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Tag: sony-playstation

  • "Best way to buy a Blu-ray player" isn't getting cheaper

    Sony resists PS3 price cut despite rival Xbox 360 dropping by US$50


    Sony’s Play Station 3, with its integrated Blu-ray disc (BD) player, has given many millions of consumers their first taste of the high definition format.

    But hopes that the makers of the US$399 video game console would give Blu-ray a further boost have been dashed by Sony chairman Howard Stringer.
    Prices of stand-alone BD devices are widely regarded as remaining too high to persuade many viewers to ditch their DVD players.

    The Sony chief claims Microsoft’s decision to cut the price of its Xbox 360 by US$50 is evidence that it’s falling behind the PS3 in overall sales.

    Microsoft has no intention of adding a Blu-ray drive to the Xbox. David Gosen, the company’s vice president of strategic marketing for Europe, said they weren’t looking towards Blu-ray as a long-term format.
    Instead Microsoft will concentrate on distributing media through its Netflix rental service in the US, which should also be pushed into Europe in due course.

    However, after trailing Microsoft’s console in 2007, sales data from the NPD Group show that PS3’s US sales have surpassed the XBox for the first five months of this year, although both consoles still trail Nintendo’s Wii.
    The Wii had sales of 2.8 million units during the five months through to May, according to the NPD Group. Sony sold 1.2 million PS3 consoles and Microsoft sold 1.12 million Xbox 360s.

    New exclusive games, such as Metal Gear Solid 4, and the rise of Sony’s Blu-ray as the dominant high-definition DVD player have been instrumental in giving PS3 its lead.

    Stringer said: “We’re selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it’s still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player.’”
    But speaking after reports that Microsoft was cutting the price of its 20-gigabyte Xbox 360 from US$349 to US$299 while supplies last, he said: “We’re not considering lowering the price.
    “We don’t have to be nervous about what Xbox 360 does. We’re in fine shape.”

    As well as a price drop, Microsoft have just announced that Universal, and NBC Universal programming, is coming to Xbox Live, delivering The Office, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, The Mummy, Bourne Supremacy and others to the service.
    Xbox Live Video Marketplace now claims over 10,000 movies and TV shows on the marketplace, which it says puts it as the number one HD provider.
    MGM and Constantin are pushing things forward in Europe, having just added 700 new titles to the library.

  • Free high definition content is the future as viewers grow accustomed to the new "normal" television


    The head of the UK’s Freesat digital service believes viewers will begin to resent paying for HDTV as increasing numbers regard it as the new “standard”.
    Emma Scott, managing director of Freesat, which launched in May, said there were already over 10m HD ready TV sets in UK homes.
    But at the time of Freesat’s launch only around 5 per cent of those HD ready homes were actually watching television programmes in high definition – and by subscription.
    Addressing the Broadcast Digital Channels Conference 2008 earlier this month, she said consumers and retailers wanted HD content– but it was the broadcasters that had taken a while to catch up.
    “Free HD is a long term opportunity for broadcasters and for Freesat,” she said. “HD is not a gimmick, it’s a new standard for television and one which every broadcaster I’ve met would love to deliver its content in.
    “I do not believe that HD will remain a long term income driver for pay platform operators – consumers will resent paying for something they see as the ‘new normal’ television if it isn’t premium sport and movies, which they already ‘expect’ to pay for.”
    Freesat offers subscription-free high definition channels and services once viewers have made a one-off payment for equipment.
    It expects to have up to 200 channels by the end of this year, including two high definition services – BBC HD and ITV HD – both available for free.
    Scott said that only with the launch of Freesat, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, was HDTV really free for anyone who wanted it.
    She pointed to the rise in popularity of HD in the US, saying that the 35 per cent of homes now watching in HD were increasingly loyal to the networks they watched – and sought out HD programming, even if they wouldn’t normally watch the genre.
    “And with 1m Sony Playstation3s and an increasing number of Blu-ray players sold – both of which allow you to watch HD content via an HD ready TV – there are an increasing number of homes who will never want to switch back to just normal, ‘standard’ definition content.”
    Citing other popular examples where consumers get free access to products and services – such as Gmail, YouTube and Skype – she said Freesat hoped to be as successful in broadcasting.
    “So, in a world where there is widespread availability of digital technology, consumers increasingly expect their media for free,” she said.
    “But just being free isn’t enough for Freesat. Freesat will be the best of free, and is only going to get bigger and better.”