Consoles make up bulk of high-def movie player sales
There are more game systems that can play high-definition movies than standalone players that can do the same, according to sales numbers culled from recent media reports.
In the HD DVD realm, a Microsoft representative told CNet UK that the company had sold 155,000 units of the Xbox 360's HD DVD player in the States, making it the best-selling add-on in the system's short history. Compare that to the 100,000 standalone players that the HD DVD Promotional Group said had sold through April and you can see that it's primarily gamers driving adoption of the format.
The results are similar in the Blu-Ray realm, where the million-plus PS3s sold in North America dwarfs the "less than 100,000" standalone players sold according to a Business Week article. It's unclear exactly how many PS3 owners are actually using their systems to play the high-def movie format, but strong Blu-ray disc sales would seem to indicate that at least some of them are taking advantage of the feature.
What's more, the sales of high-def discs seem to finally be making a dent in the traditional DVD market. Sales of standard-definition DVDs were down eight percent in the first quarter of this year and analysts predict they'll begin to level off as more high-def game systems are sold.
Read - HD DVD Posse: "There's Room for Both Formats" (CNet UK) [Via Xbox360Fanboy]
Read - In DVD war, body blows for Toshiba (BusinessWeek)
