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[Izzy]

Joining MGM, Fox, Disney, Columbia

Sony has signed up its own big guns, with Disney announcing its decision to adopt Sony's Blu-ray technology last week.

Dreamworks, the studio behind animated hits Shrek and Shark's Tale, is also poised to back Blu-ray, joining Sony's own in-house movie studio and MGM.

Although most commentary has focused on films, of equal significance is the hugely lucrative games market. PlayStation 3, the new version of Sony's games console due out by early 2006, will come equipped for Blu-ray DVDs

 

[bitwise]

exclusive support?

 

[Izzy]

exclusive support?

Not specified.

 

[Deku Tree]

exclusive support?

Has anyone announced exclusive support to either format? Other than companies like Sony, Toshiba etc.

 

[Memles]

All signs, I had thought, were actually pointing to them jumping into the Warner Camp, due to close ties with Universal.

 

[bitwise]

Has anyone announced exclusive support to either format? Other than companies like Sony, Toshiba etc.

yeah, i don't know either. probably MGM for blu-ray, doesn't Sony own them?

 

[Izzy]

From the same article

Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment group, has approached arch-rival Toshiba in an attempt to prevent a damaging format war over their next-generation DVDs.
Toshiba, which is preparing to launch its own high-definition DVD player as soon as next Christmas, rebuffed the offer to work together, however, setting in train a worldwide battle for consumers.

The overtures were made by senior Japanese executives at Sony over the past few weeks. They follow similar, successful talks in 1994, when the industry agreed a standard format for the launch of DVDs.

If the next gen format wars turn out ugly, blame it on Toshiba - Sony actually wanted the compromise; no wonder SCE signed NVIDIA for the PS3 GPU development.

 

[Drek]

yeah, i don't know either. probably MGM for blu-ray, doesn't Sony own them?

Sony owns the MGM back catalog, so thats now basically Sony Pictures, which is the only exclusive movie studio as far as I've heard. No one has announced exclusive support except the creators of each format.

 

[Suikoguy]

From the same article



If the next gen format wars turn out ugly, blame it on Toshiba - Sony actually wanted the compromise; no wonder SCE signed NVIDIA for the PS3 GPU development.

Thats quite sad

 

[jarrod]

Sony owns the MGM back catalog, so thats now basically Sony Pictures, which is the only exclusive movie studio as far as I've heard. No one has announced exclusive support except the creators of each format.

I've yet to see Sony even announce exclusive support. Can you source me?

 

[kaching]

If the next gen format wars turn out ugly, blame it on Toshiba - Sony actually wanted the compromise; no wonder SCE signed NVIDIA for the PS3 GPU development.

Well, we don't know what Sony offered as compromise. Based on what we know of the two formats, it would seem rather difficult to achieve a balanced compromise at this point.

It's funny that they call them "archrivals" given their work together on (and potential mutual benefit from) the Cell project.

 

[DarienA]

It's funny that they call them "archrivals" given their work together on (and potential mutual benefit from) the Cell project.

Well... it wouldn't be the first time that a company worked together on a project in one industry while battling each other in another...

 

[kaching]

Oh, I know...but it's just that these three projects (BRD, HDDVD, Cell) intersect in a very direct fashion: By helping Sony with Cell, which they plan to bundle together with BRD in PS3, Toshiba could very be helping to give BRD a significant leg up over their own preferred format.

 

[acklame]

good news for blu ray, especially if you look at 2004 box office market share.

 

[monkeyrun]

right after I got my first ever DVD +/- writer there comes blue-ray ~_~"

 

[Drek]

I've yet to see Sony even announce exclusive support. Can you source me?

Interestingly enough I don't think they have. Its an assumption because its their format, but this is Sony, if HD-DVD catches on they'll move to that. They might be grumpy about it but they would.

 

[borghe]

I'll believe it when I see it.. between a near exclusive distribution agreement with Universal (Universal has distributed something like 90% of Dreamworks' movies) and Katzenberg's hatred for Disney, I would almost be more inclined to believe Dreamworks will either sign with HD-DVD first or announce simultaneous releases, leaning more towards the former.

Is there anybody else here though who agrees that all of this side choosing only spells disaster for mainstream adoption of either disc as a home video format?

 

[GhaleonEB]

I'll believe it when I see it.. between a near exclusive distribution agreement with Universal (Universal has distributed something like 90% of Dreamworks' movies) and Katzenberg's hatred for Disney, I would almost be more inclined to believe Dreamworks will either sign with HD-DVD first or announce simultaneous releases, leaning more towards the former.

Is there anybody else here though who agrees that all of this side choosing only spells disaster for mainstream adoption of either disc as a home video format?

I'm encouraged that there is a dicussion going on as to which format will be more viable, but it looks to me like there's more politics/intercomapany bickering going on than any discussion of the merits of either.

 

[cja]

From the same article



If the next gen format wars turn out ugly, blame it on Toshiba - Sony actually wanted the compromise; no wonder SCE signed NVIDIA for the PS3 GPU development.

Sony want a compromise on their own terms, to get a great deal more of their IP into next-gen DVD which would give them a bigger part of the license money pie. Toshiba turned 'em down, no surprise, since they contributed the most tech used in DVD and felt they could/should do the same this time around as well.

 

[Pimpwerx]

None of the companies are exclusive to either format AFAIK. Why do something stupid like that? If BR fails, they'll all make HD-DVD format movies, and vice-versa. They're just hedging their bets for now, but we'll see real commitment when someone starts stamping movies in one format over another. PEACE.

 

[boredJonathan]

I keep reading this thread title as "Dreamcast about to announce Blu-Ray support", and then I want to punch Foreign Jackass for bringing up that stupid Sega announcement yesterday.

 

[GDGF]

I keep reading this thread title as "Dreamcast about to announce Blu-Ray support", and then I want to punch Foreign Jackass for bringing up that stupid Sega announcement yesterday.

I saw the same thing and thought I flashbacked to 99-2000 for a sec.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Does the world need higher capacity formats yet? If they really want to introduce them then they have got to sort this out 'cause it ends up in a split, with some films appearing in one format or the other and others coming out in both, I think the consumers are just going to cold shoulder both formats until a single unified one emerges.