HD DVD Players Sold Out Nationwide This Weekend - Blu-ray In Trouble?

[Lotus]

Also the HD DVD Promotional Group had a press release stating they'd reached 750,000 stand alone units in homes. They counted the MS Addon.

With Black Friday numbers in it appears that they may hit that 1M mark by years end.

[DaViD Boulet]

Yep. And BD hardware maintained a 3:1 lead over HD DVD hardware (same with software sales).

www.thedigitalbits.com

The overall DVD sales slowdown aside, it seems that Black Friday software sales were brisk. Home Media is reporting that Black Friday DVD sales this year were up 6% from last year. On the high-def front, however, software sales for the Blu-ray Disc format dominated those of HD-DVD on the biggest shopping day of the year. According to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert numbers, for the week of 11/19 to 11/25 (Monday to Sunday), Blu-ray held a commanding 72.6% share of high-def software sales compared to HD-DVD's 27.4% That's very nearly a 3 to 1 margin, and it comes in spite of a strong surge in HD-DVD player sales in the wake of Toshiba's recent discounting. Industry insiders are reporting a surge in Blu-ray Disc player sales as well, however, also in the wake of recent price reductions. Particularly strong are sales of Sony's Blu-ray ready PlayStation 3, which have reportedly increased nearly 300% according to online reports.

Meanwhile, Reuters and Gamespot UK are reporting that Blu-ray's software sales edge has now extended to Europe, in addition to existing leads in the U.S., Japan and Australia. From the Gamespot story: "According to Media Control Gfk International, 73 percent of next-generation movies bought by European consumers were on Blu-ray, and 27 percent on HD DVD."

Lest you think the news is all bad for HD-DVD, the HD-DVD Promotions Group has announced that Black Friday sales have pushed the HD-DVD format past the 750,000 players mark, when Microsoft's Xbox 360 add-on drive is counted in the figures (the actual breakdown is estimated to be something on the order of 450,000 actual stand-alone players plus 300,000 or so Xbox 360 add-on drives). On the other hand, according to recent estimates (released prior to Black Friday, so not including Black Friday sales) there are reportedly some 300,000 stand-alone Blu-ray players in North America, plus another 1.9 million PlayStation 3s, for a total of approximately 2.2 million. Ironically, that's also roughly a 3 to 1 margin. Obviously, not every PS3 owner is watching movies, but the continuing Blu-ray software sales edge (despite fewer stand-alone players sold) would seem to indicate that at least some significant percentage of PS3 owners are watching movies in addition to playing games. Moriarty over at AICN is now among them it seems.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Yep. And BD hardware maintained a 3:1 lead over HD DVD hardware (same with software sales).

www.thedigitalbits.com

Only if you count the PS3. In stand alone hardware sales the month of November was around 8 to 1 in hardware sales. For the week of black friday around 3.5 to 1. Where did he get the number for PS3 units sold? 1.9M? Sony says they'll have shipped 11M by the end of the year. Are 9M of these units sitting on shelves?

[DaViD Boulet]

Only if you count the PS3. In stand alone hardware sales the month of November was around 8 to 1 in hardware sales. For the week of black friday around 3.5 to 1. Where did he get the number for PS3 units sold? 1.9M? Sony says they'll have shipped 11M by the end of the year. Are 9M of these units sitting on shelves?

Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander:

Friday sales have pushed the HD-DVD format past the 750,000 players mark, when Microsoft's Xbox 360 add-on drive is counted in the figures

The HD DVD group counted the 360 HD DVD add-on to get that 750,000 "stand alone" figure. If the 360 game-console HD DVD add-on suddenly counts as a "stand alone" unit for the HD DVD group (which seems a rather specious re-definition on their part), why can't I include the PS3, which by definition does provide "stand alone" BD playback (needing no additional hardware), as well?

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander:



The HD DVD group counted the 360 HD DVD add-on to get that 750,000 "stand alone" figure. If the 360 game-console HD DVD add-on suddenly counts as a "stand alone" unit for the HD DVD group (which seems a rather specious re-definition on their part), why can't I include the PS3, which by definition does provide "stand alone" BD playback (needing no additional hardware), as well?

Ok if you count the addon it was around 11 to 1 in hardware sales for November.

I wasn't counting them and most people don't. Microsoft does because they argue it is only for HD DVD playback and it does have a better attachment rate than the PS3 when it is used as a BD player.

450,000 stand alones are out there in HD DVD and only 300,000 BD players.

I still think it's funny you point to that article by the Digital Bits like he did anything but pull numbers like the 1.9M PS3s just because it justified his arguement, even when he was off by was 4M units?

[DaViD Boulet]

I wasn't counting them and most people don't. Microsoft does because they argue it is only for HD DVD playback and it does have a better attachment rate than the PS3 when it is used as a BD player.

I agree with you that since the add-on is specifically purchased with movie-playback in mind, that it accurately points to a meaningful attach-rate figure. We can only hypothosize about attach-rates for BD given the uncertainty about what percentage of PS3 players are used for movie-playback (corresponding with add-on use) and those used primarily for gaming. However, one must also concede that leaving all PS3s out of an attach-rate evaluation, while applying 360-add-ons for the HD DVD camp, skews the comparison between the two since it omits a meaningful portion of BD movie watchers, even though that exact figure cannot be determined.