Video Games and the Hi-Def Format Wars

Pika the Mad writes "Reuters has a concise but interesting article up about how video games will help decide the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. According to industry analysts "What Sony and Microsoft decide to announce publicly or to dealers at E3 next week will be key." So this year's E3 could very well be a deciding factor in how you view your movie library for years to come."

Sony's strange plans, two-many-formats wars

[Elementalor]

If Sony releases the PS3 way cheaper than any Blu-Ray player... How would the other Blu-Ray players react to this? Who would want to buy another Blu-Ray player if the PS3 is the cheapest one and it is also a next-gen console, allegedly the most powerful of all?

I just don't get Sony's plans...

DVD-video was a success because it is the only digital format and all studios support it. From now on, it's a three-head race with Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and the good-enough-for-most-of-consumers ol' DVD.

I'm happy with what I can rip and view as I like ^_^

I will vote "no comment"...

[Megane]

By buying a Nintendo Wii-volution.

I don't care about SACD or DVD-A, and don't care about the two HD movie formats either. I just want a bigger write-once media format to store my own stuff.

HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray - does either offer more?

[ofcourseyouare]

Has anyone seen any estimates of how many 360 owners actually plan to buy the HD-DVD add-on? If HD-DVD's big hope is an optional extra to the 360, looks like they'll lose...

Meanwhile, it certainly looks like Sony are going to be able to use the PS3 to drive through a huge installed base of Blu-Ray machines.

From an experience point of view, why should we care? Well, I was at a conference in London where the dreaded Bill Gates spoke, but he did say something I found interesting: he said that "soon, the difference between TV/Movies and games won't be black and white, as it is now; there will be a spectrum of shades of grey in between".

I believe that Blu-Ray will enable some "playability" in movies - customisation, simple interactivity, etc. This could produce dreadful rubbish, or just be ignored, but it might produce some interesting new hybrids in a medium which is getting pretty stale. Not as a replacement for games, but as an enhancement for movies. Now I know what you're thinking - "Dragon's Lair" - but hey, it might be better this time round, mightn't it? Or not...

Anyway, I believe HD-DVD offers no such flexibility - so it's odd that Bill backs the format that doesn't do what he thinks will start happening to movies sometime soon...

The 360 is Not a Factor Here

[Apple Acolyte]

How could the 360 be a factor in determining the outcome of this format battle? The 360 is a standard definition DVD unit, and very few people are going to buy this vaporous external HD-DVD add-on. They have already paid more than they're accustomed to for the 360, and unless the HD player can add some key enhancement to the gaming experience it will be perceived as superfluous. No, the only way a new format can be helped by a game console is if it's standard equipment, as the PS2's DVD player was and as the PS3's BD player will be (as long as they finally commit to releasing it sometime this decade).

Re:To be completely honest

[analog_line]

I concur.

Frankly, HD-DVD and BluRay displays at such a high resolution, I can't imagine that half the people that buy HDTV sets can even see any actual quality difference between an HDTV version of a movie and a standard DVD version without buy a television so large that few if any can afford it. My eyes aren't that good. Hell, my TV isn't that good, and I don't want to and am not going to buy one until this one gets broken beyond repair (and there's a very good TV repair place near here, so that's not very likely).

Also, there's little actual advantage that I can see in the HD-DVD/BluRay over the DVD format, aside from a reduction in the number of discs needed for big movie sets (like the LotR special editions, TV series, etc) but that kind of economy isn't going to last very long. The content size will expand to fit the media. Video games used to be dwarfed by the capacity of CDs, now they're pushing the limits of multiple DVDs, multiple HD-DVD/BluRay will soon follow so that doesn't really solve the multiple disc problem permanently. DVD had very clear advantages over VHS. HD-DVD's advantages are not so clear.

what about the porn industry

[routerguy666]

If I remember correctly the porn industry is the biggest commercial consumer of DVD media. Is Forbes being polite in ignoring their impact or has their influenced waned? The game industry might be large, but I don't think it's as big as the skinflick industry...

Is there a market for HD porn?

[tepples]

The real determiners of the HD format wars will be the adult DVD producers.

Conventional wisdom is that adult DVD doesn't want high definition, as the 480-line output of standard definition production hides the imperfections in erotic actors' skin.

Michael Pachter

[DaveCBio]

People have to stop going to this guy for prognostication on videogames. He doesn't have a freaking clue. Seriously, the only reason he stands out in my mind is because he keeps being referenced by mainstream media in these articles and he always turns out to be so wrong he almost wraps around to being right.

I don't see why...

[cosmotron]

I don't see why people are thinking that Blue Ray will surge over HD DVD. Just because the PlayStaion 3 will use them? I personally think (and you don't need to agree with me) that HD DVD will succeed because 1) it has a logo similar to that of the existing DVD's, and 2) it has the initialism DVD in it. The general public, the ones that buy DVDs will see a familiar logo along with a familiar name and buy it.

But, I could be wrong.

Why?

[sweez]

HD-DVD? Blu-ray? Games?

Games nowadays barely fill up a single DVD (and a large percentage still comes on 1-2 CDs), what are we talking about here?

DVDs suck

[ikekrull]

Put DVD disc in drive... wait... sit through copyright warning.. wait.. watch stupid asinine 'pirating dvds is an evil thought crime' mini-feature....wait... watch previews of upcoming releases... wait...studio credits scroll...wait... wait while stupid pointless menu displays... wait.. finally start feature (what you wanted to happen when disc was inserted).. wait while the same stupid studio credits scroll.. wait... try to fast forward and your player tells you the 'operation is prohibited'?? wtf? its *my* player, and its *my* disc.

The DVD experience is just so bad, and its guaranteed to only get worse with HD formats since all the stupid, cheesy ideas the studios have to 'add value' by ramming advertising, previews and propaganda down your throat as well as 'rich media' navigation screens will simply mean it takes even longer to just watch the f**king movie you wanted to.

Since I have experienced the simplicity and ease of just choosing video files to play off a Freevo menu, I dont think i'll ever buy any kind of video disc player again, unless it comes bundled with a computer which I can use to extract the content that I actually find relevant or desirable, and archive for convenient viewing.

If the MPAA/RIAA dont like the idea that I will choose to spend my time watching only content I find relevant or desirable (for which I am happy to pay for), they can go f**k themselves.

Re:To be completely honest

[Dare nMc]

>Folks, anyone else out there realize that $900 is extremely expensive for the average joe to spend on a TV?

well, movie theaters costs $20-45 per person. Large screen TV's were not a replacement for the Movie theater in quality. $900 HDTV seams like it would be.

so that TV costs equivalent 20 persons visits to the theater, or 10 date visits, or 5 family visits.

my 42" TV, and Netflix subscription has so far (1 year) eliminated the thought of a Movie theater from my house. But the regular DVD wouldn't eliminate the draw if we had a quality movie theater close. (closest theater often has sound issues, next closest is at the mall, and is over-run with annoyances.)