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Loading ...We haven’t had any good news on the battle for the next great disk format in a while, so here’s your fix. The HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 has sold more units than standalone players.
The Xbox 360 add-on has sold over 155,000 units, while according to a study in April, only 100,000 standalone players had been sold. I’m sure that many of you will be quick to note that there have still been more than 255,000 Blu-ray players sold. The only difference is that every HD-DVD player was bought with the sole purpose of watching movies, that is not the case for all Blu-ray players, most notably the PS3.
Also to be noted is that while Blu-ray does have the upper hand on hardware, as well as total movie sales, HD-DVD does have the upper hand in one area. According to a study, for every HD-DVD player, 4 compatible movie titles were purchased, while ratio of Blu-ray players to movies is 1:1. And so the war continues.
Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on Sells 155,000 Units in U.S. [via dailytech]
The facts are not correct. There have been approx 100,000 Blu-ray players sold (excluding PS3).
Also, because of the recent price cuts, there have been 150,000 standalone HD DVD players sold.
No one has any idea how many PS3’s have been bought by people who wanted a Blu Ray player. Considering it’s still the cheapest Blu Ray player on the market in most places it’s reasonable to assume that some people have done especially when you consider it up-scales DVDs. In the UK only 2,500 HD-DVD players have been sold and 1,500 Blu Ray players yet Casino Royale sold 10,000 Blu Ray copy’s in it’s first week on sale in the UK which proves that although most people aren’t buying the PS3 to use mainly as a Blu Ray player a lot of them are using it for that. The attach rate will obviously be smaller but as is being proved at the moment 200,000+ PS3 sales with a low attach rate = higher disk sales and higher public awareness than 2,500 HD-DVD sales with a high attach rate.
Sony are getting the players into peoples homes and getting people talking about Blu Ray. The move by blockbuster to not stock HD-DVD in most of it’s store is hugely important PR for Blu Ray. With so much uncertainty by the public about which format to choose or whether to upgrade at all its a massive bonus to have Blu Ray sitting on the shelves where customers can see it and being publicly supported by an independent, well known and trusted company llike Blockbuster.
Why are they announcing this, a better story would be
1. Microsoft, after thousands of complaints of defective xbox 360s, has announced a total recall! All exixting consoles will be replaced with our new console, the ELITE which has in it the new heat sink, HDMI and much better DVD ROMs that do not fail like the present ones.
That would be a better news announcement!