Do Europeans and Asians think our market is insignificant?

Blu ray is just being forced on people by Sony via the PS3, that mean that aren't give a choice to decide. They buy the PS3 to play games then see that Blu ray can play on it.

If Microsoft had included the HD DVD in the 360 like they planed they would of been out in front with 10+ million players, and the EU and others (Sony and company) would of been screaming monopoly from the top of the mountains.


Joe why not try and spin that Friday meeting between M$, Toshiba, Universal, & WB. That ink is drying :D
 
It's being disscuss on the insider tread at HDD, they say WB isn't taking the high $ bribe like Paramount. They will not leak the outcome but say all 4 were in discussions Friday, even the people at blu-ray.com are worried at the outcome. They are downplaying losing WB if they go red.
 
...the people at blu-ray.com are worried at the outcome. They are downplaying losing WB if they go red.
I can't really understand why br.com is worried.
If Warner goes HD exclusive, the landscape will be exactly the same as it was 19 months ago when the blu prophet Blu Shill Bill wrote:
My Two Cents - Archived Posts (5/17/05 - 5/2/05)
...I'm going to go out in a limb right now and post something that some of you may consider a bit controversial. But I think the writing is on the wall.
I think the format war is over before it's even begun, and the Toshiba/HD-DVD camp is toast.

...This thing is over. It's done. Toshiba and Warner Bros. just haven't figured it out yet.

...Because I'm telling you right now, if Toshiba backs away completely and this format war DOES happen, Toshiba's going to lose big.

It is unclear how BD managed NOT to win this war while having Warner and Paramount neutral for about a year.
But hey, when did simple logic play any role in blu thinking... :)

But rest assured, if this happens, the blu band will have an explanation ready: Microsoft monopolistic behaviour in action.
Michael Bay will forget his "revelation" about MS wanting both formats dead and will lead the procession to the DOJ.
The most interesting part will be reading Penton-Man comments: will it again be "I knew it long before, sorry couldn't tell you guys..."?

Diogen.
 
The probablem for the Blu side is WB was there top movie releaser, while on the red side Universal was the top releaser, and top overall in the war.
 
Nah.... Their problems with winning were:

1. Releasing the Samsung first and Fifth Element
2. Price of SA players 999 and up to start
3. Incomplete specs
 
The probablem for the Blu side is WB was there top movie releaser, while on the red side Universal was the top releaser, and top overall in the war.
I don't think either side can afford to lose WB:
On BD: Sony-24.5%; WB-26% Blu-ray Disc Statistics
On HD: Universal-38.8%; WB-34.6% HD DVD Statistics

If they don't see immediate payoff by going exclusive (either way) they can probably "blackmail" both sides for doing nothing... :)
Why trigger negative publicity like Paramount if you can get paid just for keeping the status quo?

Diogen.
 
If Warner went HD exclusive, Anchor Bay, Fox and Disney might actually have to start releasing movies for Blu-Ray to catch up. :haha
 
If Warner went HD exclusive, Anchor Bay, Fox and Disney might actually have to start releasing movies for Blu-Ray to catch up. :haha

Didn't you hear? SOme yahoo over at HDD said that Fox is mad at BDA and is going neutral :rolleyes:

S~
 
Ah, clandestine meetings, big moves on the horizon, what if Warner went exclusive -- oh how the spinmeisters come a-waging their pens! Warner has been meeting with both camps and the scuttlebut is that alot more then money is being tossed around. And alot more money then Paramount settled for. BIG DEAL!!! Warner is in the drivers seat, they sell more HD discs then anybody (this includes Universal) and they don't have to do a thing. They had this thing knocked with their TotalHD disc until Paramount got the big payday and that product is still in play. Maybe Warner is meeting with everyone to try and convince both sides to accept the TotalHD disc as a way for both sides to win. Have any of you thought about that?

Interesting note, if Warner decided to go HD-DVD exclusive all that would gain is a 70% drop in disc sales (Paramount has not made up the differance in loss of BD disc sales with the sales of any of their titles that they have released and this includes Transformers and Shrek3). And that decision would not end this perceived format war as it would just make the supporting studios even. Heck, it probably only give HD-DVD the chance to break even and win a few weeks -- this would not bring an end to the format war.

I am going to standby my belief that it will be the retailers who end this for us.

As for my original post, at one time as the US market went so went the rest of the world. We are no longer the world's leader. We are still the biggest money market but we don't wag the worlds tail the way we used to.

We are behind in the developement of the internet -- many countries have internets that are 5 times as fast as the average in this country. We are the only country that allows multiple cellphone standards thus we have the worst cellphone networks in the world. Heck, third world countries have better cellphone networks then we do. Sometimes competition is not all that great. We no longer lead the world in manufacturing of anything other then guns -- and that is not something to be proud about.

My premise was that maybe the US market would not neccesarilly decide this format war that seems to only be happening in this country. I see that no one want to take up the task of debating this. I can see why. It is easier to call someone names, spread FUD and otherwise ignore what could be a deciding factor in which format is around two years from now. Seems reasonable debate might not be possible anymore.
 
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My premise was that maybe the US market would not neccesarilly decide this format war that seems to only be happening in this country. I see that no one want to take up the task of debating this. I can see why. .
While I can see many of you points in the post, wouldnt you like to restate this part? If the "war" is only happening in THIS country, wouldnt THIS market be the one that decided it (here that is)???:p
 
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Since most retailers are not owned locally -- except for stock holders -- I see the retailers looking at their shelf space and making a decision based on their sister companies in other countries. I was working with EB as a District Manager when EB branched out into other countries. Within 6 months the product mix changed drastically. Reason given was that the market was changing but the real reason was that the market in Europe and Central and South America was not the same as the US and that forced EB to make a decision. You only have so much money and so much space -- both shelve and storage and EB did what it had to to support its move to other countries. It did not hurt the company overall but I believe it did put them into a posistion where they were bought out by Gamestop instead of the other way around.

This keeps happening to companies in the US and it will continue to. This does not only happen in the home entertainment market but in every market here in the US. We are the last to get the new cell phones with the new features, we are the last to get the lastest in HDTV technology, we are the last to get the ground breaking tech in the automotive arena (diesels in Europe are already getting 85MPG!, Japanese are the first to the market with dual-energy cars, and will be the first to the market with cell tech autos.) These are just a few of the products that we are last to get. Many other parts of the world are booming ahead of the US in terms of tech in the hands of the consumer and here in the good ol' USA we wait for that technology to come to us. And it is the local retailers looking at what is hot in Asia and Europe that is bringing these new technological products to the consumer here in the US.

It seems that we are no longer in charge of our destiny as a consumer. I believe that the retailers will look at what is happening in most of the world in sales between these two formats and make a decision based on the format that will deliver the most profit to them worldwide -- just not here in the US. To think otherwise is to be blind to the fact that we no longer have a protected market nor do we have the best choice of products as we have had in the past. It is in this atmosphere that I see retailers deciding a format for us.

A saving grace would be for Warner to convince everyone to adopt their TotalHD product. Both Toshiba and Sony would get a slice of the pie along with Warner and manufacturers could make products for whichever format they chose. Without that happening -- one of the formats has to go for the other one to have a chance at mass adoption.
 
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I'd agree that US' geopolitical role in the world is diminishing and this does have effect on technological issues. IT spending, according to Marc Anderson from SNS, in the non-US world will surpass the US spending for the first time ever in 2008. That is a first and probably will continue in different areas.

But let's stick to the tried and true KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). Those gigantic shifts in roles played by different contries/continents take decades to materialize. In the movie business - now and for the forseeable future - we have
-highest HDTV penetration in homes is in the US
-biggest blockbusters are made in the US
-most money, even if originating from abroad, gets invested in the US
etc.

The HD vs. BD war should be decided within a few years max even if we are going to see a winner. Seeing the US role diminish will take decades. I can't see how those two are connected.

Diogen.
 
Interesting note, if Warner decided to go HD-DVD exclusive all that would gain is a 70% drop in disc sales (Paramount has not made up the differance in loss of BD disc sales with the sales of any of their titles that they have released and this includes Transformers and Shrek3). And that decision would not end this perceived format war as it would just make the supporting studios even. Heck, it probably only give HD-DVD the chance to break even and win a few weeks -- this would not bring an end to the format war.

There may be a 70% drop in disc sales, but WB would know this going in. The real question will be profit - how much will they save by eliminating the Blu Ray line - manufacturing costs, marketing, etc. If they think they can eliminate those costs and maintain or increase their profit margin by going HD-DVD exclusive, then it's a no-brainer for WB. Warner is a very bottom-line focused company.
 
Gee tnsprin, you just took the wind out of Diogen's, Vurbano's and JeremyL's sails!! Guess you were right Diogen -- it wasn't a retailer or disc sales in another country that settle this war -- it was WARNER GOING BLU!!!
 
Gee tnsprin, you just took the wind out of Diogen's, Vurbano's and JeremyL's sails!! Guess you were right Diogen -- it wasn't a retailer or disc sales in another country that settle this war -- it was WARNER GOING BLU!!!

Actually, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm dual format. I just prefer HD-DVD.

Of course, half a billion dollars paid to WB by Sony sure goes a long way to helping their bottom line.
 

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