As we wrap up our week long celebration for the one year anniversary of Blu-ray, we are going to take a look at what forum users and our staff felt was the biggest accomplishment during the first year, and what was the biggest disappointment. While we recognize that some exciting things happened over the past year, we also recognize that some things could have gone better.
Biggest Accomplishment: Surpassing HD DVD in Sales
During the first six months of the format war, HD DVD proved to be the stronger of the two competing formats. Launching first and flooding the market with cheap players and hot titles ensured they would hold the lead while Blu-ray fumbled with non-existent players and questionable titles.
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PlayStation 3 was launched in November, and in a few short weeks Blu-ray, for the first time, surpassed HD DVD in disc sales on a weekly basis. More importantly, the gap continued to grow, until Blu-ray achieved a 69% market share on a weekly basis which it continues to hold today.
Success on a week by week basis meant that eventually, Blu-ray would eclipse the total disc sales of HD DVD. Less than three months after surpassing HD DVD in weekly sales, Blu-ray became the overall sales leader in mid-February. Blu-ray now accounts for nearly 60% of the high definition disc market and continues to expand their lead with strong sales.
Coming from behind is never easy, but with the support of PlayStation 3, Blu-ray was able to become the market and consumer leader.
Runner Up: PlayStation 3
Biggest Disappointment: Universal Still HD DVD Exclusive
After Warner Brothers and Paramount pulled their exclusive support for HD DVD, Universal Studios was left as the only big studio exclusively supporting the rival format. As Blu-ray gained momentum in the market place, rumored swirled as to why they would ignore compiled sales data and sit firmly in the losing camp. Do they have contractual obligations to HD DVD? Is Microsoft subsidizing Universal releases? Are egos getting in the way of going neutral?
The real reason for Universal's exclusivity remains a secret, but one thing we do know is that consumers are hurting from the decision. It is widely regarded that if Universal were to announce neutrality, HD DVD would fail and the war would be over. This, of course, would be the best scenario for consumers, many of which are awaiting a victor before purchasing either format.
The switch would also be beneficial to Universal. Neilson VideoScan numbers confirm that Blu-ray and format-neutral studios are selling many more titles than HD DVD studios. In fact, even though Universal Studios is one of the bigger studios, they have no title in the Top 20 High Definition Discs for unit sales. Going neutral would open their releases to much larger audience and sales increases would undoubtedly benefit many times over.
Consumers can only wait and hope that this war will end soon so that high definition movies can reach mass adoption within the market place. We don't know how this war will end, but do know that Universal plays a big part in it continuing.
Runner Up: Format War Continues