The new "war" to circulate around both gaming and home theatre enthusiast's as of late has been the competition between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is, and deservedly so, the outright favourite to come out on top in the high stakes. That's mainly because of its automatic inclusion into the Playstation 3, probably the most impressive and spectacular home theatre entertainment system to ever grace the planet. Apparently, the success of the Blu-Ray camp can be put onto the back of the sales of the Playstation 3 in Europe and America.
However, recent times suggest that HD-DVD is "back" on the way up. I say "back" because in the early days it was often conceived that it would come out on top over the Sony pushed format, especially considering how poorly UMD had done and how Sony's other attempt to be the main format failed with Beta. That's not to say that HD-DVD was a shoe-in, especially considering Sony's success at making Playstation a household name and making a relatively successful handheld in the PSP to stop Nintendo from dominating that area of the gaming market. So far, just by walking into your local JB Hi-Fi or Blockbuster, you can notice that Blu-Ray has the most presence in the Australian market. Tips out of Japan are suggesting that it also has a lot more shelf-space then the Toshiba-made HD-DVD. However, especially in Australia, HD-DVD seems to have taken off.
Firstly, you had the release of the XBOX 360 HD-DVD add-on drive. That drive has been widely considered as the cheapest and more effective HD-DVD player available, especially down-under.
Secondly, after a rather shameful entrance into the Australian market, you have the introduction of the format into JB Hi-Fi, possible the most influential entertainment retailer in the country. From what was once an exclusive Blu-Ray market has now suddenly become a two-horse race out of two horses.
Thirdly, you have amazing HD-DVD exclusives in the States, such as The Matrix Trilogy, Heroes Season 1 and Transformers. Add on the interactive HD-DVD content with Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, and you have a bright future for the format.
But after saying all of that, the Blu-Ray camp has their own counter attacks. Firstly, the Playstation 3 plays Blu-Ray movies out of the box, secondly JB Hi-Fi stacks more, and always will stack more, Blu-Ray movies then HD-DVD movies in what seems like a 2:1 ratio, and thirdly it also has its own set of great exclusives, like the Spiderman Trilogy and Smallville as well as a lot more Sony Studio exclusives.
But still, something is pushing HD-DVD into the right direction. You also have the sudden rise in HD-DVD players' sales numbers.
Something that can't be overlooking is the promotional aspect. The US and Europe have seen their fair share of HD-DVD deals, from the "buy a HD-DVD player, get Heroes Season 1 for free" deal from Best Buy, to the 5 free HD-DVD's from Amazon UK. But where I lay quite critical is the state of the format in Australia. Sony has just launched a spectacular advertising campaign for the Playstation 3 that practically acts as a Blu-Ray ad in disguise. This comes just in time of the Christmas buying season. Yet, I am still yet to see one HD-DVD add in Australia. Many people may say "we are small fish compared to Japan, US and Europe" but let's not be so down on ourselves. While we are a relatively small nation, we are somewhat Americanised with a dab of Europanization. Our purchasing trends DO count, whether we think they do or not, and it's not very often that a film, be it at the box-office or on DVD, or game doesn't do well here if it does well in the US and vice-versa.
HD-DVD has had a good run over the past few weeks, there is no doubt about that, but where the real challenge is going to lie is the Christmas period. Is little Johnny going to want the Spiderman Trilogy to play on his Playstation 3, or will he want Shrek the Third or Ant Bully for his HD-DVD XBOX 360 add-on? What's more appealing to little Johnny? Tranformers may have led the way for a HD-DVD breakthrough in sales, but the format needs a consistent run of blockbuster releases, like Blu-Ray has had, to continue to ride the wave of success. One question that does need to be asked though is this:
Had Blu-Ray not been incorporated in the Playstation 3 yet all the same titles that have been released for it now still of come out, would it see the same success that HD-DVD has seen with little to no marketing presence?
Submitted by Gaetano
20/01/2008
2
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