Gears of War 2: Waffles

Anyone else catch the headline at DigitalBits?

"Claims of BD's death are greatly... ah, %$@# it. Are you kidding me?!"

"...let's get real here. Blu-ray is NOT dead. It's not close to death. It's not even remotely sick or ailing. Saying otherwise is simply a clever ploy to get a LOT of people to read your columns...

Let's look at this from another perspective. One month ago, Paramount's Iron Man became the first Blu-ray Disc release to sell 500,000 units in its first week of release. Industry sources tell me that the title has CONTINUED to sell well and is closing in on 1 million units sold. If Iron Man doesn't get there first, Warner's mega-smash hit The Dark Knight is on deck for release on Blu-ray Disc on 12/9. Does anyone think it isn't going to fly off the shelves too? Either way, by the end of the year (almost certainly by the end of January), one of these two titles - and quite possibly BOTH - could hit 1 million units sold. That milestone will have been reached just a little more than two years after the Blu-ray format was launched. Do you know how long it took DVD to have its first million selling title? Just under THREE years - The Matrix, which debuted on the format in late 1999. Seems like Blu-ray's right on track to me."

Sounds like this guy got it exactly right.

I've got to agree with the entire post. The rumors aren't just greatly exaggerated they're completely baseless. Blu-Ray sales have been increasing at a very healthy rate. Huge releases like Hulk and Iron Man smashed records and for the first time really put a dent in DVD sales. IIRC correctly Iron Man on Blu-Ray made up 20% of the purchases. That's staggering for a title that requires both a new TV set and a new player. It was staggering when DVD pulled the same feat early on and that only required a new player. An early death for Blu-Ray is simply non-existent.

I also really disagree that Blu-Ray has an image problem to the general consumer. I do see one on tech related boards, there does seem to be a very vocal group of people who seem to like to try and create news stories about Blu-Ray failing. My favorites are those that claim no one is buying the Blu-Ray players and then in small print they mention that they're excluding PS3 sales, far and away the leading Blu-Ray player purchase (I bought two for Blu-Ray playback only).

The thing is these sites are related to folks like us. The heavy tech users. The average people aren't reading these baseless claims. When I talk to the people I know and suggest that the future may be in digital downloads I get blank stares. The general population still wants to hold a physical product. They want to buy a movie and own it, not "rent" a movie "ON DEMAND". Sure VOD is great and it might eat into the DVD rental business, but it's not going to replace purchases. The other fear I constantly hear is that digitally distributed content is entirely dependent on whatever platform you're buying it on. For example, if you "buy" a movie on the PS3 and then you stop using the system the movie does not transfer with you. Also the recent "delisting" of items (MK2 on the PSN store being an example) where purchased items cannot be re-downloaded once Sony decides to remove them. There's simply no real control over the content, and the average consumers aren't tech savy enough to tolerate buying a movie at full price and not being able to watch it how they see fit.

It really seems more like there's this small vocal group of tech savy people out there who are bound and determined to see the format fail. As the format seems to be gaining a wider acceptance and is smashing sales records constantly (just wait for the Dark Knight) these people want to keep pretending that digital distribution is a real option. In a world where download caps are becoming more and more common for ISPs digital distribution seems to be the only "new" format in trouble. But all in all I think it's time we stop discussing it. It's great to see this post, being one of the few speaking rationally. Blu-Ray is doing fine and all these guesses that it will fail based on no factual evidence and just a general "feeling" these people seem to have is ridiculous.

I completely disagree, nothing "pretty stupid" here. It's crazy how the anonymity of the internet can cause such hatred towards people. American McGee has had a pretty consistent track record and I for one look for his name in the title as a sign of quality. That doesn't mean anyone else has to love his games but there's certainly no need to go on some off topic and pointless internet rant just because his game is being reviewed.

That said this game is pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to be. It's a game meant to be initially free and part of 24 episode series and it plays like that. It's nothing groundbreaking nor should anyone in their right mind expect it to be. It's probably one of the more imaginative free games I can think of.

As it stands it's not intended to be a high mark of computer gaming, but rather a test of this new distribution style. It's a pretty dramatic change from the way games have been released up until now and hopefully it'll provide him an outlet for the products he's releasing. Maybe we'll finally get Oz in a fashion similar to this. It seems like this model would be a good way for American to put out the games he wants before they get destroyed by publishers. I love the Sam and Max games from TellTale but here's hoping more classic LucasArts games can be revived in a similar fashion.

Yeah, I'm not denying Tom Clancy knows his stuff, though I am curious... does he write the plots for his games?

What I am saying is that the conflict between Georgia and Russia has been going on for decades. I don't really think it's predicting much to make a game based around two countries actively fighting with one another... it's not a prediction it's reality. It's already happened prior to this, hence my comments about it being like predicting WW2. It will surely continue to go on. Even after that skirmish ended Russia and Georgia continued to make threats towards each other back and forth for years leading up to the more recent troubles.

Call me crazy but it's not a huge leap to make a game focusing on two countries who have been at each others throats for so long... it would be like predicting trouble between Israel and Iran. These aren't predictions, they're the world we've been living in.

Is it really considered a prediction? The fighting between Georgia and Russia has been going on for decades at this point.

It would be almost as accurate to say Call or Duty predicted WW2 or the war in Iraq.

*yawn*

Another story about people not wanting to buy Blu-Ray? At first I just thought people were surprised at how long the entire HD revolution has taken to get off the ground. Compared to DVD it is a little bit slower, so I can understand that. But the constant release of these pseudo news stories is really starting to make me think there is a Blu-Ray bias out there. It's almost like you guys want the format to fail. I mean come on, the format war just ended. Give it some time to actually take hold before you start calling the time of death. I think there should be a year waiting period at minimum after a format war ends to see what's happened since. It's far too early to be able to say anything that's worth saying. For as horrible as the economy is right now and for as much as people are struggling to pay their bills I think it's remarkable the sales Blu-Ray already has.

Amazon... and when I can be tempted to leave the house Best Buy.

And I never never shop at Gamestop.
Ever.

Why do people keep assuming that without two formats prices will go up? DVD has been the only format since it launched and it's done nothing but decrease in cost. Unlike the RIAA it seems the MPAA or at least the studios know what they're doing... I can buy two or three DVDs for the cost of one CD these days.

When it comes to media... it seems like the only one who has really kept costs for the consumer down is the lone format DVD. So let's stop trying to create things to be alarmed about. By eliminating a second useless format it means that now the bulk of the population have one format they can buy into. Now no one has to fear that their investment in one format or another will be wasted. In other words... now we can start to see the true HD-DVD (Blu-Ray) take off and once they start selling we'll finally be able to see those prices start falling. Competition is exactly what's been keeping the price of these discs so high initially.

"Did they mean by "packaging options" offering a discount for multiple episode downloads, like Amazon does with complete seasons?"

iTunes already seems to do this. At least the few times I've browsed the store I've seen a discount for buying a whole season.