The Death of HD-DVD: What Does Blu-ray Mean For Gaming?

Today, Toshiba withdrew from the next generation format war. HD-DVD lost to Blu-ray. While movie aficionados might enjoy paying a premium for moderately improved quality video, this site is about gaming… and this is huge gaming news. Now that Blu-ray is the de facto format for high-definition movies, the PlayStation 3 is in an excellent position to win this generation’s console wars.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.

That was terrible news for early adopters of HD-DVD, but what does it mean for gamers? The PS3 is centered around Blu-ray, which suddenly puts the other consoles at a serious disadvantage. While Nintendo’s latest console has mass appeal, it’s not designed to play movies or compete with cutting-edge graphics. Meanwhile, the XBOX 360 is tainted with the Red Ring of Death syndrome. Considering that the XBOX 360 does not have a built-in next-generation movie player, the PS3 becomes more attractive. If the Wii runs out of gas, and if the XBOX 360 cannot match the PS3 hardware, Sony can really turn around the console wars.

The Wii is still in a strong position right now. It’s the cheapest system on the market. Yet, can it compete with the PS3 in the long-term? It’s still very early in this generation’s console battle, but Nintendo’s already released their top mascot games. Mario, Zelda and Metroid already appeared on the Wii. Will Nintendo run out of gas? While the Wii was amazing in its first year, but how will it fair in the second, third, fourth or even fifth year?

It doesn’t look good for Microsoft either. Their console is all over the place. While an HD-DVD drive was released for the XBOX 360, it not standard. Some XBOX 360’s don’t even have a standard hard drive. The best thing Microsoft had going was a year head start. Now that the PS3 is also one of the best next-generation movie players, the XBOX 360 has lost luster. Halo 3 is history, what is in the future of Microsoft’s gaming machine?

Things have turned around for Sony’s newest console. The decision to include Blu-ray is no longer dubious. The PS3 is a Trojan Horse into the living room. Those seeking better movie quality might also find themselves a new gaming machine. The competition may be over for Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but things are about to get rough with the Wii, XBOX 360 and the PS3.

4 thoughts on “The Death of HD-DVD: What Does Blu-ray Mean For Gaming?”

  1. The Wii will most likely last, because it’s not really competing with the ps3 and the xbox360. I think the 360 will last because they can just make a blu-ray player for it, and the ps3 still doesn’t have any games, so people are still probably gonna buy the 360 instead of the ps3 unless they just want blu-ray.

  2. I can’t speak for everyone but for myself and most people I know the ps2 proved to be a really unimpressive dvd player. Most people I know with ps2s eventually got a separate dedicated dvd player. As such, the fact a video game console can play a media format most people don’t have a player for just isn’t a big draw for many people like it was with the ps2. If I really wanted blu-ray movies I’d just buy a blu-ray player.

    In my eyes the console wars will be won like all others before it by who has the best games. The only way the ps3 is getting out of the hole its ridiculously huge price tag and mediocre launch titles put it in is with a significant surge of must own system exclusives. For that to happen several of those are probably going to have to happen in-house cause most developers right now are wary of putting all their eggs in a basket/system with such a small portion of the player base.

  3. I wouldn’t consider Nintendo to be in competition with Sony or Microsoft. Miyamoto doesn’t*. They’ve tapped a completely different market, while still maintaining relative interest with their existing market. Wii was designed to expand, not compete.

    Funny enough, they’re competing better then ever by *not* competing — a smart move that you won’t see from many until people realise competing, business-wise, has a limited upside. Play to your strengths; don’t compete on the strengths of others.

    As for Ninty’s strategy for the future…

    Well, if you had millions of gamers with your console, do you think you could develop games that they’d buy, especially if you’re making games you can’t experience on other consoles?

    I think the answer is “hell yes”.

    – Bruce

    * Source: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2006/03/15/ps3_not_in_competition_with_revolution_says_miyamoto.html

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