Sony claims Blu-ray "winner" in format war
That's it folks, let's pack it up and go home: the format war is over. Or at least so says Sony, which is bragging about some solid numbers from the month January. Reportedly two Blu-ray Discs were sold for every one HD DVD last month, and while HD DVD standalone players still edge out Blu-ray by a slight margin, PS3 sales have given the Blu-ray camp a solid win for the month. Numbers are still hard to read, due to disparate launch titles and quantities for Blu-ray and HD DVD, but the 25 Blu-ray movies and 11 HD DVD movies give a good impression of the current trend. Reportedly HD DVD sales are growing, just not as fast and Blu-ray, and Sony seems to think they have it in the bag: "We have a critical mass of content, we have the biggest mass of consumer electronics companies in the world supporting this format. That has moved Blu-ray into the forefront." And despite the fact that Universal Studios is still holding out on putting its movie on Blu-ray -- the last of the studios to do so -- Sony would like to let consumers know it's alright to come out of hiding. "The message that we're going to put out to the consumer now is, now it is safe to make a choice. No more fence-sitting is needed." We can't blame Sony for trying to spin these numbers as a win, it's pretty clear that consumers are wary of committing to one format while another is still alive and kicking, but we're afraid this might be calling the game a tad prematurely.
[Via Engadget HD]
