Next-Gen Disc Formats Are Both Losers
Any time that a console is responsible for the bulk of a next-gen disc format's sales, we're willing to consider the possibility that most consumers just don't give a damn. Yet, it seems that nearly ¾ of all North American Blu-ray Disc players are found in PS3s and more than a third of all HD DVD Drives are Xbox 360 HD add-on drives if the following numbers are accurate:
“Microsoft does not openly share its sales figures on its accessories, though a company representative did say in June that it had reached 155,000 units sold – showing a slow but steady adoption rate of the HD DVD add-on.
The HD DVD Promotional Group announced in November that it had sold more than 750,000 HD DVD players, including the Xbox 360 accessory, in North America.
The updated numbers from NPD, if accurate, show that Xbox 360 owners with the HD DVD drive account for more than one-third of all hardware owners of the high-definition format.
On the other hand, while standalone players are the majority of HD DVD hardware, it is the gaming console that is leading the way for Blu-ray Disc players. According to data released earlier this month, around 74 percent of all Blu-ray Disc players in North America are PlayStation 3 consoles.”
If the Xbox 360 has an integrated HD Drive at launch, it is entirely possible that we'd be seeing both standards driven by consoles. Or is it a case of both consoles driven by the standards? Either way, there are less than a million North American homes with an HD DVD player, and that alone is enough to give us pause to consider the state of the ongoing conflict. Perhaps the holiday season will finally bring a clear winner to this conflict, but it might take a few million units to reach a large enough install base to achieve the momentum needed to steamroll the opposition.
“Microsoft does not openly share its sales figures on its accessories, though a company representative did say in June that it had reached 155,000 units sold – showing a slow but steady adoption rate of the HD DVD add-on.
The HD DVD Promotional Group announced in November that it had sold more than 750,000 HD DVD players, including the Xbox 360 accessory, in North America.
The updated numbers from NPD, if accurate, show that Xbox 360 owners with the HD DVD drive account for more than one-third of all hardware owners of the high-definition format.
On the other hand, while standalone players are the majority of HD DVD hardware, it is the gaming console that is leading the way for Blu-ray Disc players. According to data released earlier this month, around 74 percent of all Blu-ray Disc players in North America are PlayStation 3 consoles.”
If the Xbox 360 has an integrated HD Drive at launch, it is entirely possible that we'd be seeing both standards driven by consoles. Or is it a case of both consoles driven by the standards? Either way, there are less than a million North American homes with an HD DVD player, and that alone is enough to give us pause to consider the state of the ongoing conflict. Perhaps the holiday season will finally bring a clear winner to this conflict, but it might take a few million units to reach a large enough install base to achieve the momentum needed to steamroll the opposition.
