BluRay 'Win' Isn't Helping PS3 Sales

[Sean Malone]

The Washington Times (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/12/sabataging-the-sony-playstation-three/) and CNN Money (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/siliconalley/personal-tech/2008_12_sonys_ps3_a_sinking_ship_sales_plummet_sne .html) have both posted articles about slagging PS3 sales;



"Alone among the three major videogame consoles, sales of the PS3 are down about 19% from November 2007, according to the latest stats from the NPD Group. Sony was only able to sell 378,000 PS3s this November, compared to 466,000 last year.

And the problem for Sony isn't the recession, it's the PS3. Microsoft (MSFT) put up respectable numbers with its Xbox 360, selling 836,000 units vs 777,000 in November 2007. And Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii continues to dominate the market, more than doubling sales from 981,000 to 2.04 million."

Poor, poor sony.

[KLang]

600,000 copies of The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray were sold this past Tuesday. :p

[Tim]

The price for the other systems dropped while PS3 stayed high. Not very surprising.

[SurfaceUnits]

DVD sales plummet, last chance for Blu-ray this Christmas

New York (NY) – Hollywood studios released recent movie sales data that indicate that DVD sales have dropped in 2008 again. The decline is estimated at about 4%, which may not sound much, but is significant when we consider the fact that DVD sales make up 70% of Hollywood movie revenue. Studios hope to reverse the trend with releases such as "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight" – and hope that Blu-ray will finally become mainstream – or disappear.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40333/113/

[nrc]

I wonder if DVD sales drop enough if they'll return to the rental model that they followed for so long with VHS. New releases $95+ with sell through pricing coming only once the movies hit cable.

[Insomniac]

Wow. To claim it isn't because of the recession? Without a break down on the Xbox units sold, price is almost certainly a factor.

I bought Wall-E and Dark Knight as X-Mas presents. I did my part. ;)

I don't see the rental model coming back with so many more options now. Red Box is $1/night. Netflix is ~$20/mo. Recouping $100 per title isn't as easy when you could get $3 (plus late and rewind fees).

[KLang]

I sure don't buy movies like I used to. I can record them in HD off the satellite and archive to an external hard drive and watch whenever I choose. I'll still buy a few in Blu-Ray going forward but nothing like before.

[Insomniac]

DVD sales plummet, last chance for Blu-ray this Christmas

New York (NY) – Hollywood studios released recent movie sales data that indicate that DVD sales have dropped in 2008 again. The decline is estimated at about 4%, which may not sound much, but is significant when we consider the fact that DVD sales make up 70% of Hollywood movie revenue. Studios hope to reverse the trend with releases such as "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight" – and hope that Blu-ray will finally become mainstream – or disappear.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40333/113/

The players are not cheap enough. I doubt this is make or break. Until BR players are less than $100 MSRP, it isn't mature enough to consider as the DVD replacement. HDTV adoption isn't even at 50% yet. You're going to have people buy a BR player and hook it up with composite cables right now. They aren't going to spend $200+. BR will replace DVD at some point, but it's at least 1 year away from sub-$100. They know what they're doing. They aren't going to a loss model on players. They'll do a slow, dual release transition.

[Insomniac]

I sure don't buy movies like I used to. I can record them in HD off the satellite and archive to an external hard drive and watch whenever I choose. I'll still buy a few in Blu-Ray going forward but nothing like before.

Me either. And I regret buying all that I did, but fortunately the most were bought when deals were out of control. My entire collection probably averages $7/movie. And now with HD, I'd rather watch on TV than rent a DVD. (Plus, it just seems like there is more good series on TV these days.)

[SurfaceUnits]

DISH announced its OTA HD DVR. It has an ethernet port and other goodies

http://www.dishnetwork.com/dtvpal/dvr.shtml

[dando]

I would never have expected BR to help boost PS3 sales much.

-Kevin

[nrc]

I sure don't buy movies like I used to. I can record them in HD off the satellite and archive to an external hard drive and watch whenever I choose. I'll still buy a few in Blu-Ray going forward but nothing like before.

Same here. I just find them when they're on a premium channel in HD (no commercials, no butchered versions, no stretch-o-vision) and then put them away on our media drive for the time when we're ready to watch.

[nissan gtp]

blue-ray disks cost too much

[oddlycalm]

Sony is seriously out of step on price on the PS3 and is suffering accordingly. The competition is nearly $200 less and has better titles.

If DVD's didn't upconvert so well BD's would sell better, but they do. We certainly aren't replacing any DVD titles with a BD version. If we hadn't needed a new DVD player we may have skipped BD entirely. The other issue for us is that after years of hard drive playback playing disks is clunky and slow.

The next killer app seems to be an easy to use NAS storage server with HDMI out that will handle HDTV, mp3, and computer backup storage. If a good one exists I'd love to hear about it because I've totally missed it. The HP EX470 looked promising with the ability to hold 4x1T drives in clever drawers, but their decision to run it on Windows made it exclusionary and they drove a stake through it's heart with zero power management software, inadequate memory and a 40mm cooling fan that screams at a level that might be acceptable for a 1U rack unit in a server room but is totally unacceptable for a product designed for home use. Still looking...

oc

[Insomniac]

Sony is seriously out of step on price on the PS3 and is suffering accordingly. The competition is nearly $200 less and has better titles.

If DVD's didn't upconvert so well BD's would sell better, but they do. We certainly aren't replacing any DVD titles with a BD version. If we hadn't needed a new DVD player we may have skipped BD entirely. The other issue for us is that after years of hard drive playback playing disks is clunky and slow.

The next killer app seems to be an easy to use NAS storage server with HDMI out that will handle HDTV, mp3, and computer backup storage. If a good one exists I'd love to hear about it because I've totally missed it. The HP EX470 looked promising with the ability to hold 4x1T drives in clever drawers, but their decision to run it on Windows made it exclusionary and they drove a stake through it's heart with zero power management software, inadequate memory and a 40mm cooling fan that screams at a level that might be acceptable for a 1U rack unit in a server room but is totally unacceptable for a product designed for home use. Still looking...

oc

You could couple a NAS with the popcorn hour.