Blu-ray outsells HD-DVD format in Europe

[SomethingForKate]

Apologies if this has already been covered ... about a thousand times!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...38108420071127

LONDON (Reuters) - High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold.

Citing industry sales data, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony's PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market.

But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) while Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) backs the Blu-ray standard.

Of the high definition movie discs bought by consumers so far this year in Europe, 73 percent were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 27 percent were HD DVD, according to sales data provided by Media Control Gfk International.

Blu-ray said the best selling titles were 300, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Home Media Research said in October Blu-ray Disc DVD titles had outsold rival HD-DVD titles by almost two-to-one in the first nine months of the year in the United States.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by David Holmes)

SFK

[LordGamer]

While many (especially the HD DVD community) seem to ignore it, Blu-ray world domination continues. Again, these are the things that studios and businesses in the industry pay attention to. Not what Frank, the forum fanboy posts.

Two things greatly in the BDA's favor, they focus on the world and abilities beside just movies (i.e. gaming, computer).

[Bullseye]

So they have sold 1 million movie disks and 20 million games. Thats impressive since they have only been out since March.

[Zazou]

Same details posted in an Inquirer article.

Hopefully this news will be well publicised. The more people read about the massive gap in sales the more likely they are to buy from the winning format. The more discs they buy, the wider the gap grows.

Lee

[Zazou]

Article also just posted up on The Register. Keep 'em coming

Lee

[Kirsty_Mc]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

So they have sold 1 million movie disks and 20 million games. Thats impressive since they have only been out since March.

That number also excludes the personal imports from the US and no doubt a lot of titles that turn up on eBay. So the numbers will be even greater .

[SomethingForKate]

The 73% number simply has to sway people. Come on, BD is outselling HD-DVD by 3:1 in Europe people!

And yes, some of the discs I've bought are from the US and I'm not a huge BD collector - although mostly because I'm too poor! So the real figure in Europe has to be higher.

BD definitely has the European market captured so hopefully some of the HD-DVD exclusive studios will at the very least start distributing content on HD in Europe. We can only hope.

And not to keep harking on about the PS3, as I know it's not the only BD player in the world, but with the price cut, it's sales have increased drastically. I know loads of people who are now scrambling to get them as they're starting to sell out in the run-up to Christmas!

SFK

[Zazou]

Another article re: the sales figures on DigitalSpy, a very good UK media website with massive readership. Its forums have more than 199,000 registered users and 14 million posts, and is in the top 30 english language forums in the world.

Today is a good day to be Blu.

[dakota81]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

So they have sold 1 million movie disks and 20 million games. Thats impressive since they have only been out since March.

21 million "produced for sale".

But anyways, seems 73% is since inception sales, wonder what the YTD percentage is.

[mystiksuicide]

Hopefully by April the numbers will be 2.5/3 :1 here in the states

[Giyomu]

ok I surrender it's me...

I bought too much blu-ray last week

[Thatcher]

I just bought Tomb Raider 2 and 12 Monkeys. It only took 7-8 days to get to the states. Ground shipping. It cost me $73.00 ouch..