Blu-ray claims victory, gives away Casino Royale to boost takeup numbers

Adam Turner
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 18:41

Opinion and Analysis

Sony plans to market Blu-ray as the winner of the high definition format war, declaring HD DVD dead and buried as it prepares to give away copies of Casino Royale on Blu-ray with the first 500,000 PlayStation 3s.

The fact Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD by a ratio of 2:1 in January is enough for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop to declare Blu-ray victorious, reports High-Def Digest. Bishop conveniently overlooks the fact 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD. He also overlooks the fact that HD DVD is ahead in overall sales.

Sony is wrong to declare the war is over, but it is right in thinking it will be fought by the marketing department. The Casino Royale giveaway certainly smells of a marketing ploy. Every PS3 sold is another Blu-ray player sale Sony can count, even though it could be argued most units might only be used as games consoles. By giving away Casino Royale, Sony can claim hand-on-heart that at least 500,000 PS3 owners also own at least one Blu-ray disc.

Even before the January sales figures were released, the Blu-ray Disc Association was declaring Blu-ray victorious as "the premiere high definition DVD format of choice" at CES. It's tempting to call it a Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt campaign, but it's actually the opposite. Sony is attempting to reassure people that the format war is over, so if they buy a Blu-ray player there's no risk off getting stuck with BetaMax 2.0.

"This will not be another BetaMax," declares Sony in its best Dubya-esque Texan twang. Propaganda aside, I think this format war has some life in it yet.