So... Microsoft is trying to buy out the war!

[saxwork]

Microsoft
- Revenue US $51.12 billion
- Operating income US $18.52 billion
- Net income US $14.06 billion

SONY
-Revenue US $68.464 billion
-Operating income US $581 million
-Net income US $842 million

Ummm.... I think Microsoft has enough to buy off each studio to go HD-DVD...even SONY.

Regardless, SONY has to do something or this will be BetaMax all over again. What the hell is Howard Stringer thinking? They need to fight! We haven't heard a thing from SONY yet.

[Blu-Light]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Hopefully you overthought this.

Makes perfect sense doesn't it? I forgot to mention that they get to keep the revenues from their dip into blu-ray for a year.

All of this stinks to high heaven. DUD was losing bad and the final death blow was about to come. Problem is we may have overplayed our side's hand and DUD has the ace up their sleave in having two people at the table working with them to put us out of the game right before we were going to close it out.

[monkyman]

If Microsoft is going to play this game of "suport the losing format", than the only way to beat them is an inexpensive dual format player. This way no matter what side they go to the discs would be available to everyone.

I would rather see bluray win, but if it comes down to it, I'd rather see HD media win over downloads.

[Blu-Light]

If microsoft IS INDEED at Warner today then I fear that this will get realy ugly real fast. Hold on tight.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by JTK

Folks, this is how MS plays ball, especially when they're losing. They open the wallet and they'll do whatever it takes.

I guess the home theater market is going to have to learn the hard way the lessons of what MS is about and how they work. The PC market knows it all too well for the past 30 years.

Like I've said before: Warner going HD-DVD exclusive probably wouldn't have surprised many if that had been the big news yesterday. Paramount was a surprise (to non insiders.)


So I certainly won't panic on a rumor or anything, but if Warner goes HD-DVD exclusive, I'd see it as them ending a pretense anyways. It will not surprise me if it happens and possibly soon. I certainly think there's better than 50/50 chance that Warner takes the MS bribe like Paramount did.

Obviously that move would create a true format war schism and would probably set us all up for SACD vs. DVD-A II.

Well said.

[saxwork]

Microsoft
- Revenue US $51.12 billion
- Operating income US $18.52 billion
- Net income US $14.06 billion

SONY
-Revenue US $68.464 billion
-Operating income US $581 million
-Net income US $842 million

Ummm.... I think Microsoft has enough to buy off each studio to go HD-DVD...even SONY.

We have to open our wallets to win this.

[supersix4]

i think no matter what happens now by the end of the systems war ps3 will be on top and if that happens how could blu-ray lose ... ps3 is the system of the future nobody wants to have 4 disks to play a game on 360... lets hope we can ride this crap out ... spider-man 3 and some of our other upcoming releases.... its really not gonna matter if studios have the support in my opinion if nobodys really buying there movies

[theknub]

stop comparing microsoft to just sony, look at the bda as a whole

[JAGUAR1977]

If Warner go HD-DVD exclusive it's game over, I'll buy a HD-DVD player the next day, no doubt about it, dual format will be the future.

It's about time the BDA used some of the their financial muscle to keep Warner onboard/exclusive AND reduced player prices to sub $250 within weeks.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by theknub

stop comparing microsoft to just sony, look at the bda as a whole

Indeed.

The OP needs to add Apple, Disney, and the other's that I'm too lazy to mention.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Blu-Light

If microsoft IS INDEED at Warner today then I fear that this will get realy ugly real fast. Hold on tight.

And I repeat what I said several posts ago, maybe even on this thread:

Warner has their very shirt invested in TotalHD--They literally can't afford to go one-format ANYTHING right now.
Microsoft, you don't have enough money in the world to cover the unrecoupable R&D losses Warner would incur by throwing their Total disks in the trash tomorrow, and they know that even if you don't.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Some of the top execs. at Viacom/paramount must have received under the table monies. They stood as a company to make well over $150 million just off of the sale of Transformers and the dreadful Shrek 3, let alone of of their other titles. This move shafts their co., their stockholders, and the blu-ray consumers.
DEATH TO pARAMOUNT.

[saxwork]

Ok... you make a great point. Then where the hell is Apple? Dell? Hitachi? HP? LG? Mitsubishi? Panasonic? Philips? Pioneer? Samsung? Sharp? Sun Micro? TDK? Thompson? Sony?

Sure add all those up and that's a lot. Then will someone explain why these companies are letting Uncle Bill get away with this crap?

[supersix4]

even if they do BUYING POWER OF THE CONSUMER !! just like with 300 buy buy buy if sony studios is all we have then when a new sony movie comes out we buy that and make it #1 over all the other junk

[theknub]

umm if u read the insiders thread, you would see penton state that by the time the BDA knew the deal was so far along that nothing could be done.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by saxwork

Ok... you make a great point. Then where the hell is Apple? Dell? Hitachi? HP? LG? Mitsubishi? Panasonic? Philips? Pioneer? Samsung? Sharp? Sun Micro? TDK? Thompson? Sony?

Sure add all those up and that's a lot. Then will someone explain why these companies are letting Uncle Bill get away with this crap?

Where is Sony? I'm pretty sure that Sony is hiding under a rock and contributing nothing to the BDA.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Download movies suck. You have to wait forever. There is no guarantee that the whole movie will download correctly. You can't trade or sell old download movies, only erase them. A hard drive doesn't hold very many hd movies. 120gb or 60gb xbox hard drive will only hold a few hd movies at a time. Download movies is a dreadful idea. I will not support it.

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by Blu-Light

Call me paranoid but I am beginning to think that Fox released their fall release lineup not to counter what Paramount just did but to try to head off what we are about to get in the next week with a defection by Warner to go HD-DUD exclusive.

Here is another thought:

This was all planned out by Warner and Paramount well before we got to this point. They were both HD-DUD exclusive in the beginning. Why not put on a facade for a year to have the most impact of going back to HD-DUD exclusive when it mattered most to the war. And as a bonus they get these big money kick backs from MS and crew in the process. At this point I would not put it past either.

If Warner does go exclusive, they will be the largest bunch of hyprocrites the format was has seen. They've boasted again and again about the benefits of being neutral.

So I don't see that happening.

I suspect the next punch is on the hardware side, such as the past rumoured Walmart cheap-HD DVD player announcement. Previously I thought that would not fly due to the studio inbalance (why would Walmart back a loser?). But with the Paramount buy out the HD DVD camp has not given them an in to enter with a more neutral studio landscape.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Some of the top execs. at Viacom/paramount must have received under the table monies. They stood as a company to make well over $150 million just off of the sale of Transformers and the dreadful Shrek 3, let alone of of their other titles. This move shafts their co., their stockholders, and the blu-ray consumers.
DEATH TO pARAMOUNT.

Hmmm, what's the net profit from the sale of a copy of a movie on Blu-ray? Even if it is $10 of the $25 paid (which I doubt) they'd have to sell 15-million on BD to make what HD-DVD just handed them in cash and rebates. There's no way they'd sell 15 million BDs in the next 18 months. It's a great deal for VIA because it cuts their production costs in half and they make a profit while they see how the format war plays out. Seeing how fickle the consumer is, they can start producing BDs in a year and a half and we'll all be praising them for returning to the fold as we blaze a trail to Amazon.com.

It does make me thankful for the companies that are taking risk like Disney, FOX (now), Pioneer, Sony, etc. Paramount wasn't in a position to be profitable. You watch - they'll have their cake and eat it too.

-CB

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Where is Sony? I'm pretty sure that Sony is hiding under a rock and contributing nothing to the BDA.

They gave up the console war for blu ray (perhaps not intentionally)