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Stats on PS2 driving the DVD format?

K

krypt0nian

Banned
I'm looking to shut up a friend who cannot fathom how the DVD format was initially driven by the PS2.

He reads only A/V magazines and claims that he's never read this fact anywhere. He then goes on to infer that the gaming sources that have reported this are biased and of course would put out information that the driving force of the DVD is gaming related. :lol

So.....to stop the insanity, does anyone have any links to share that show the PS2's effect on DVD format acceptance?

JPN/NA would be most helpful, but anything is appreciated.
 
it had a much bigger difference in Japan than the US.

In the US DVD acceptance was mostly driven when the sub-$100 players hit the market. In fact, sales of DVD players only eclipsed VCRs recently.
 
Although I'd certainly agree it wasnt as big a factor as in Japan, the PS2 fueled a lot of growth here as well. It bridged the gap between DVDs being more of an enthusiast format to it becoming the standard.
 
Nerevar said:
it had a much bigger difference in Japan than the US.

In the US DVD acceptance was mostly driven when the sub-$100 players hit the market. In fact, sales of DVD players only eclipsed VCRs recently.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can completely count out it's impact in any region.

There have been less than 90M DVD players sold in the US and ~30M PS2's sold. Worldwide, there are ~200M DVD players and 90M PS2's. I find different numbers on DVD players based on where I look but they seem to be around these numbers. And the past 2-3 years were the biggest growth.
 
sonycowboy said:
I don't think you can completely count out it's impact in any region.

There have been less than 90M DVD players sold in the US and ~30M PS2's sold. Worldwide, there are ~200M DVD players and 90M PS2's. I find different numbers on DVD players based on where I look but they seem to be around these numbers. And the past 2-3 years were the biggest growth.
Click to expand...

while I wouldn't argue that it had zero effect, I don't know anyone who uses their PS2 (or xbox) as their primary DVD player. I would argue that the widespread availability of cheap, progressive scan DVD players is what has really pushed it into the mainstream here in America. Considering you can pick them up for around $30 in Best Buy these days on sales, it's easy to see how it has surpassed VHS as the primary format.
 
Shig said:
Although I'd certainly agree it wasnt as big a factor as in Japan, the PS2 fueled a lot of growth here as well. It bridged the gap between DVDs being more of an enthusiast format to it becoming the standard.
Click to expand...

Uh. I'll say this much...

PS2 just came around roughly the same time DVDs were getting cheaper and popular.

PS2 didn't push enough units to make a large enough impact on DVD/VHS.
 
Nerevar said:
while I wouldn't argue that it had zero effect, I don't know anyone who uses their PS2 (or xbox) as their primary DVD player. I would argue that the widespread availability of cheap, progressive scan DVD players is what has really pushed it into the mainstream here in America. Considering you can pick them up for around $30 in Best Buy these days on sales, it's easy to see how it has surpassed VHS as the primary format.
Click to expand...

But, you're not arguing that it's the $30 players that drove the format? Clearly, the format had succeeded long before late last year? DVD players were still in the $250 range for your standard brands (Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc) when the PS2 was launched. I should know because I bought my in-laws a player after the PS2 came out for $225 on sales, which still gathers dust today.

What would be interesting is seeing the dates of movie releases onto DVD. I know that even coming into 2000, that most studios had done very little of bringing their back catalog onto DVD and that most of the movies were new releases. Or even to know when Blockbuster converted the stores from a small DVD section to the larger DVD sections and finally giving the DVD's the primary space with new releases on the walls.
 
I guess it's semantics. I'm arguing that the cheap progressive scan player is what made it popular, which is what is important IMO. What exactly do you mean by "driving"? Introduced it to the mainstream? Became the first successful commercial player? I think it helped popularize DVDs, but I don't think it was the dominant factor at all.

The case is much clearer in Japan, where hardware sales actually exceeded software sales for a short time (:lol), so in that case the PS2 clearly popularized DVDs.
 
At the end of 2000 there were 700k PS2s sold in the US and 14 million DVD Players. I would say DVD was doing just fine w/o the PS2s help
 
sangreal said:
At the end of 2000 there were 700k PS2s sold in the US and 14 million DVD Players. I would say DVD was doing just fine w/o the PS2s help
Click to expand...

and that's just the US too. It also does not include PC drives either, which at that point in time were basically just players too.
 
Stinkles said:
That is total rubbish.
Click to expand...
I worked at a store when DVDs were first coming out through when PS2 debuted. The section expanded a lot more after PS2 than any time before. While some of it was happy coincidence, the PS2 was a factor... many movie studios were putting labels on their releases (or sending them to us to stick on them) touting their PS2 compatability. I don't doubt it would have become the standard without the PS2, mind you, but that certainly helped it along.
 
sangreal said:
At the end of 2000 there were 700k PS2s sold in the US and 14 million DVD Players. I would say DVD was doing just fine w/o the PS2s help
Click to expand...

Actually, there were 1.1M PS2's sold in 2000. ;)

And, if 14M DVD players is mainstream, the HDTV's must be mainstream now right? There were 13M as of end of 2004 in the US and expected to be >20M by the end of 2005. So why does everybody think it's too soon fof HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

Critical mass determines when it's mainstream, not the expected uptake in sales that happens from year to year. Although, I'm certainly not saying the PS2 pushed DVD. They both benefited from the PS2's DVD capability, though. And to say otherwise is foolish, IMO.
 
zesty said:
If the PS2 was never capable of playing DVDs, would the format still be as popular now? I say yes.
Click to expand...

Well it definatley helped quite a bit for the average joe and younger children without an already DVD player in room.

As far as someone with a HDTV goes, the shit quality video was unacceptable. Probably didn't sway anyone to switch or have this over the other.
 
Also, it took DVD ~4 years to hit 14M players in the US. Sony has a real shot at hitting that number in 1 1/2 with the PS3 Blu-Ray player, and for MUCH less than early adopters paid for their DVD players.

So, by the belief that the number of players determining success and that 14M is a magic number, then Blu-Ray looks to be in very good shape ;)
 
sonycowboy said:
Actually, there were 1.1M PS2's sold in 2000. ;)
Click to expand...

Whoops, minor miscalculation

And, if 14M DVD players is mainstream, the HDTV's must be mainstream now right? There were 13M as of end of 2004 in the US and expected to be >20M by the end of 2005.
Click to expand...

Who said DVD was mainstream? The question is if PS2 drove the DVD format. DVD Players outsold the PS2 2:1 in 2001. I don't see how anyone can conclude that the PS2 drove the format.

So why does everybody think it's too soon fof HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?
Click to expand...

Who said anything about HD-DVD/BR???
 
sangreal said:
Who said DVD was mainstream? The question is if PS2 drove the DVD format. DVD Players outsold the PS2 4:1 in 2001. I don't see how anyone can conclude that the PS2 drove the format.
Click to expand...

Minor Miscalculation again? :p

2001 Sales
-------------------
DVD: 12,706,584
PS2: 6,179,578

Maybe, you should just not quote numbers :lol

(just kidding)

I already agreed that the PS2 was not THE driving force behind DVD by any stretch. But it was a big factor in it's quick success.
 
http://web-japan.org/trends00/honbun/tj000703.html

Hollywood on DVD
The disks themselves are also selling briskly. Time Warner Entertainment Japan released The Matrix, an American film, on DVD on March 17, 2000, for 4,200 yen (40 dollars). Originally, Time Warner had planned on releasing the film a week later, but moved the date up in order to catch the wave of DVD enthusiasm sparked by PlayStation 2's release. Thanks to this good timing and Time Warner's finely tuned sales strategy, the DVD version of The Matrix sold 600,000 copies in the first two weeks. The company predicts that sales will reach 1.5 million by the end of 2000, shattering the conventional wisdom of the DVD world, where a recording is considered a hit if it sells 10,000 copies.
 
sonycowboy said:
Minor Miscalculation again? :p

DVD: 12,706,584
PS2: 6,179,578

Maybe, you should just not quote numbers :lol
Click to expand...

I already corrected it before you posted, I was originally going to say that by the end of 2001 there were 4x as many standalone DVD players than PS2s

(and I'm using your numbers for reference :))
 
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