Two more significant wins for Blu-ray were reported today by blu-ray.com (and I am sure many other sites.
First, Best Buy will officially recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD:
Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer commented, “Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format. Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them.
Second, Netflix will exclusively carry Blu-ray:
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix commented, “The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition. We are now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly.”
Blu-ray is going to propel the PS3 forward. Some would say kicking and screaming, but the situation is no longer dire for Sony. In fact, today is another feather (or two) in Sony’s cap.
PS3 is catching up fast in Europe. In fact, in some countries it may have passed the X360.
Recent games reflects the PS3 strength. I think the first week, the PS3 version of Burnout Paradise was one of the top sellers. The Xbox version was a top seller in Europe too but not as many units.
Europeans say Sony has a lot of brand equity and they sponsor Champions League and F1.
So North America is where X360 has jumped way out. X360 sold well this past year, with big titles like Halo 3. But PS3 had bigger year over year gains than the X360.
This year, a lot of big PS3 titles are due. X360 should get Gears of War 2.
Should be interesting but EA is already predicting that PS3 will have a bigger installed base than X360 in Europe by the end of this year.