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Sony Pushes Back Release For Blu-Ray Players 262

Posted by Zonk from the series-of-unfortunate-events dept.
Sony has announced that their first model of Blu-Ray player will release in August, not later this month as originally announced. The BDP-SP1, retailing for $1000, will now ship on or about August 15th. Bad news for fans of the new format, and even worse news for the PS3. Since Sony's lackluster E3 showing, a string of bad news has seemed to conspire against the company's next-gen console. From the Gamers with Jobs article: "With the PS3's high-end model coming it at a whopping $400.00 less than a stand-alone Blu-Ray player, Sony needs to release these players as soon as possible. If they wait too long, the PS3 will begin looming on the horizon, causing even devout early adopters to question the intelligence of buying a stand-alone Blu-Ray unit. Sony also needs the largest possible installed base, come launch-time for the PS3. For the Blu-Ray player to be the PS3's version of the PS2's DVD player, casual technophiles need to be able to see the virtues of the Blu-Ray format. If there are few players, and few titles, this might not happen."
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Sony Pushes Back Release For Blu-Ray Players More

Sony Pushes Back Release For Blu-Ray Players

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  • If they wait too long, the PS3 will begin looming on the horizon, causing even devout early adopters to question the intelligence of buying a stand-alone Blu-Ray unit.
    Assuming the PS3 blu-ray player actually works [wikipedia.org], then it will be an issue for Sony to consider.

    My friend bought a first generation DVD player and it's still functioning to this day. I think it even has some of the codecs built into it (MP3, AVIs, etc.). His PS2's DVD functionality went out long ago. And that was after he participated in the first recall [megagames.com].

    Buy a game console for its games. Buy a media player for its media playing abilities. Let's stop encouraging the console makers to bloat their consoles. Concentrate on one thing and--for the love of the game--get it right!
    • Buy a game console for its games. Buy a media player for its media playing abilities. Let's stop encouraging the console makers to bloat their consoles. Concentrate on one thing and--for the love of the game--get it right!

      While this seems apparent to you or I, for some reason those in the marketing departments of major companies really do think that more is more. I agree with your sentiment, and will second the right is better notion.

    • Re:Will PS3's Blu-ray Even Work Though? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MrSquirrel ( 976630 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:38PM (#15518036)
      Movies and gaming have a deserved mutual understanding -- as time goes on, they both need more space. This is why console makers keep going into the markets of the next gen video media. Take DVD's for example -- Sony and Microsoft didn't choose DVD's over CD's because they wanted to be able to market to consumers that wanted to watch movies -- they needed more space (I know of a few PS2 games that take up multiple DVD's, I don't even want to think about how many CD's that would take). True, they COULD develop their own proprietary format, losing countless amounts of dollars in R&D and ending up with something that is pretty much a DVD anyway (except not). Your competitors would just eat the licensing fees and go with DVD -- they would be able to market to the consumer "hey, we play those DVD movies in addition to having games that fit on one disk (usually)". Blu-ray promises the ability to cope with the ever-increasing capacity requirements of modern games (although I think it'll be a while before a game actually needs that much space).
      Take Nintendo for example -- they went with their own proprietary mini-disc format... and look where it got them: the bottom of the console market. I think the PS3 would be much more attractive if they went with a DVD drive, like the Xbox 360... but I'm sure eventually the BR capacity will be used (pr0n?).
      • you think it'll be awhile before a game actually needs that much space, but you know of a few PS2 games that take up multiple DVDs? you don't think it would be more convenient to have those games on one BD-ROM? i'm sure it will be awhile before they use all the space blu-ray can offer, but to make blu-ray worthwhile, they only have to be bigger than a single DVD. i don't really keep up on console gaming, but i'd assume that the first DVD games weren't 9GB either, just somewhere over 700MB.
        • The few ps2 games I know of that use multiple DVD's only use 2 discs and the main reason they use 2 is because they're chock-full of cutscenes (they're Japanese import RPG's that my friend plays). I don't know of any mainstream games that use multiple DVD's (except those ones that come bundled with, say, a bonus DVD of the "Making of" but that doesn't count because it's just a packaging bonus, not a functional one).
      • This is why console makers keep going into the markets of the next gen video media.

        You probably mean next gen optical media, since DVD's was first gen digital video and I don't remember consoles running on VHS.

        Also when you say they "keep doing it" it's worth noting that neither Wii nor XBOX360 actually did it.

    • Re:Will PS3's Blu-ray Even Work Though? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fistfullast33l ( 819270 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:43PM (#15518063) Homepage Journal

      Concentrate on one thing and--for the love of the game--get it right!

      I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I have to disagree. I love my PSP. I can surf the web for downloads, watching movies (UMD and ripped DVD's), listening to streaming audio, listening to my MP3's at work, and even playing a game occasionally. It's the only portable device I own other than my cell phone and I think it works great. It satisfies my needs perfectly. The wireless gaming is especially addictive, and I'm really getting hooked by Force Commander's play-by-email because I can keep the game going while satisfying my wife's nagging requests. As for media centers, I realize the niceness of a receiver to organize your devices, but I really yearn to take all of my machines and consolidate them into one. Do I really need 6 boxes sitting next to my television? Cable, DVR, DVD, VCR, Xbox/PS3/Wii/whatever, and then the receiver, plus speakers and the television? How large does my media cabinet have to be?

    • Buy a game console for its games. Buy a media player for its media playing abilities.

      Why not get a computer to do both. . .oh and wordprocessing/surfing :-p. Or do you subscribe to the "Jack of all trades, master of none" philosophy?

    • Re:Will PS3's Blu-ray Even Work Though? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Concentrate on one thing and--for the love of the game--get it right!
      Well said...that's right on!
    • I certainly hope Sony crashes and burns for this, not really because I dislike Sony (I'm rather ambivalent about the company itself) but just because I want to see Blu-Ray fall flat on its face. Regular DVD works just fine for me, thanks, without the draconian DRM contained in Blu-Ray.
    • My friend bought a first generation DVD player and it's still functioning to this day. I think it even has some of the codecs built into it (MP3, AVIs, etc.).

      It was 4-5 years after the first DVD players became available before MP3/AVI decoding was available.
    • As insightful as your comment is what does it have to do with a stand alone blu-ray movie player?

      Sony isn't holding this back for 'technical' reasons, Blu-ray have been selling in japan for a while now. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109617,0 0.asp [pcworld.com]

      The problem is that Sony needed time to improve their fabrication process to keep foriegn buyers from shelling out $1,000 for a player that might have had a defective chip in it. While I guess you could call that a 'technical' problem, it's that you ne

  • sniff sniff (Score:5, Funny)

    by SoupGuru ( 723634 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:29PM (#15517980)
    I love the smell of a corporate implosion in the morning.

  • Can Sony survive this easily? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gasmonso ( 929871 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:32PM (#15518000) Homepage

    With the XBox 360 out and doing well and Nintendo realeasing soon with a great prices... will Sony recover from this? I just don't see any excitement around the next Playstation... all I hear is bad news.

    http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]

    • Re:Can Sony survive this easily? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mets1fan ( 981788 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:02PM (#15518200)
      Sony shouldn't have any problem recovering from a delay. The XBox 360 has already been out for 6 months, and by the time the PS3 comes out, the XBox 360 will have been out for at least a year. The buzz around the XBox system itself will have fizzled out, as the "new" novelty of the system will be gone. Nintendo has long been 3rd in the console rankings, and that probably won't change here. It has gotten a lot of buzz coming out of E3, and critics seem to love the system. It will come out around the same time as the Playstation 3, so Sony won't be hurt too bad from that standpoint. More importantly though, the name "Playstation" carries more weight than arguably any other system out there. Game consoles are not necessarily for the tech-minded. As cool as the Wii seems right now, little kids do not care about the blu-ray vs. HD debate, or how fun it would be to use a remote control to play games. These kids, the ones that drive the console industry, will be the ones who determine which console takes off. And they have the name "Playstation" engraved in their heads. It has long been at the top of the class, and reputation alone should be able to get it through these rough patches.

      • Re:Can Sony survive this easily? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by AuMatar ( 183847 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:12PM (#15518289)
        Nintendo isn't thrid anywhere but the US. Its second everywhere else, with a higher profit than MS or Sony.

        You put way too much value in the PS name. Nintendo made the same mistake with the N64, and look what happened. THe big dog can lose. Meanwhile, SOny is now putting out a $600 console. You're right- kids are one of the drivers for games. No parent is going to pay $600 for a gaming console. Even the 360 at $400 is high priced. At 1/3 the cost of the PS3, the Wii is going to wipe the floor with Sony.
        • No parent is going to pay $600 for a gaming console

          Maybe not, but as time goes by, the price will fall.

          I think that the PS3 will do just fine. Maybe not right away, but
          that same technology that makes it initially so expensive will give
          the console longer legs. 4 years from now, once developers have
          really learned how to get the most out of the hardware of each of
          the consoles, the PS3 will shine. And by that time, the price will
          come down to a more reasonable level.

          Or at least that's the reasoning that Sony is
          • If it takes 4 years, then the PS3 is dead. If PS3 doesn't get high sales in year one, developers will jump ship to other platforms. Especially the Wii, as a lack of high def means smaller textures and much lower dev costs. Even those who don't jump ship entirely will end up porting games to release on multiple platforms, which is the kiss of death- if you don't have exclusive games to drive people to your platform, they'll take the cheapest one. Realisticly, Sony needs to move PS3s in the first year, o
      • Hah. You're wrong because xbox 360 games coming out for Christmas are likely to look as good or better than the launch PS3 titles that haven't had the extra year to improve in development. When newspapers and the nightly news cover the hot new toys for Christmas and give their recommendations, they'll note the PS3 is extremely scarce and selling on ebay for $800. So for kids who want the best looking gaming, buy them a 360, or a Wii if your budget isn't that big.

    • Why Do We Want To Get Rid of Sony? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by EXTomar ( 78739 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:18PM (#15518346)
      Why does anyone want Sony dstroyed? We are going to get some awesome titles out in the next two years simply because many ISVs consider the market in the air which applies pressure to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to perform and hunt for the best projects to sponsor. I enjoy the fact that Sony is pushing the technology envelope. Whether or not they are going about it the right way or could have picked a better set of features is a question for historians a couple of years from now. It might all be that Sony was a mere half a year off on their timing to push this stuff but I don't think anyone should stop them from trying.

      The writing was on the wall: No matter how 'elite' the PS3 is they were going to lose market position because the competition is strong this time around instead of the limp wristed toss outs Nintendo and Microsoft threw last time. The only thing Sony could do is try to lead which means going out on the limb. They are way out on a thin branch where it might pay off or it might come crashing down.

      As many who are going "ha ha!" at Sony's seemingly consistent knack for steping on all of the landmines, no one should relish a gaming world where Microsoft and Sony switch places. Do many of you think Microsoft will treat you better than Sony did if they dominate the space? I guarentee if Microsoft runs away with the market and crushes Sony we'll be back to same quite pace we've seen in the last few years. No thanks...I'll gladly take the three way race.
      • Its not a question of wanting Sony dead, its more an issue of watching Sony kill itself. The PS3 could be the greatest console ever, and it still is not a prudent business move. No one really wants to fork over $600 for a console, especially when the compitition offers more than adequate alternatives for half the price or less.

        And my major beef is that the "pushing the technology envelope" syndrome is idiotic. There is no need for Blu-Ray, except to force a fake tech trend, and make all of us go by new hardware for massive cash. I know people who have just finally upgraded to DVD, and why ever would they want to spend more on something that is pretty much a DVD?

        Also, it seems that the PS3 is pretty much nothing but paperware right now, I wouldn't be suprised if they released a C-64 in a pretty case instead of whatever they are promising today (as opposed to yesterday).

        Unlike the last console release war, Sony has no buzz. Last time they were the winner before all 3 were released even, now I think they might be taking the (underestimated) Gamecube's place in the market. Not that I really care that much, I'm just going to buy a Revoltion (or the *shudder* Wii), since buying Nintendo at least guarantees fun and innovative games with little hastle.

      • Re:Why Do We Want To Get Rid of Sony? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by nuzak ( 959558 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @03:07PM (#15518725) Journal
        > Why does anyone want Sony destroyed?

        I don't want them destroyed. I want them humbled. I want them to learn their BetaMax/ATRAC/UMD lesson for good. I want this arrogant zaibatsu to know it's mortal.

        I own a PS2, I like the PS2, but after the conduct of Sony these past couple years, with their new price tags adding even more insult, they've lost me as a customer. Not my devotion or fandom or loyalty -- no one has that, it's just consumer electronics after all -- but just me as a customer. Sony has become synonymous with screwing their own customers, and I don't feel like bending over for the PS3.

        • BetaMax/ATRAC/UMD /Memory Stick/MiniDisc/...
        • Right on. Back in the day, Nintendo ruled the market, and they knew it. They took advantage of their market dominance and tried to force unfriendly terms on developers and competitors. The eventual fallout from this was one of the major reasons why Sony was able to sneak in and steal a large part of the market from Nintendo. It's taken a while for Nintendo to figure it out, but they've definitely taken a new look at their position in the video game world, and as a result we've got a handheld with a lot of n
      • Sony? Leading the way?

        The Playstation led the way. It just kicked the competition all over the place, frankly, and I'm glad I bought one.

        The PS2 was good. It's backwards compatibility with the previous generation, rocked. However, it was not as powerful as the XBox, IMHO (and I have both). Sure, it didn't involve pouring money down the drain to produce them, but they weren't as powerful.

        The PS3 is a freakish processor that no-one seems to like, glued onto the latest NVidia PC chip, with a few tweaks, and a

    • I just don't see any excitement around the next Playstation... all I hear is bad news.

      I do have to say that there has been a lot of bad press going around about the PS3 these days, but you would be surprised to know what's happening outside of the gaming press and Slashdot.

      I know a few people who are most definitely shameless Sony/PlayStation fanboys. Although Sony, in my opinion, is horrible (probably an understatement), there were some fun games to be played on their first two consoles. With the upcom

    • With the XBox 360 out and doing well and Nintendo realeasing soon with a great prices... will Sony recover from this? I just don't see any excitement around the next Playstation... all I hear is bad news.

      If you've seen political elections develop you recognize it's too early to call. The big branding and advertising campaign of PS3 has not yet began.

      They might have lost some geeks, but the hardcore gamers that will see the hyper-cool PS3:

      - ads on TV
      - posters in the city
      - banners in Internet
      - promos and demo

  • Who cares? (Score:4, Informative)

    by kpainter ( 901021 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:33PM (#15518006)
    I won't be buying anymore Sony junk, period. I don't care if it is late or not.
    • I won't be buying anymore Sony junk, period. I don't care if it is late or not.

      What did you do to make Sony's period late?

  • The Blu-Ray curse (Score:3, Insightful)

    by the computer guy nex ( 916959 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:33PM (#15518009)
    Addition by subtraction. A dual-layer DVD drive can hold near 10 gigs - more than enough for 1080i/1080p games. PC games have been at this resolution for years - most still fit on 3 CD's or less.

    Do the right thing Sony. If you want the PS3 to thrive, cut the price in half and let the lower-end model use Dual-Layer discs.

    Gamers don't care about blu-ray, home theater enthusiasts will buy a professional player. Ditch it. No way I'm buying a PS3 for the price of a 360, a Wii, and games.
    • PC games have been at this resolution for years - most still fit on 3 CD's or less.

      well, that's misinformation right there. pc games have been doing this but after you install a game off 3 cd's it takes up more than 3cd's worth of room because of compression.
      • after you install a game off 3 cd's ... it eats up more hard drive space since the files on CD are compressed, and then demands that the disc be in the drive to run even though the entire fucking thing is on the hard drive, meaning that if the CD gets ruined, the software won't run, which means that you have to seek out and download and install a patch that will keep this stupidity from happening, for every bloody game you install

        I've done this for everything I've got and I don't feel bad about it not one b
        • It's not the programmers that need to wake up, it's the publishers.

          But yes, no-cd patches are my favorite thing.

          Barring that, I make a virtual image of the CD. (Apparently, having only a firewire dvd drive and no internal drives confuses just about every CD copy protection with the bonus of being easy to reach.)
          • It's not the programmers that need to wake up, it's the publishers.

            Since when did a publishing executive know the first thing about programming such a thing? They're not the ones who put it there.

      • Re:The Blu-Ray curse (Score:3, Informative)

        by Khyber ( 864651 )
        pc games have been doing this but after you install a game off 3 cd's it takes up more than 3cd's worth of room because of compression.

        Psssh... NOT IN ALL CASES. Unreal Tournament GOTY is exactly the same size on CD as it is on hard disk. The only thing that happens is file renaming and some registry editing, and you're done. Almost the same case with most id software games as well, up until Doom 3. Note I said ALMOST.
        • Does it take up more than 1 CD?

          If the game fits on one disk, there is no reason to compress it. If the game takes up more than that, you probably want to compress it. GPP spoke of a multi-disk game.
        • >> NOT IN ALL CASES.

          That's true, however gpp was talking about multi-disc games.

          Also he was talking about 1080p games which do need more room for all the stuff.

      • Re:The Blu-Ray curse (Score:3, Informative)

        by emorphien ( 770500 )
        Agreed, but the worst part about the Blu-ray player on the PS3 is that it is slower than the DVD drive on the XB360.

    • Re:The Blu-Ray curse (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "A dual-layer DVD drive can hold near 10 gigs - more than enough for 1080i/1080p games. "

      Several 1080p games can fit on a single floppy (Minesweeper, solitaire, etc). Unless there is pre-recorded full-motion video involved, there is *no* connection between data storage format and a game's output resolution.
      • Several 1080p games can fit on a single floppy (Minesweeper, solitaire, etc). Unless there is pre-recorded full-motion video involved, there is *no* connection between data storage format and a game's output resolution.

        Mine sweeper has no hi-res textures which in fact do correlate disk size to output resolution. FMV are one portion of what makes a game require a large amoutn of space on disk. The other factor is Textures and 3d models. 3d models tend to be trivial but textures are immense.

    • If you want the PS3 to thrive, cut the price in half and let the lower-end model use Dual-Layer discs.

      This isn't an option for Sony. The primary purpose of having Blu-Ray on the PS3 is to get the format into consumers' hands. Without the monopoly of Blu-Ray on the PS3, the head start HD-DVD has on it will make it all but impossible for Sony to get anywhere with Blu-Ray. Even if they drop Blu-Ray from only the cheaper PS3, they might as well officially raise the white flag in the next-gen DVD format wars.

      • > they might as well officially raise the white flag in the next-gen DVD format wars.
        This is the point. Blu-Ray is looking poorly, even before it's out the door. It would be a pity to see them lose the console war as well, because they can't accept most of their players don't care about a Blu-Ray drive.
    • You assume that games must use Blu Ray when probably there is no requirement that they do. I expect that the PS3 will allow most games to ship on a DVD. But there is a very good reason that some might choose Blu-Ray more content, multiple language support. A single disc could support different languages, lowering costs and increasing flexibility for companies who don't want to pay for smaller production runs for every region they sell in.
    • I read an interview a while back (no source, sorry) with a game developer who was talking about the XBox 360. Their complaint was that even on dual-layer discs, they were already having to cram data in as tight as they could. Judging from how the XB/PS2/GameCube games progressed, getting more optimised and looking even better as developers figured out how to optimise the console, I'm inclined to agree with the developer's final conclusion - multi-DVD XB360 games are coming, and sooner than you think.

      For the

  • Not the only manufacturer of Blu-Ray players (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cy Sperling ( 960158 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:37PM (#15518030)
    Though Sony's stand-alone is being delayed until August, Samsung has a standalone Blu-Ray player coming out on June 25th.

    Panasonic has one coming in September. Sony's lateness is not the sole barometer for the standard's success or failure.

  • How is that bad for the PS3? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:39PM (#15518046)
    So how is the delay of a Blu-Ray player bad for the PS3? It seems to me that the only effect would be to actually help the pS3 by having external Blu-Ray players still very expensive when they launch the PS3.

    Now if Blu-Ray drives themselves cause the PS3 delivery date to be pushed back, that would actually be a problem. When we see that news the headlined may apply. Until then, this is just more sensationalist FUD about Sony who has become Zonk's favorite whipping boy.

    • Re:How is that bad for the PS3? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:51PM (#15518119) Homepage
      I think the argument is that, if this player is going to be $1000 at launch, and it's launch date is pushed out even closer to the PS3 launch, early adopters might just forgo the stand alone player and buy a PS3 instead. This pushes new sales of BR players out, further delaying the establishment of the format, while damaging Sony's bottom line, since, unlike the standalone player, the PS3 is almost certainly going to be a loss-leader. Further, this will stick Sony with lame-duck product, which I can't imagine is a good thing.

      • Further, this will stick Sony with lame-duck product, which I can't imagine is a good thing.

        On the contrary.

        This is the company that thought it was acceptable to install rootkits on peoples' computers, as if the computers belonged to them, all in the name of preventing imagined losses that are their own faults for bad treatment of customers and for selling inferior products.

        The faster they die the happier we should be.
      • Well, it isn't like the standalone Blu-ray player will somehow damage Sony. They probably share most expensive components with the PS3, anyway. Not to mention, it doesn't matter whether you have a million standalone players or a million PS3s for market share / installed base purposes.
    • What is Zonk going to do when PS3 is released and is a sucess? I think the real story is why everyone out to point to anything they can find to "prove" the PS3 is a failure. I hear a lot of things that aren't true repeated over and over. It's people like Zonk that enable various rumors that have been proven untrue to persist. What does Zonk get out of it? Is it some kind of false nationalism? The PS3 is a Japanese console. The PS2 continues to be a sucess, and outsells all other consoles each mont
    • You need the early adopters to buy some kit so you can get some feedback for your second, cheaper version. They also need to develop some demand for Blu-Ray so that people will believe that the blu-ray functionality makes the console worth $600. Without getting Blu-Ray equipment out on the market, that won't happen. Selling more players means you sell more discs which means they get cheaper.

  • Sony is EVIL (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 )
    Sony is EVIL, because of it's terminally stupid moronic croporate culture.

    What comes around, well, comes around.

  • Marketing? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by emmetropia ( 527623 ) <krewenkiNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:45PM (#15518074)
    Is it just me, or could this be a plausible marketing ploy? Sony wants the biggest install base of the PS3 as possible to make some money, and have better market penetration than the 360 or Wii. What if they're releasing a high priced player closer to the window of the launch of the PS3 on purpose? If you had your choice between a box that did Blu Ray for $1000, or a box that did Blu Ray + lots of other stuff, for $600, a lot of non-elitist consumers are going to go with the cheaper bargain. It's entirely possible that sony is releasing an over priced blu ray player now (btw, $1000? I can get a HD-DVD drive for under $200!), to increase adoption of the ps3 by the "I love HD, but my pocket book hates it" crowd.
    • I was wondering this myself - if nothing else, it would be good for the "look at the PS3 sales, bitches!" that Sony could unleash, and then "offer" other extras to the non-gaming Blue Ray folks (like movie trailer downloads and such)they wouldn't get from a "normal" Blue-Ray DVD player.

      Hm - looks like my plans to sell a PS3 on eBay this Christmas are going to be very profitable indeed....
    • Plus, once you already own the PS3, look at how sweet Game XYZ or accessory ABC is! They could pick up on a lot of sales once they get PS3s into homes that wouldn't otherwise have had one.
    • If you had your choice between a box that did Blu Ray for $1000, or a box that did Blu Ray + lots of other stuff, for $600, a lot of non-elitist consumers are going to go with the cheaper bargain.

      The problem with this is simple: what percentage of potential Blu-ray purchasers are not going to be elitist?

      The elitist group will go with the standalone player because the PS3 looks cheap. The non-elitist group doesn't buy early new technology anyway.

      • Re:Marketing? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )
        Also the PS2's (deserved) reputation as a crap DVD player will attract no one - If the PS2 was so bad at playing DVDs when it wasn't even a first-generation player, how good will the PS3 be at playing Blu-Ray?

  • Whatever, Zonk (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12, 2006 @01:48PM (#15518094)
    Of course, as even the linked article admits, Samsung's blu-ray player [bestbuy.com] is still due out at the end of this month, at the same time the first round of blu-ray discs are.

    Since unlike UMDs and other failed "Sony" formats of the past, Blu-Ray is not propreitary, it doesn't matter when Sony gets their player out. The Blu-Ray does not succeed or fall based on Sony alone; Sony delaying their personal player for six months makes no difference. While surely having two blu-ray players out at format launch would have been better than one from a consumer perspective, Sony's delay means effectively nothing except that early adopters interested in blu-ray will be buying a Samsung instead.

    But hey, Zonk's never let little things like facts get in the way of his constant proclamations of doom and death for Sony and everything connected to them. So whatever. Rootkit rootkit rootkit $599 lol.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Sony has a hitsory of making up non-standard proprietary formats. These
    include the (a) memory stick, (b) the customized (non-standard) firewire port,
    (c) the universal
    operating system of the AIBO, (d) the minidisc and, of course, (e) betamax. No doubt, there are other I can't think of or don't know about.

    In almost every case, they are either failures or (worse) sources of ongoing frustration.
    I thought Blu-ray had promise, but not I realize it is another one of these monstrosities. Maybe it had better just d
    • Unlike those other formats, the Blu-Ray disc is nto purely Sony's. As is mentioned in an bove replys, Samsung will have a player out by the end of the month. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Blu-Ray any more than you do, but to say it's a proprietry Sony format is wrong. To say it is a proprietry format of many companies would be more correct

  • Do people really want a new format? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nutmegan ( 971365 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:06PM (#15518230)
    I think Sony's biggest problem with getting widespread adoption of Blu-Ray is that the vast majority of users are happy with the current DVD format. The improvement from VHS to DVD was obvious. Replacing your DVD collection with an expensive Blu-Ray collection that may never catch on with most people seems ludicrous. People might find Blu-Ray equipment in the closet with their Betamax VCRs and their old minidisc players.
    • I think Sony's biggest problem with getting widespread adoption of Blu-Ray is that the vast majority of users are happy with the current DVD format. The improvement from VHS to DVD was obvious. Replacing your DVD collection with an expensive Blu-Ray collection that may never catch on with most people seems ludicrous. People might find Blu-Ray equipment in the closet with their Betamax VCRs and their old minidisc players.

      Lets frame this agruement by using it when DVDs came out:

      I think Phillip's biggest probl

  • Is schadenfreude OK? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anthony Boyd ( 242971 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:08PM (#15518252) Homepage
    I was offended by Sony's horrible DRM/rootkit situation, not because they tried to install rootkits (although that was bad enough) but because of their response when caught: "So what? Consumers won't even comprehend your techno-babble complaints."

    I was offended by Sony's horrible pricing for the PS3, not because the pricing was so high (although that was bad enough) but because of their response when people took issue: "So what? Sony fanboys are going to pay no matter what the price."

    I was offended by Sony's blatant plagarism of the Wii controller, not because of the 2nd-rate implementation (although... you get the idea), but because of their flat-out lying about it: "We didn't copy Nintendo. We're the real innovators."

    All of these situations have a common thread: arrogance. A cavalier disrespect for the customer. A lack of ethics. There are no laws that say companies must be ethical, or must respect the customer. So I guess we can write off Sony's behavior as "it's just business." But there are also no laws which say I have to buy into it. So I hope that what goes around, comes around.

    -Tony

    • Whenever I've seen it used, "Schadenfreude" has implied pleasure in the suffering (or just difficulties) of others -- independent of whether those others deserved to suffer.

      Wanting a company to fail because its actions are objectionable is far less amoral -- uh, more moral? -- than that. We're not rooting against Sony because it'll make us feel better about our own failings if they belly flop. We want them to fail because they're behaving in a way that actually offends our sense of how companies should ac

  • Where can I game? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kuyaedz ( 921036 )
    This is causing me to lose even more respect for Sony (rootkit anyone). I was a loyal PS2 user but if its not one things its another and Sony is really going downhill in my book. Continued delays. Backing losing mediums (I'd rather go with HD-DVD). etc, etc. If I can no longer support Sony and god forbid I buy an Xbox where can I console-game? I guess I should just dig out the old-school Nintendo. I can't use Xbox or Sony anymore on principle.

  • Not to worry, everyone wants the DRM (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Monday June 12, 2006 @02:58PM (#15518659) Homepage Journal
    after all, in addition to a new disk format noone sees a need for, and a price way too high for not enough games, you also get wonderful DRM and region-coding to make your life even more meaningful.

    I'll be using my inexpensive, less than $250 USD Wii, in the meantime, playing all the really cool games that knock my socks off.

    But, on a good note, PS2 sales are still beating the xBox and xBox360 combined, after E3.
  • Kind of a side track but for myself and other Linux users will Blu-Ray ever be usable?

    According to wikipedia among the many horrific things they've done DRM-wise is a change where the keys on players may be dynamically updated once a key has been broken and new media distributed from that point will use new, unbroken keys.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Digital_ rights_management

    Now I'm not sure how easy it will be for the crackers to get these keys but if it's anything but routine than Linux user

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