@Apnomis
Reading some of your stuff from other articles on here makes me want to write your comments off immediately. Please understand I’m not having a go at BluRay or HD-DVD. And yes I have all current generation consoles so I’m within my rights to talk about it all.

I really think it’s unfair to call my comments “smart-ass” its a very condescending way to talk to anyone, and is probably one of the reasons you get people’s backs up. It all just comes across as the worlds worst fan speak.

“If you had you would have known that Woolies is now the biggest reseller of Blu-ray in the UK, with sales rising a massive 40% every month.”

Says it all really doesn’t it. You haven’t changed anything with this fact. They sell lots of Blu-Ray, how does that compare with other stores? Its not exactly a clever comment in itself really is it? Shock, they turned to Blu Ray only.

“So it may be a chav-centric chain, but it is also a chain of 820 stores that is leading the UK’s adoption of HD movies. So from the UK perspective, which is the perspective of this site, it is a very important victory for Blu-ray.”

I don’t even know how to respond to that. You’re making up facts unless you have something to back that up with. How is it leading the UK’s adoption of HD movies? Bull. Its also worrying that you’re happy with Blu-Ray being associated with chavs! How funny!

I’d also like to ask where in woolies are the Blu Ray discs? I looked in two different ones in the last couple of weeks and there is nothing to be seen. Zavvi had loads, with equal shelf space for HD-DVD.

“It is also the first major reseller to go format exclusive, that in itself is big news in itself. When Blockbuster became the first rental chain to go Blu-ray exclusive it was big news, so Woolies becoming the first retailer to go format exclusive is also big news.”

Hardly big news, again. It was a very quiet story on the day, and nothing has really ever been said about it, or come from it since!

“As they say there’s no smoke without fire, and if HMV and Zavvi and the like start seeing Woolies soaking up all the next-gen disc sales with their Blu-ray exclusive displays and Blu-ray chart in every store, don’t you think they will consider doing the same?”

Guesswork. Who knows what HMV and Zavvi think? Its more than likely that they’ll look at their own sales figures and shelf space and decide for themselves. Thinking about the places that matter more, like Play.com - its unlikely that HD-DVD will ever disappear from their sites until they actually have no more to sell. I see they still sell SACDs.

“Blu-ray out selling HD-DVD 10 to 1 in a major high street store is a big achievement, shelf space is an expensive commodity in retail and if Blu-ray sells more, Blu-ray will get the shelf space.”

Again assumptions and conjecture, please show us how you came to these conclusions.

“Toshiba can make their players as cheap as they like but if the average consumer can’t walk into a store and pick up a movie the format will fail, and fail quickly. If more retailers relegate HD-DVD to the realms of online stores only Toshiba may as well throw in the towel.”

A very good assumption. However you’re only thinking about it from one point of view. Think of it from another. Cheap hardware COULD equal more sales. More people with HD-DVD standalone hardware shows increased definite support for the format, along with an assumed rise in sales of the HD-DVDs themselves. (as opposed to the assumed purchase of a PS3 means a consumer will purchase a BluRay disk)
It gives a nice package of figures for the HD-DVD camp to be able to show off if they pull it off. Along with this there is the assumed profits which put the camp in a much stronger position. Its just another point of view.

“So in summary, it is big news and it is relevant news. Like it or not the fate of the PS3 is entwined with the fate of Blu-ray, and ThreeSpeech are right to report on the latest developments of both. ”

I could do the same thing you did with HD-DVD, present a lot of convincing sentances that support my theories. To summarise, its not really big news, and is hardly relevant. The fate of Blu-Ray should not be intertwined with the PS3 and you should stop thinking that it is. Is UMD going to decide the fate of the PSP? Did the GD-ROM decide the fate of the Dreamcast? Answer is no. It never will because its simply a distribution format.

Good on you shrui, I completely agree with everything you said.
For shame SCEE you are totally inadequate.
Get out of the way and let the yanks show you how to do customer relations and communications.

I own a 360 and a PS3. They’re my babies; neither is my favourite.

(Except the PS3’s quieter.)

http://www.chip.de/news/Saturn-Blu-ray-kaufen-HD-DVD-in-Zahlung-geben_30235840.html

Before you give your smart-ass comments perhaps you should do a little Google searching. If you had you would have known that Woolies is now the biggest reseller of Blu-ray in the UK, with sales rising a massive 40% every month.

So it may be a chav-centric chain, but it is also a chain of 820 stores that is leading the UK’s adoption of HD movies. So from the UK perspective, which is the perspective of this site, it is a very important victory for Blu-ray.

It is also the first major reseller to go format exclusive, that in itself is big news in itself. When Blockbuster became the first rental chain to go Blu-ray exclusive it was big news, so Woolies becoming the first retailer to go format exclusive is also big news.

As they say there’s no smoke without fire, and if HMV and Zavvi and the like start seeing Woolies soaking up all the next-gen disc sales with their Blu-ray exclusive displays and Blu-ray chart in every store, don’t you think they will consider doing the same?

Blu-ray out selling HD-DVD 10 to 1 in a major high street store is a big achievement, shelf space is an expensive commodity in retail and if Blu-ray sells more, Blu-ray will get the shelf space.

Toshiba can make their players as cheap as they like but if the average consumer can’t walk into a store and pick up a movie the format will fail, and fail quickly. If more retailers relegate HD-DVD to the realms of online stores only Toshiba may as well throw in the towel.

So in summary, it is big news and it is relevant news. Like it or not the fate of the PS3 is entwined with the fate of Blu-ray, and ThreeSpeech are right to report on the latest developments of both.