Analysts peg PS3 as new format war winner

[Shin-Ra]

Sony shares surge on HD DVD demise

William Blair & Company analyst Ralph Shackart said that, "We believe Blu-ray's victory could drive market share gains for the PS3, as we believe consumers will now be more willing to pay up (versus 360) for the standard Blu-ray player."

Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter told GameSpot that he agreed. He said, "Educated consumers who have been holding off buying on the format war to make a decision will now probably buy a PS3. Uneducated consumers who have no idea that there was a format war are likely to get pushed to buy a PS3 by sales clerks. Retail sales clerks being what they are, they are now really, really going to push sales of Blu-ray, and therefore the PS3."

"The real problem for the 360 is that very few people will buy a 360 and a PS3. So therefore, every PS3 sale will likely mean that person won't buy a 360, so this news will ultimately hurt 360 sales. But I don't think it will hurt the Wii. If I had to bet, I'd say Microsoft gets no more than 30 percent of the total install base, and Sony and Microsoft slug it out, and Sony will ultimately prevail."

Not sure if the first or last 'Microsoft' in that last sentence is supposed to say Nintendo. Doesn't make sense to me otherwise.

Haven't got the quote here but Pachter doesn't expect Microsoft to support Blu-ray through an add-on or integrated Blu-ray drive.

[turboedguy]

Better belive it.

[Blu-Beard]

Haven't got the quote here but Pachter doesn't expect Microsoft to support Blu-ray through an add-on or integrated Blu-ray drive.

That's a tough call, I know MS is for this whole DL service but I think if they have the chance to make some money off of BD for a while then they probably will.

[turboedguy]

I think Microsoft realizes these projections and are litterly trembling in their boots. Now that the war is clearly over and undecided consumers are walking into retail stores to be recomended a PS3 as there BD player, I think the console war is about to sharply shift also.

Its a matter of time before a Blu-ray drive is incorporated in 360s. or at least an add-on. or die...

[PS3ds]

Nice. No way will Sony fail now... With the BD victory, they could stop making games for the system completely and the PS3 would still out live the Wii and the CrapBox 360.

[tntkain]

The ps2 is the largest selling game console ever, so once the games come. I would think the ps3 will be too

[actionhank]

Wall Street analysts....

Ask 10 for an opinion and you'll get 21

[ezcobar411]

And now the analysts love the PS3. Who would've ever guessed

[miokti]

wow, some great analyzing now that everything is SOOO OBVIOUS!!! That's like saying, ooh Boston is up by 40 points with 2 minutes left... I think they're gonna win.

[simpspin]

One of the Xbots I work with says that the reason the PS3 beat the 360 was due to 'everyone' already owns one and is just picking up a PS3 as a second 'system.'

I just told him the PS2 is a system EVERYONE owns, but he thinks the 360 will never be beaten. Oh well...

(We both have on thing in common...we aren't too keen on the Wii.)

[sj001]

Without a doubt, the PS3 gave BD the edge big time. Just like the PS2 did for DVD way back in the old days.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Not sure if the first or last 'Microsoft' in that last sentence is supposed to say Nintendo. Doesn't make sense to me otherwise.

Pachter is on the record as saying he believes Sony will eventually win the 7th console war between Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. As such I believe you are correct in saying that last Microsoft should instead be "Nintendo".

Haven't got the quote here but Pachter doesn't expect Microsoft to support Blu-ray through an add-on or integrated Blu-ray drive.

That's surprising and new.

Integrated drive, no way, ever. But add-on remains a possibility, though as an analyst he's supposed to take sides.