Jun Just a quick pointer to some good news coming out today regarding Blu-ray. As some of you may have read, Blockbuster announced that Blu-ray disc will be the exclusive HD movie format for 1,450 of their 1,700 stores in North America. This is a big win for the Blu-ray format, as Blockbuster noted they based their decision on consumer feedback:
“The consumers are sending us a message. I can’t ignore what I’m seeing,” said Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, to The Associated Press.
By mid-July, they will have over 170 Blu-ray movies in stock. You can read the official Blockbuster announcement here.
(Average: 3.56 out of 5)
151
+ Hylian Hero on June 19th, 2007 at 4:03 pm said:
Touchdown for Sony.
152
+ Prolo on June 19th, 2007 at 4:24 pm said:
YEAH!!! Thats one for the good guys ;)
153
+ DiscoMonkey on June 19th, 2007 at 4:48 pm said:
2 things needed:
improved Blue-Ray releases in the UK
Universals catalogue as their released have all been blockbuster titles.
Then it’s over in the UK
154
+ Scham on June 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm said:
HD-DVD go down.
155
+ ziggyd24 on June 19th, 2007 at 7:02 pm said:
Very Nice *Borat Voice*
156
+ wizardpsp on June 19th, 2007 at 8:14 pm said:
Nice Blow out Sony!! congrats*
157
+ silks on June 19th, 2007 at 8:44 pm said:
It just goes to show that when you have two movie formats that consumers are ambivalent about, they’ll choose the one that works with the player (read: PS3) that they’ve already bought. God bless Blu-Ray and its PS3 trojan horse. As if anybody was going to go out and buy a standalone HD-DVD player…come on. You just don’t need it. But if it’s already bundled into my game console? Sign me up.
158
+ MasterVictor on June 20th, 2007 at 3:21 am said:
congratulation to Sony and the blu-ray group
159
+ omegasyde on June 20th, 2007 at 3:39 am said:
Sony re-release a lesser console version with only 2 usb ports, no memory card readers, no wi-fi, 20 gig with emulation ps2 engine. Sell it at $350-425 with even more rebates for Blu ray movies. You will win sales, and the format war. Once that is done, release a psp to ps3 video program so psp games can be upscaled on a HDTV set but still played on psp. This will boost sales of both. Also import 90% of Sony Online Entertainment games to the PSN. Games like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune! will be huge hits and take some of the casual market away from the Wii. Add online gaming with this and you have a huge party hit. Too sway over more “hardcore” gamers, put more PS1 classics to the store and work a deal With squaresoft to release Final fantasy games (ps1) through downloadble applications with the mandatory High Definition touch. Once the Gun con is released with Time Crisis 4, re-release old school shooters such as: Lethal enforcers, Carn-evil, Area 51, L.A. Gunners, and various other arcade shooters perhaps even the virtua cops series. I am sure Capcom and Midway won’t mind working with these idea’s.
Good job not forgetting the PS2 users, with new games being released still for the ps2 a year after the arrival of the ps3!
160
+ hotsauce2 on June 20th, 2007 at 4:15 am said:
i think everyone knew blu-ray was going to win once the PS3 came out with it
161
+ DooM on June 20th, 2007 at 4:23 am said:
omegasyde verry bad idea.
Microsoft has now 3 xbox360′s and it sucks voor devs …What must they do..they cant make games that use the HDD cos 1 xbox360 model has no HDD. They cant make the games with only a HDMI 1.2 output cos 2 of the xbox360 dont have a HDMI 1.2 output.
Two USB ports and no cardreaders?? Common The PS3 is a complete machine like is is and like it must be, not a console like 360 a wannybee PS3……
162
+ MasterVictor on June 20th, 2007 at 4:24 am said:
hotsauce2 : I agree with you :)
163
+ Kratos on June 20th, 2007 at 5:50 am said:
This is great. Since Blu-ray movies cost the same to rent at Blockbuster, if you have a PS3 you have no reason not to rent the Blu-ray version of movies.
Go on, enjoy it! I love my high-def Blu-ray movies.
164
+ macman_canada on June 20th, 2007 at 1:37 pm said:
This is awesome!!!!!
165
+ Scarecrow on June 20th, 2007 at 3:06 pm said:
Blu-ray is the way to go. I mean seriously it’s the next step in everything media.
What I love most? the amount of content you can put in there.
166
+ markstew on June 20th, 2007 at 3:24 pm said:
HD-DVD never actually stood a chance without Disney/Sony/HP behind it.
HP is important as they are currently the number one PC seller, but i think component makers like asus and hitachi shouldn’t be underestimated either as without them the prices are never going to drop.
167
+ The_Jump_Off on June 20th, 2007 at 7:58 pm said:
I never knew the NON INTELLIGENCE of child gamers of today. Back in the day we knew what a system was all about because it was hard enough to get ONE nevermind more. I have every system known to man. Hey i grew up with Atari (thanx to my older brother).
So why do people question PS3?
Did PS not sell 100 Mill?
Did PS2 not sell 115 mill?
Did SONY not CREATE GTA?
Lets be frank, when the whole world cried “SONY don’t sell this game”, with the columbine shootings, and POOR AMERICAN PARENTAL GUIDANCE, Sony still did. All the other consoles were scared to touch it because of the heat of news that came with it. Not SONY. They sold it. So as I see it, if it wasn’t for SONY, take-two might have actually had to take-three, four, maybe even five more tries before they could have yelled ACTION on GTA.
Also PS3 brings CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY. As did the PS1, PS2, and PSP. Let’s be serious, hello!!! thats why developers love to make games for SONY.
So before everyone gets their panties in a bunch and doesn’t want to cough up $600, DONT COMPLAIN. Get a JOB. I work 9-5 and i got 2 PS3′s (one for my brother as a gift for getting me my first NES).
It’s not alot of money. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Ask the 360 owners. Most of them are on their second 360.
Also alot of WEBSITES dont talk how the Original XBOX did. It wasn’t out that long before they called it quits and made the 360. No good games. Halo wow. 1 game. 23 million XBOX sold.
Gears of War. Wow now 2 games. I dont get it? Are they making ONE GAME per NEW CONSOLE?
Get with the program.
PS3 QUALITY
360 QUANTITY
you buy your ford, while i drive my MERCEDES.
168
+ 40cal on June 20th, 2007 at 9:14 pm said:
@ the_jump_off I agree with you 100% Yet I have to say easy on the ford bashing I have owned 3 fords and am currently loving my new Ford Fivehundred also have a F-150 :)
169
+ garadante on June 21st, 2007 at 12:34 am said:
Now a major flop by Micrsoft which will get some massive bad hype: Sony will have a 1-1.5 year lead on PS3/Blu-Ray sales before Microsoft releases a stand-alone Blu-Ray drive. It will be a year or more since the war still isn’t over and a 4-5 month development and prouction stage will be required once they decide to released a Blu-Ray drive. This is will mean many 360 owners will have purchased a PS3 for the Blu-Ray drive long before Microsoft had entered the market. The Blockbuster Blu-Ray support has done much more then help the Blu-Ray format. I’ve never regreted and never will regret getting my PS3 shortly after launch.
170
+ LoganCrusher on June 21st, 2007 at 8:27 am said:
I hope this means that I’ll actually be able to pick up some Blu-Ray at the local Blockbuster without having to wait FOREVER for the online ones to be available. Blockbuster.com has a ton of Blu-Ray listed on their site, but very few are available without a very long wait.
171
+ jerrt on June 21st, 2007 at 1:35 pm said:
well i’m excited about this, i really want blue ray to win.
172
+ Antaeus on June 21st, 2007 at 4:32 pm said:
yeah, really good news
173
+ edtorious on June 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 am said:
Sony or whoever should make a move now and get Universal to switch to blu-ray! Universal got all the movies that I like to see on blu-ray!
174
+ Nathan Hale on June 22nd, 2007 at 1:55 pm said:
Congrats on defeating HD-DVD, Sony. Now please focus on defeating Wii and XBOX 360 games by more exclusive games for PS3!!! I am upset that 360 owners get exclusive episodic content for GTA 4, and exclusive on Splinter Cell: Conviction. (Thank God for getting Haze on PS3) I will feel much better when Rainbow Six Vegas is coming for PS3 on Tuesday.
175
+ araczynski on June 22nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm said:
good job, not that i have visited a blockbuster in years… but i’m sure it’ll help your bottom line.
now how about putting out a VGA cable so I can play the ps3 on my projector (vga only input). not buying a ps3 until then.
176
+ dj_outlaw on June 23rd, 2007 at 2:11 am said:
nice
177
+ zinmaster on June 23rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm said:
What is that noise, oh another nail on the HD DVD coffin.
178
+ GameBox 47 on June 23rd, 2007 at 3:02 pm said:
Congrats Sony, others thought that Blu-Ray would follow Beta Max but I knew you learned from your mistakes!!!
Off Topic: What would be really cool is a Super Smash Bros. but with Sony characters (Since we all know Nintendo is the enemy, and is sadly winning the Console race by a landslide) if you could get Sega involved think of the possiblities, Sonic killing Kratos, you know what I mean, I would love to play that on PS3, PS2, or a better idea: PSP!
BTW: Both the PSP and PS2 outsold the PS3 in May, maybe it is too pricey, even I am tempted to purchase a 360 Elite instead. Sorry Sony.
179
+ StephanKetz on June 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm said:
Fantastic news! :)
180
+ Demon on June 23rd, 2007 at 6:09 pm said:
Blue-Ray is the better format and is winning as expected.
181
+ Sythis on June 24th, 2007 at 12:05 am said:
peaced out HD DVD
182
+ starfoxACEFOX on June 24th, 2007 at 4:16 am said:
I’m with Netfick for Blue-ray, hmm now need burner… Copy movie and games it fun :P
God how far have we come from VHS, even so Beta Max was better.
Fox
183
+ monster on June 24th, 2007 at 10:06 pm said:
I hope Blue-ray will be a winner and ps3 will have more games on its own platform!
184
+ pitabun on June 25th, 2007 at 9:07 am said:
Sweet!, I hope it they get them in my store!, no more renting DVDs
185
+ ykiki on June 25th, 2007 at 12:14 pm said:
I’m looking forward to this, however on the day of the announcement I called my local Blockbuster (near Seattle) and the person who answered the phone had no idea what Blu-ray was. She was completely lost. I had to explain to her what it was and why they should have it.
After a moment, she handed my call off to her manager who, thank goodness, knows what Blu-ray is, knew about the Blockbuster announcement, and then tried to answer my questions.
He stated that to the best of his knowledge, Blockbuster didn’t mention which of their stores would start carrying Blu-ray discs and that he hasn’t been informed that his store would be carrying them. Also, he doubted that any of the stores in our area would be carrying them either since, as of now, Blu-ray seems to be a “niche market” and not yet mainstream. This was a bit disheartening to say the least.
Not to be deterred, I wrote an email to Blockbuster Corporate asking if they had a list of stores that’ll be carrying Blu-ray disks next month. Aside from the initial reply of “I’ll send this on to the appropriate department”, I haven’t heard back. That was a week ago.
I think it’s time to write again…
186
+ kenji on June 25th, 2007 at 1:40 pm said:
How many times can Sony release crap for information and think it’s sufficient? This dev interview SUCKS!
187
+ ykiki on June 25th, 2007 at 9:48 pm said:
OK, I finally heard back from Blockbuster this evening. Here’s what they said…
Thank you for your feedback regarding our decision to expand our Blu
ray
inventory in more than 1,700 corporate owned stores nationwide. Please
note that this expansion will not impact the current inventory of HD
DVD
titles in store or online. Blockbuster continues to carry HD DVD in
about
250 stores and also offers HD DVD titles online.
We are not endorsing either format and have no desire to lead customers
to
a certain format choice. Our goal is to offer customers the most
convenient access to the movies they want and that means giving them
the
best availability and the best selection possible in the formats they
prefer.
Blu ray rentals have been outpacing HD DVD rentals in our stores where
we’ve been offering the high definition format 70 to 30 percent in
2007.
Additionally, because more studios support the Blu ray product, there’s
a
wider selection of titles available on this format to offer to our
customers.
While it is still too early to say which high definition format will
become the industry standard, we will continue to closely monitor
customer
rental patterns both at our stores and online, so we can adjust our
inventory mix accordingly and ensure that Blockbuster is offering
customers the most convenient access to the movies they want, in the
format they want. That may mean in the future that we will add HD DVD
titles to additional stores.
If you have any additional concerns, you may contact the BLOCKBUSTER
Rewards Member Service Center at 1-800-406-6843 or by e-mail at
BlockbusterRewards@blockbuster.qrs1.net.
Sincerely,
Crystal
BLOCKBUSTER
I wrote a nice email back to Crystal thanking her for the response, but that my original question had to do with the location of the 1,700 stores and if the one near me will carry Blu-ray.
Hey, at least I know they’ll eventually answer my email.
188
+ ykiki on June 26th, 2007 at 12:46 am said:
Oh, and I tried the suggestion on post #73, but I still can’t get my Gravatar to show up.
Arghhhh
189
+ ykiki on June 26th, 2007 at 2:00 pm said:
Woohoo! Something happened overnight and I now have a Gravatar. Still no response from Blockbuster…yet.
190
+ haseeb on June 26th, 2007 at 4:51 pm said:
Sweet finally hd-dvd gets what it deserves. I can’t wait to see the day microsoft offers a blu-ray drive for the 360.