Sony first to set prices on Blu-ray Disc titles
Sony is the first major studio to announce their pricing model for the upcoming release of their Blu-ray Disc titles. BD films fresh from the theaters should hit the shelves for $23.45 while catalog titles will drop for $17.95, wholesale. Yeah, that's a 15-20% premium over what new-release DVDs cost back at their '97 release but, according to Sony, it's meant to "accommodate the sell-through and rental markets" which DVDs initially avoided since the world was beset by video rentals at the time. But you won't see a Sony MSRP slapped to the back of their BDs. Instead they will allow retailers to set their own margin of profit (like Amazon who lists catalog BDs for $22.49) allowing for the invisible hand to sort it all out. Sony also plans to bundle DVD and UMD discs in a move to boost acceptance of the UMD format. Several titiles will be offered in packages that will sell for about $29 for both formats, compared to typical prices of about $25 for the DVD and $20 for the UMD. That's something they (and a few notable others) are "still working on."
