What were Paramount/DreamWorks thinking? - Blu-ray Forum

sphdle1 · 10-24-2007, 06:33 PM

What were they thinking? All they essentially did was hurt the consumer, hurt the adoption of High Def, prolong the war, and prolong the inevitable adoption of Blu-ray technology.

I don't understand the logic in their move to exclusively support HD DVD.
It doesn't make sense from a money perspective because the payoff is peanuts for them, so shouldn't have been that significant. And it essentially amounts to a bribe which when the whole EU thing is over, they will not likely get away with it anyway (If they want their movies over in Europe that is..).
It doesn't make sense from a consumer spending perspective because now they are just prolonging the agony and hurting consumers that wish to watch their movies in High Def BD. Plus they just lost out on the biggest opportunity to sell a lot of Blu-ray discs with Transformers & soon to be Shrek 3.
I don't understand it from an internal point of view, as they are not getting support from & are in essence pi55ing off their star Directors (Spielberg & Bay), who may in the end just move to Universal.

There must be some deeper hidden political BS going on behind the scenes that the public is not aware of... Unless they just wanted to prolong the war to help get the spirit of competition to bring prices down faster for consumers, but I think there would have been enough competition to bring prices down if they didn't make this deal, and it would have ended the war much more quickly...?

BStecke · 10-24-2007, 06:34 PM

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...ight=paramount

T-Town Oil · 10-24-2007, 06:37 PM

do we have to beat this to death....again....?

GasCat · 10-24-2007, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T-Town Oil

do we have to beat this to death....again....?

People are still in shock at the stupidity of their greed.

You are a customer and you don't matter. Welcome to the 21st century.

Mericalis · 10-24-2007, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T-Town Oil

do we have to beat this to death....again....?

New member, new rant.

almy · 10-24-2007, 11:32 PM

They did it because even with format neutrailty there is no way they could have made 150 million met profits from hif-def sales in 18 months. I think Toshiba paid them as a last ditch effort to save their format - and it doesn't seem to be working. Even Paramount's bragging about 190,000 copies of TRANSFORMERS - that is the number of copies they shipped to retailers, mail order houses etc. - not actually bought by consumers.

Luis_A51 · 10-24-2007, 11:37 PM

Even if they did sell that many copies of TF, their are several titles on bluray that have a chance at beating that. Hell even Harry potter will probably sell more than that on Bluray. Our userbase is just that much bigger. POT3 will beat it easily, everyone knows disney/Buena vista makes the best high-def movies.

quetzalcoatl · 10-24-2007, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almy

They did it because even with format neutrailty there is no way they could have made 150 million met profits from hif-def sales in 18 months. I think Toshiba paid them as a last ditch effort to save their format - and it doesn't seem to be working. Even Paramount's bragging about 190,000 copies of TRANSFORMERS - that is the number of copies they shipped to retailers, mail order houses etc. - not actually bought by consumers.

Ding!!! Ding!!! we have a winner.

GasCat · 10-25-2007, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almy

They did it because even with format neutrailty there is no way they could have made 150 million met profits from hif-def sales in 18 months. I think Toshiba paid them as a last ditch effort to save their format - and it doesn't seem to be working. Even Paramount's bragging about 190,000 copies of TRANSFORMERS - that is the number of copies they shipped to retailers, mail order houses etc. - not actually bought by consumers.

Investigate what the term "Goodwill" means and then come on back here. They lost more in goodwill than that 150 million. Now we think of them negatively and see them as greedy. (which they are)

I don't believe stock analysts were too keen on this deal.

GamingPhantom · 10-25-2007, 12:15 AM

i wonder if paul allen's selling his dreamwork stock was caused by the deal.
http://smart90.com/tvimagazine/2005/...sellsDream.htm

buckshot · 10-25-2007, 12:44 AM

i just got re-pissed at paramount after realizing that if jericho ever gets released in hidef that it will be hd dvd because cbs is owned by paramount. i hate you paramount.

mikesoba · 10-25-2007, 12:46 AM

$

KingDeezie · 10-25-2007, 12:48 AM

Paramount was thinking with their buisness sense, and it sucks because we know what really matters to us, but what really matters to them is money...

Keeping Transformers away from us for a year or two was most certainly worth 150 million dollars to them...

If they help HD-DVD maintain or win the battle, they don't care either way.

WinterWolf · 10-25-2007, 12:54 AM

Short term gain vs long term gain...thats all it was

JohnGalt · 10-25-2007, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WinterWolf

Short term gain vs long term gain...thats all it was

Not really. If HD DVD wins the format war in the next 14-ish months Paramount will have received a payoff larger than what they'd have made selling Blu-ray versions of their movies into the current small market. If Blu-Ray wins they'll simply flip back over and get to resell not only to current Blu-ray owners but to HD DVD owners forced to switch to Blu when their preferred format dies. If both formats exist Paramout picks up the Blu-ray sales when their exclusivity ends and is still $150M richer. For a business it was a no-brainer.

T-Wrecks · 10-25-2007, 04:41 AM

They may lose 10% of the Blu-ray sales of TF due to BR supporters boycotting the move, but that loss is a no-brainer when taking the 150 mil incentives package into account.

I'll be the first to admit that it would have been my first Blu-ray movie as a Christmas gift for the family/my son, though.

GasCat · 10-25-2007, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T-Wrecks

They may lose 10% of the Blu-ray sales of TF due to BR supporters boycotting the move, but that loss is a no-brainer when taking the 150 mil incentives package into account.

I'll be the first to admit that it would have been my first Blu-ray movie as a Christmas gift for the family/my son, though.

You know what he really wants is a an official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock.

Petra_Kalbrain · 10-25-2007, 04:56 AM

Why was everyone so surprised at this decision by Paramount anyways? We should all know how bad they are with decisions. Look what happened to their Star Trek franchise once Gene Roddenberry passed away! They shat flaming buiscuts all over it and then proceeded to gouge the fan base repeatedly with their home media releases of said material. Honestly, the news did take me by surprise at first, but shortly thereafter, upon reflection I realized that it was actually in their character to do so.

Now, if you want to talk about something that would be truly devastating (and I mean something that would LITERALLY make me cry), think of something like Warner Bros. going HD DVD exclusive! That would blow harder than Katrina did.

10-24-2007, 06:33 PM	#1
sphdle1 Active Member Member since:Oct 2007 Location:Nova Scotia, Canada	What were Paramount/DreamWorks thinking? What were they thinking? All they essentially did was hurt the consumer, hurt the adoption of High Def, prolong the war, and prolong the inevitable adoption of Blu-ray technology. I don't understand the logic in their move to exclusively support HD DVD. It doesn't make sense from a money perspective because the payoff is peanuts for them, so shouldn't have been that significant. And it essentially amounts to a bribe which when the whole EU thing is over, they will not likely get away with it anyway (If they want their movies over in Europe that is..). It doesn't make sense from a consumer spending perspective because now they are just prolonging the agony and hurting consumers that wish to watch their movies in High Def BD. Plus they just lost out on the biggest opportunity to sell a lot of Blu-ray discs with Transformers & soon to be Shrek 3. I don't understand it from an internal point of view, as they are not getting support from & are in essence pi55ing off their star Directors (Spielberg & Bay), who may in the end just move to Universal. There must be some deeper hidden political BS going on behind the scenes that the public is not aware of... Unless they just wanted to prolong the war to help get the spirit of competition to bring prices down faster for consumers, but I think there would have been enough competition to bring prices down if they didn't make this deal, and it would have ended the war much more quickly...?

10-25-2007, 04:41 AM	#16
T-Wrecks Active Member Member since:Jul 2007	JohnG is correct... They may lose 10% of the Blu-ray sales of TF due to BR supporters boycotting the move, but that loss is a no-brainer when taking the 150 mil incentives package into account. I'll be the first to admit that it would have been my first Blu-ray movie as a Christmas gift for the family/my son, though.

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10-24-2007, 06:34 PM	#2
BStecke Blu-ray Knight Member since:Jun 2007 4K collection:182 Blu-ray collection:567 DVD collection:1 Digital collection:1 iTunes collection:1 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:6	https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...ight=paramount

10-24-2007, 06:37 PM	#3
T-Town Oil Expert Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Tulsa, Oklahoma Home Theater Gallery:20 Blu-ray collection:42 Blu-ray reviews:3	do we have to beat this to death....again....?

10-24-2007, 11:32 PM	#6
almy Active Member Member since:Aug 2007	They did it because even with format neutrailty there is no way they could have made 150 million met profits from hif-def sales in 18 months. I think Toshiba paid them as a last ditch effort to save their format - and it doesn't seem to be working. Even Paramount's bragging about 190,000 copies of TRANSFORMERS - that is the number of copies they shipped to retailers, mail order houses etc. - not actually bought by consumers.

10-24-2007, 11:37 PM	#7
Luis_A51 Blu-ray Guru Member since:Jun 2007 Location:Calgary, AB Blu-ray reviews:4	Even if they did sell that many copies of TF, their are several titles on bluray that have a chance at beating that. Hell even Harry potter will probably sell more than that on Bluray. Our userbase is just that much bigger. POT3 will beat it easily, everyone knows disney/Buena vista makes the best high-def movies.

10-25-2007, 12:15 AM	#10
GamingPhantom Member Member since:Sep 2007	i wonder if paul allen's selling his dreamwork stock was caused by the deal. http://smart90.com/tvimagazine/2005/...sellsDream.htm

10-25-2007, 12:44 AM	#11
buckshot Blu-ray Guru Member since:Feb 2007 Location:san die ego Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:9	i just got re-pissed at paramount after realizing that if jericho ever gets released in hidef that it will be hd dvd because cbs is owned by paramount. i hate you paramount.

10-25-2007, 12:46 AM	#12
mikesoba Active Member Member since:Jun 2007 Location:South Bay, California Blu-ray collection:258	$

10-25-2007, 12:48 AM	#13
KingDeezie Active Member Member since:Mar 2007	Paramount was thinking with their buisness sense, and it sucks because we know what really matters to us, but what really matters to them is money... Keeping Transformers away from us for a year or two was most certainly worth 150 million dollars to them... If they help HD-DVD maintain or win the battle, they don't care either way.

10-25-2007, 12:54 AM	#14
WinterWolf Member Member since:Feb 2007 Location:Houston, Texas	Short term gain vs long term gain...thats all it was

10-25-2007, 04:56 AM	#18
Petra_Kalbrain Blu-ray Archduke Top contributor Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Vancouver, BC 4K collection:5 Blu-ray collection:561 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:20	Why was everyone so surprised at this decision by Paramount anyways? We should all know how bad they are with decisions. Look what happened to their Star Trek franchise once Gene Roddenberry passed away! They shat flaming buiscuts all over it and then proceeded to gouge the fan base repeatedly with their home media releases of said material. Honestly, the news did take me by surprise at first, but shortly thereafter, upon reflection I realized that it was actually in their character to do so. Now, if you want to talk about something that would be truly devastating (and I mean something that would LITERALLY make me cry), think of something like Warner Bros. going HD DVD exclusive! That would blow harder than Katrina did.

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