Greetings, and a Universal conspiracy theory...

[richteer]

Hi all, and greetings from Kelowna, Canada. I've been lurking here a while and thought I'd decloak to air a question.

Given that Universal is HD DVD's sole exclusive studio, and that their recent releases (as reviewed over at HiDefDigest) have been somewhat lacking (to put it mildly), how about this for a conspiracy theory: Universal is annoyed about having their hands tied (to be HD DVD exclusive), so as retaliation they release the number of releases they're obliged to, but do a crappy job of it to hasten HD DVD's demise.

Thoughts?

PS I reckon (given the BB news) we should refer to June 18th as "Blu Monday" (with apologies to New Order fans everywhere). :-)

[rmatt]

If they really wanted to hasten the demise, Universal would have announced that they are supporting Blu-ray as well. That way their name isn't 100%linked to a poor quality product(which most people think is happening already).

[richteer]

Originally Posted by rmatt

If they really wanted to hasten the demise, Universal would have announced that they are supporting Blu-ray as well. That way their name isn't 100%linked to a poor quality product(which most people think is happening already).

Agreed, unless they're (Universal) contractually prohibited from doing so...

[nhaase]

Uni were the ones who pledged to release 100 HD DVD titles this year.

[Texitura]

If they signed a contract based on those wildly optimistic sales projections for HD-DVD players, I wonder if they have an "escape clause". Or a "sanity clause".

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by Texitura

If they signed a contract based on those wildly optimistic sales projections for HD-DVD players, I wonder if they have an "escape clause". Or a "sanity clause".

The sanity clause would have been to not sign anything restricting them to HD DVD.

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by nhaase

The sanity clause would have been to not sign anything restricting them to HD DVD.

I'm sure it looked like a good idea at that time!

Paladin

[Sane]

Originally Posted by richteer

Universal is annoyed about having their hands tied (to be HD DVD exclusive), so as retaliation they release the number of releases they're obliged to, but do a crappy job of it to hasten HD DVD's demise.

Kinda like when you don't want to dump your girlfriend so instead you act like a jerk so that she'll dump you and then you don't need to feel guilty?

Seriously though, I could see them doing the bare minimum for this reason. They have to think about their reputation at some point though. Of course the BR community would be thrilled if Uni announced BR titles - but I'd likely wait for some reviews before buying any movie that was lazily done on HDDVD.

[mcy_999]

After the Blockbuster news, one can just imagine how long Universal can resist supporting BD. What would their Board of Directors say to their management team? One logical question would be "Why the heck that Universal is the only major studio being shut off from Blockbuster?" What would you do if you are the President of the company? The message is very clear to him - either shape up or ship out.

[monkyman]

Originally Posted by mcy_999

"Why the heck that Universal is the only major studio being shut off from Blockbuster?"

Actually Universal is not being shut out of blockbuster, just HD-DVD's. You could still get one of their titles on reg. DVD.
At this point it would be an embarrasement for them to switch, after all there total support. Like me being a NY Yankee hater, than swich to supporting them because they beat my Red Sox!

[GasCat]

I love conspiracy theories but I think this one is pretty weak. If they are doing a bad job it would be due to the lack of assigning personnel.