Although Toshiba still continues to declare their HDDVD as an equal comptetitor to Sony’s BluRay, the seem to have a small problem: Of the high-definition discs bought by consumers in the first quarter, 70% were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 30% were HD DVD, according to sales figures provided by trade publication Home Media Magazine. Blu-ray took the lead in February, and its percentage of total sales accelerated to the point where it accounted for nearly three out of every four high-definition discs sold in March. What’s more, when given the choice, consumers are going with Blu-ray. Warner Home Video released “The Departed” the same day, February 13, in both formats. Between then and March 31, consumers bought 53,640 copies of the film on Blu-ray Disc and 31,590 on HD DVD, according to Home Media’s market research, based on studio estimates and Nielsen VideoScan point-of-sale data.
Research also shows that eight of the 10 top-selling high-definition titles in the first quarter were on Blu-ray Disc. At the top of the list was “Casino Royale,” which sold through to consumers an estimated 59,680 units in the period. The Blu-ray Disc edition of “Departed” finished second, while the HD DVD version of that Oscar-winning film placed third. From January 1-March 31, consumers bought almost 1.2 million high-definition discs — 832,530 Blu-ray units and 359,300 HD DVDs — according to Home Media Magazine. Observers aren’t surprised by the disparity, noting that Blu-ray Disc enjoys the support of five of the six major studios, while HD DVD is supported by three of them. Sony PlayStation also plays a crucial role in these numbers in my opinion.
Source: Reuters, Cnet
Comments(37)
Some more long term view:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31726/128/
nice i love Blu-Ray
Looks like Sony has won the battle , and with the cheapest Blue-ray player ever i am talking of the PS3 that can also enable you to play great games ( figures
) they allready won the new media battle on the movie market. Now the big question is still what format will be picked by the devs for PC games , as we allready knew Billy G. likes HD-DVD and they allready included drivers on Vista that are recognizing this format , BUT as we allready know there you can buy now HD-dvd , Blue-ray burners that will drop they prices in few years – this remembers me the BATTLE of DVD+ VS DVD-
Beta.
I’ll keep saying that untill HD-DVD takes over.
Its media like this that makes people think something is doing well.
Fact is the HD-DVD format is slower in the uptake becuase its sitting back watching Blu-Ray kill itself with over priced media and sub standard menu systems.
HD-DVD players have yet to hit the market in a big way and believe me when they do it will be worth remembering comments like this.
dude you need to stop smoking the weed before you make posts like that load of bullshit
Calm down.
All I’ll say is that this is just the beginning, give it a year and we’ll have a better picture of which format will win.
Patience is a virtue.
Laughs at Alpha…
Yeah, why are people so eager to jump to conclusions? These HD discs have been on the market for a very brief time and this kind of news proves nothing at this point. Give it some time and in a year the situation could be totally different.
P.S. I really don’t give a s**t which one wins…
Yep, wait some time.
I think it’s a tie. Both formats will go on… I came to this conclusion because everyone who owns PS3 will most likely buy Bly-Ray movies ( ofc you can buy external HD-DVD drive for XB360 but I think most of the gamers don’t do that [ atleast I wouldn't because price of the console would be almost same as PS3 is now. ])
Then there is PC market. I think this decides everything if nothing else “big” happen. But as with XB360 and external drive there is also Blu-Ray option for drive. SoI think pretty muchh tie….
Actually I hope it’s a tie but until time goes on we don’t know yet. =)
These are such tiny amounts compared to dvd sale… Its impossible to make suck acurate predictions! There might not even be a winner; my money is on direct download.
i dont care about both formats since i do not own a hd ready tv or a full hd because i don´t have fucking 1500€ for a tv or 600€ for a blue ray player (err ps3 bs)
beside that i like my dvds my normal cheap tv and my wii
I prefer Blu-Ray. Also if I had the money I would rather buy a PS3 then a 360. But then I’d had to buy a HD-TV as well to take full advantage of those things, and I don’t have that kind of money at all.
Damn those ridiculous prices. A well, I’ll just keep dreaming on.
in the beginning I also thought that Blu-ray will be better.. so Im just waiting till the price fall down
It was blatant that Blu ray would have taken over since there’s more memory on it and more can be done. I went to the shops to scope the hi def movies and I just couldn’t be bothered to look at the hd dvds. Blu ray will take over until we are buying movies on chips or are just downloading them on ultra high speed internet connections. A few months and hd dvd will probably be just a memory like the Dreamcast. Blu ray Rules for now.
This site sucks
this site sucks even more
I don’t see any clear end to this yet.(wasn’t the new Planet Earth HD-dvd topping at amazon with ~70d pricetag?).anyway,both formats have strong support and not likely to draw back easily.it might end with a longer term “fade out” as players supporting both formats arrive at the market.Maby the winner is the one who can first drop prices to reasonable level (~200-300) so average Joe (with hdtv;) can buy it..
I am supergay!!
Yeah I read in a few places that for High Movies HD-DVD is better quality. Only advantage Blu-Ray seems to have is storage capacity so as far as PC storage disks go then should be OK, but not until the price is right.
The few PS3’s that sold probably helped boost Blu-Ray. Now PS3′ sales have slumped then HD-DVD should catch up. Mind you not always does the best man win…
Wrong Wrong Wrong!
Blu-ray is outselling IN THE US ONLY! HD-DVD is outselling Blue-ray equally in Europe!
Not trying to kick up a fuss, but I’m sure that I keep reading slashdot articals that constantly contradict each other…
I agree with Tric, we’ll see who wins in a year or 2 and then joe average won’t have to gamble half his yearly earnings on a technology that has a 50/50 (and face it, it IS 50/50) chance of succeding
it is very important to watch these early numbers because once one format gets out in front they are rarely caught. Electronic sales have a snow ball effect. Once one media format begins more popular, more people will buy it because it is seen as more future proof.
I disagree that these numbers are meaningless, they are huge news. Next month the gap could be bigger and the same the month after that. And then all of a sudden hd-dvd is dead. the war could be over sooner than we think.
BD is far from winning the war. If you want to know why, research Wal-Mart and Fuh Yuan.
The better won. Live with it, people.
Blue Ray is better ide say!
Anywho time for me to go watch Manchester United beat AC Milan……
CUM ON
UNITED
re: Daytona
Why do you think BR has won and what is the technological wonder that you seem to think makes it so vastly superior to HD-DVD?
Just to clarify, I’m not taking sides.
Guess I’m the only one around here old enough to remember laser discs. BR… HD-DVD… who cares, they’ve already prototyped the next larger/faster formats. About the time these people buying discs now finish replacing their collection of DVDs it’ll be time to start with the next.
And it’s just a storage format. Nobody should care. It’s like bragging about having a 16 gallon gas tank in your car.
well I own a PS3, a 360 with HD drive and even an old laserdisc player and to be fair on side by side HD-DVD seems to have a much nicer picture quality than Blu Ray. plus with all the fuss about profile 1.1 becoming mandatory by November and making some of the older (well less than a year old) players obsolete and then profile 2.0 to follow as well as BD-J none of which are guaranteed to be entirely backwards compatible (although it is said that if you own an older model player you will still be able to watch the main feature of a disc even if you can’t access any extra features) then I certainly wouldn’t count HD-DVD out after all it is at least a stable format.
And just how reliable are these sales figures from this great Magazine?
Walmart just made a huge deal, them buying a big pile of HD DVD players, so I really doubt Blu-ray has won shit.
Marios better than sonic.My consoles better than yours, i cant believe its not butter, blah blah.
The same old argument.
Gonna go and play on my spectrum 48k now while listening to madness on my decca music centre while knocking one out to that nice girl off that buck rodgers tv show.(you know… the one in the tight little number.)
Bring back vinyl!
peace man!!!
It was a war that shouldn’t have taken place. Blu-ray will win because even though Sony fudged the launch of PS3 I expect it to sell at least half as well as PS2 which will mean there will be more Blu-Ray players under TVs. The cautious amongst you will sit back and wait a year or two for a clear winner to emerge or cheaper prices. But these figures do show a trend. (Ps. it is fair to record that the European release of the PS3 was only a few weeks ago now hence the slow uptake of Blu-Ray media in Europe.)
haha why people even bring up a gay console like Wii in this thread? wtf does Wii have to do with hidef media? retards who buy wii (same braindead mainstream tools who watch oprah/american idol and eat at mcdonalds and shop at walmart) are happy with 480p resolution and spending $10 to download ten year old NES games to play…..so please ppl….leave those “wiitards” outta this discussion. thnx
joey you are a complete retard sorry
When Walmart is willing to spend $150 million on purchasing HD DVD players, who do you think is shitting in its pants?
Joey: Stop being such a narrowmidned elitist…
who buys this stuff? maybe some people do who can afford it
Itought because the porn industry is going to use HD DVD that HD is going to win