it having had ample opportunity to survey the market following blu-ray's "victory".
I'm not surprised by the low consumer demand, the blu-ray market is hardly taken off.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 291 ]bids
16deftangel posted on Xbox 360 (Xbox 360) at 1:24PM PST on January 8, 2009. Article: Bach: Xbox consumers don't want Blu-RayRobbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices division at Microsoft, responding to a question asking when and if the Xbox 360 would adopt Blu-ray technology, said that there were "a lot of reasons" why the company has no plans to do so-chiefly, low consumer demand. "It's not a feature we get a ton of requests for," Bach said. "When you ask people the list of things they want to see us spending time creating in Xbox, Blu-ray is way, way down on the list."[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 291 ]
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Why would you want a combo HD-DVD drive at this point? There is no HD-DVD studio content in production at this point.
Or are you saying you would have liked MSFT to offer a combo drive back when they had an HD-DVD add on? I assume the main reason for this was that MSFT was in the HD-DVD group (HD-DVD used MSFT software and so it earned royalties to my understanding) while MSFT had no IP in Blu-Ray at all so pushing the technology was not in their interest.