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Post #263057

Author
zombie84
Parent topic
Did Anyone go shopping today?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/263057/action/topic#263057
Date created
29-Dec-2006, 2:04 PM
I think its extremely unfair to assess BluRay as dead or to compare it to HD-DVD right now--HD-DVD has been out for a half year, and with a heavy market saturation. Blu-Ray, for all intents and purposes, just came out a month or two ago. It has indeed had a hickuppy release, what with delays and hardware glitches, and only now are they starting to use dual-layered non-MPEG2 disks. As far as I am concerned, the format is as new as the PS3. At this time next year if things are more or less the same then we can proclaim it a generally failed effort, but personally we are only now starting to even see the potential of the format, which hasn't even had a proper forum for release until a month or two ago.

As for the PS3, i think the overestimated sales have to do mainly with price--and in this aspect, the Blu-Ray integration is mainly at fault. Current players retail for $700-1200, so to get a Blu-Ray player bundled with a great gaming system for whatever it is, $600 or so, is a great bargain--but this, unfortunately, is not a concern to gamers. I think any rejection of the PS3 is based mostly on price--the new X-Box system is about on par with the Sony machine (and personally i don't think Nintendo has much of a following anymore so the Wii is not a huge competitor). If you have two systems that are virtually equal but one costs hundreds of dollars less, which are you going to go for? I suppose, on the other hand, that most early adopters who are willing to spend half a grande aren't really going to be too put off by a one-time extra charge of a hundred bucks or so. The real issue is going to come when price drops begin to put it in the price range of more casual gamers--systems don't really take off until they reach the $250-300 range, and if the PS3 stays well above that, as it probably will for many more years, then that will be its true death.

Back on topic, i have done little post-christmas shopping so far. A trip to Chinatown left me with a bunch of bootlegged Hong Kong films but thats about it (not usually my thing, but the rarity of certain asian titles sometimes leaves these things as the only option unfortunately).