Future Blu-ray Movies To Come With Playable Game Demos 170
Audiofan writes "Enthusiasts have long suggested the PlayStation 3 to their family and friends as one of the better and most affordable Blu-ray players. Lately, prices of Blu-ray players have been coming down, but the PS3 is still one of the better options out there. Sony is taking advantage of this by starting to offer game demos on their Blu-ray offerings. While these demos will only be playable on the PS3, they hope the extra value will help drive sales."
Re:Too easy... (Score:2, Insightful)
You'll get a feature limited demo of our crappy sweatshop game, with ads on all the loading screens(also present in $60 full version and $80 non-resellable-DLC-fuck-you-gamestop edition), on the same disk as the average movie tie in.
And by god, you'll like it(or we'll blame piracy).
Re:Too easy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Too easy... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm amazed you can exhibit such foresight from under that bridge!
I often scoff at marketing ploys, but game demos are a good thing. As long as this doesn't increase the price of the discs, this is more value for your dollar- it isn't as if you have to play the demo to watch your movie.
Now, just watch them bundle some highly anticipated game demo exclusively with some crap film- SURPRISE HOME MOVIE SALES HIT OF THE SUMMER!
Blu-ray is dead. (Score:1, Insightful)
Can't these companies get it through their thick skulls that Bluray is a dead on arrival format? That consumers don't see it as a necessary update to their plain DVDs, which they see as good enough even with the advent of HD televisions?
Companies are just trying to beat consumers over the head with Bluray for long enough in the hope that some day it might actually catch on, thanks to their wonderfully deep pockets (while they say that they're losing money due to piracy...), instead of letting the market decide what fails and lives. In the past, Bluray would have long been dead, but now Sony and other companies pushing this DOA format are stubbornly determined to make it succeed despite overwhelming apathy for it.
Let it die. Yes, a few people buy it, but no more than the normal amount of "early adopters" for any new technology. It's over, let it pass into history as yet another failed format nobody wants.
Anonymous Coward because I *know* there will be people accusing me of technophobia, hatred of new technology, etc, instead of seeing my argument as what it is -- basic common sense reasoning.
I just want to play for 1h so game demos are great (Score:3, Insightful)
This is awesome. Most game demos have to give you enough to wet your appetite for more. Most of the time you can realize the game would suck, but the demo usually has a few redeeming qualities making the 30 minutes that you play the demo rewarding and entertaining.
So: I'm all for it.
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:3, Insightful)
Hardly. Case in point: I refuse to by a huge TV because, frankly, I don't have the room, and I consider it nothing more than conspicuous consumption. So I've settled on a 32" TV... which is, TBH, still huge, but I happen to watch it from a couch that's a good 12-14 feet away (it's on an angle, so the viewing distance varies a bit). And from that distance, at that screen size, SD and HD are indistinguishable simply due to physical limitations in the human eye related to angular resolution.
So unless I plan to buy a huge TV, or move my couch half-way across the room, HD is pointless. And I can't imagine I'm the only one in that boat. Furthermore, for those where the difference in resolution would be visually distinguishable, many simply don't consider the upgrade worth the bother, as SD is good enough (particularly given the quality of a decent DVD upscaler).
Re:Too easy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:5, Insightful)
In recent years I have rented two DVDs where the previews were unskippable. Thats annoying. And in the future:
This disk has been licensed for three viewers. To proceed beyond the anti pirating presentation your player must detect three viewers facing the screen with eyes open for the entire 20 minutes.
Re:Too easy... (Score:2, Insightful)
I think this is more of a case of "hey, we have extra space left over, we can sell that as premium video game advertising space!". Joe developer might not get much per disc to put a demo on a straight to video disc, but how much is EA, Valve, or Bethseda willing to pay to put Metal Gear Solid 5 demo, Grand Turismo 7 demo etc on something as big as Transformers 3 Blu Ray disc? The production studio/director probably sign away marketing rights on their DVD/Blu Ray already, so this is money straight in the distributor's pocket, pure and simple. On crappy B movies, distributors might make more money selling game demo ad space for games like Army Men 5: Melting in Iraq or Big Game Hunter 9: Return of Bigfoot or whatever crapware, than they actually do selling the movie on the disc.
Once the technology exists to play PS3 demo games on a blu-ray disc, this is like printing free money for Sony.
Re:I can't wait... (Score:1, Insightful)
Just lower the price instead. (Score:1, Insightful)
"they hope the extra value will help drive sales"
Instead of increasing the value to "match" the price, they should simply lower their price.
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:1, Insightful)
all you are doing is making excuses as to why your tv is "good enough". well sir not everyone is content with "good enough"
Re:I'm so over these stupid shiny plastic discs (Score:3, Insightful)
You'd be better off just keeping the old 'players' around and not jumping on every new bandwagon that rolls into town. You can still buy decent combined DVD/VHS players so its won't likely take up too much space on that front. I'm sure you've still got your 360 around and likely a PS3. So I don't see why you have to replace anything.
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:3, Insightful)
So when I pirate my movies, with no unskippable anything, I get a superior product? Did any of these people take a basic economics course?
Re:Too easy... (Score:2, Insightful)
I like demos, too.
I wondered why there was no demo for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 until I played the game and finished it in just over 5 hours.
The demo would have been about 13 seconds long.
Re:I'm so over these stupid shiny plastic discs (Score:3, Insightful)
>>>jumped on the HD-DVD bandwagon
That's your own dumb fault. If you had been smart (like me ;-) ), you would have patiently waited for the BD and HDDVD war to be over. I learned that early on, when I bought Betamax instead of VHS. Better to wait to see who has won.
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Blu-ray is dead. (Score:1, Insightful)
Some people are awed by eye-candy, others by substance. Most HD releases are garbage. If you want to watch good films, you watch the Criterion Collection, Artificial Eye, Tartan Video and similar releases and those films look good even at 640x480. Only children are awed by purdy colours and explosions!
Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Krzystof Kieslowski don't look better in 1080p.