Will Blu-ray sink the PlayStation 3?
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?Our good friends over at TG Daily tackle the big issue facing Sony; is Blu-ray the right decision moving forward? As HD-DVD has taken the lead out of the gate, many think Sony’s high-def strategy might just kill the PlayStation 3, while Xbox offers HD-DVD support at a bargain basement price…
Back in March, when Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi made a brave decision to postpone the release of one of the most critically important and highly anticipated entertainment devices in his company’s history in order to give it time to get one key component - specifically, Blu-ray Disc - ramped up and working properly, his plea for patience met with largely positive response. As the 17 November release date draws nearer, many of the technical issues regarding Blu-ray have been ironed out, though some still remain even as Blu-ray players are made publicly available. The curtain has risen, if partly, on the stage of high-definition video; and if you peek under the curtains, it seems the PlayStation 3 is ready for its debut.
The PlayStation 3 display as seen from the Nintendo booth, during the last (and literally the final) E3 Expo last May. But the world has changed even since March. The continually skyrocketing price of crude oil has dragged general inflation higher in North America, precipitating a decline in household disposable income. A re-emergence of terrorist threats has dampened general consumer confidence. A lower than anticipated customer uptake for the first HD DVD players, and later the first Blu-ray players, suggests even early adopters remain skeptical about either format’s ability to eventually reign supreme. While analysts accepted news in May of the PS3’s $499 and $599 price announcement as right in line with expectations, recently, opinion has shifted in favor of nay-sayers who believe consumers will find those prices too expensive for a game console, with or without the high-def DVD bonus.
Source: TG Daily