Is the European release of PS3 going to be the Coup de grâce for HD DVD?

[Fozziwig]

When PS3 launched in the US within a few weeks the sales figures completely flipped from HD DVD domination to Blu-ray domination and the gap is widening.

The USA has a population of 300 million approx.

PS3 will launch soon in Europe. Sony are offering 500,000 copies of Casino Royale to PS3 buyers who register online, there is talk of huge advance demand (certainly in the UK) and we have now seen Studio Canal start to offer Blu-ray titles.

The population of Europe is approx. 730 million.

With Blu-ray also dominant in Japan how much longer can Universal turn away such huge numbers of potential movie sales?

Are we actually just a matter of weeks from the war ending?

Edit: Maybe this should be in the 'general' section. Mods can move it if required.

[Damon Payne]

As I keep saying, all the cries of "The war is over" is far too optimistic right now. Let's see how things look through the coming months.

[KenThompson]

PS3 launch in Europe is huge. Population base twice that of North America. You can't tell me that anyone thats got a ps3 won't buy a movie. A million more players and a million more movies sold, and thats just each unit producing a single sale.

[Knight-Errant]

The buzz among my circle of friends here in UK is BIG for the PS3.

[jorg]

i think the ps3 effect in Europe wont be on the same scale as in north america from what i understand hd hasent really taken off in euro or dose not have such a larg base compared to the usa but i think the launch will mean blu-ray total dominance in all teritorys

[HD-Greek]

Originally Posted by jorg

i think the ps3 effect in Europe wont be on the same scale as in north america from what i understand hd hasent really taken off in euro or dose not have such a larg base compared to the usa but i think the launch will mean blu-ray total dominance in all teritorys

My friend hd hasn't really taken off in Europe because blu-ray and hdtvs are more expensive than U.S.A.......for example the samsung BD-P1000 cost 580$(435E) in U.S.A and around 900-1000E in Europe.......PHILIPS 42PF9731D/37 42" HDTV LCD with Pixel Plus 3 HD and Ambilight Surround cost 1800$(1350E) in Europe cost around 3200 .......and of course the 60gb PS3 600$(450E) in U.S.A and 600E in Europe......I think it's unfair.....I hope you understand this...

[degas]

Originally Posted by jorg

i think the ps3 effect in Europe wont be on the same scale as in north america from what i understand hd hasent really taken off in euro or dose not have such a larg base compared to the usa but i think the launch will mean blu-ray total dominance in all teritorys

I believe that the biggest difference is; that HDTV has been broadcasted a while now in the US and Japan. So you guys are used to that quality, and people want their bought movies to have the same or better quality.

This is not the case in most of Europe. HDTV is slowly coming around, but it's still basically non-existant. So most people don't know what they're missing out on...yet.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by degas

I believe that the biggest difference is; that HDTV has been broadcasted a while now in the US and Japan. So you guys are used to that quality, and people want their bought movies to have the same or better quality.

This is not the case in most of Europe. HDTV is slowly coming around, but it's still basically non-existant. So most people don't know what they're missing out on...yet.

HD stuff is pretty by the book here, i.e. to be called "HD ready" you have to have certain things like HDMI and so forth. B/C HD has only recently taken off with Sky leading the charge here in the UK and Canal+ over on the continent. Interestingly both use AVC as their compression codec of choice as it was finalised before broadcasters in the EU started HD transmissions. Set-top boxes all have to have AVC decoding capability, and they all do. So it is not always bad to be late to the party .

[MrBogey]

Right. We're in the Doolittle Raiders portion of the war. Universal going dual-format would be Hiroshima though.

[gandley]

looks like all initial UK PS3 preorders are filled and then some Quite a few vendors are claiming record preorders for PS3. If just each new console owner buys just 1 movie, thats a whole lot of hurt for H-DVD.

I dont think there are many hd-dvd players in the market and most will be the 360addons. Quite a few of us got our players from the usa on import as that worked out quite cheap same with software as HD-DVD titles have only really just become available to buy(ie late last year, so we have been adding sales to the north americam market too).

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by gandley

looks like all initial UK PS3 preorders are filled and then some Quite a few vendors are claiming record preorders for PS3. If just each new console owner buys just 1 movie, thats a whole lot of hurt for H-DVD.

I dont think there are many hd-dvd players in the market and most will be the 360addons. Quite a few of us got our players from the usa on import as that worked out quite cheap same with software as HD-DVD titles have only really just become available to buy(ie late last year, so we have been adding sales to the north americam market too).

Yup.

I do admit that it's only the add-on drive that represents more than 90% of all HD-DVD sales in the European continent (or in all PAL teritorries rather).

I mean, how many people have actually bought HD-E1 and HD-XE1 players from Toshiba? Only a handful I assume (like less than 5%).

[joeorc]

for people who are wondering the fate of HD-DVD..look no further than this...

the same thing that happened sales wise for the playstation 2 is now happening to the playstation 3..look:

According to a report by Gamesindustry.biz, retailers are expressing delight over the number of pre-orders they've received prior to the PS3's upcoming European launch. In particular, online retailer Play.com is experiencing record numbers, stating that the PS3 has achieved six times the amount of pre-orders received by the Xbox 360 and fifteen times that of Nintendo's Wii. These figures make the PS3 "the most pre-ordered console yet" for the retailer, according to Gian Luzio, Play.com's head of games.

Luzio feels that the PS3's ability to double as a Blu-ray player is a major contributing factor to their pre-order sales.

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=4106

[HD-Greek]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

Yup.

I do admit that it's only the add-on drive that represents more than 90% of all HD-DVD sales in the European continent (or in all PAL teritorries rather).

I mean, how many people have actually bought HD-E1 and HD-XE1 players from Toshiba? Only a handful I assume (like less than 5%).

HD-XE1 has only launched in Germany and U.K.In my country(Greece) and other countries only HD-E1 has launched...... And 1 week ago also launched the Xbox 360 add on..........

[Liquidswar]

Another nail in the coffin for HD format is online movie rental stores like netflix and blockbuster. I'm a blockbuster customer and I can rent any blu-ray movie online. This cements my use of the ps3 for blu-ray movies, and the increasing demand for blu-ray rentals will require blockbuster.com/netflix.com to increase their warehouse stock. After renting my first blu-ray movie from blockbuster, I became a fan right away and have purchased 3 movies since.