As some of you may already know, the HD-DVD / Blu-Ray "war" may be soon irrelevant. Take this little packet of data from The New York Times, Jayson-Blair-free of course:
"An electronics company and a movie studio independently rolled out plans on Thursday to bridge the divide between rival high-definition DVD formats with products that would combine two sets of standards.
Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N) said it will unveil a new high-definition disc that would hold recordings in the rival HD DVD and Blu-ray formats in separate layers."
The technology was announced as being researched a few months back, but it looks like this thing is finally going to see the light of day at CES. Of course, this will prompt another debate about the relevance of the Playstation 3 during our podcast this weekend. (I know I owe you folks episodes 28, 29 and 30. They're coming very soon. Sorry!) In fact, the_antipode and Tony started the e-mail conversation.
The lot of us have been harsh on Sony over the life of the podcast. All of us just happen to find Sony's strategy annoying. So it was no surprise when the first reaction out of Tony was,
"I have no idea if this even will affect Sony, but, they did halt production for the PS3 to ONLY include the Bloke-ray. That just solidifies my position on this [no censor bypass!] system."
the_antipode's quick response was:
"Uh oh SONY... PS3 is about to be worth LESS, in my opinion."
Eh. I'm not entirely sure.
Of course, both sides of the argument are valid, but as much as I'm not a fan of Sony's tactics, I can't say that they're in any big trouble. Not by a longshot. After all, just because I happen to prefer Microsoft and Nintendo offerings at this current moment doesn't mean that the market feels the same way. (To say otherwise would be, uh, what's the word - fanboyism?) But let's first start off with the disc format situation alone.
We only need to look at the price points of standalone players. Blu-Ray players debuted at $999 - a healthy $400 more expensive than the high-end Playstation 3 model. Both machines play Blu-Ray at the 1080p spec. From what I'm hearing, critics also think that the Playstation 3 is quite a capable Blu-Ray player that outputs very clean image quality and doesn't lead to anywhere near as much scowling and sneering as the Playstation 2's DVD capabilities did when compared to standalone players.
True, HD-DVD drives debuted at $499. However, these drives did not output 1080p. The HD-DVD spec is certainly capable of 1080p, but I'm sure that any 1080p standalone HD-DVD player would be more expensive than its $499 cousin. In addition, how much would a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combo player cost? I couldn't imagine a full-featured one debuting for less than $999. Further, whatever manufacturing process will let Blu-Ray players drop in price would prove advantageous for Playstation 3 manufacturing as well. Then again, I shouldn't assume that Sony would just drop the price from $599 just because the laser diode became easier to manufacture. The company is losing barnyards of cash on the thing as it is.
My other contention is that ... Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360 comes on three discs. No, I don't mind multiple discs. No, I don't think they're a problem. And no, I don't like the insistence on thinking that 1080p pre-rendered cinematics make games better and that they should keep using them even though gameplay-engine (gears) cinematics (of) look (war) fantastic as it is.
But the truth is, developers are making cinematics. As long as they're making cinematics, they'll need disc space. As long as they'll need disc space, they'll appreciate the roomy interior and smooth leather seating of the Blu-Ray format. By the way, I'm not sure how the hell Insomniac needed to use 20 gigabytes of disc space on Resistance: Fall of Man, but it did. Then again, Ridge Racer 7 used like three kilobytes... go figure. This isn't so much a groundbreaking argument for Blu-Ray as much as it is just evidence that at some point, it will be beneficial to have as much space as the discs are offering.
The bottom line after all of this is that it's all about the games. I know I just plastered a big fat headline on my site that said: "Virtua Fighter 5 Stun-Palms Xbox 360, PS3 Loses Exclusive". In hindsight, perhaps that was spin that I didn't need to put in there. I guess I was just so surprised and shocked that it happened that the exclusivity uproar was all I could think of.
But let's put it this way - Hideo Kojima still insists that Metal Gear Solid 4 is exclusive. There has been no announcement revealing the death of Devil May Cry 4 exclusivity. Dragon Quest IX may be DS bound, but Final Fantasy XIII still belongs to the Playstation 3. Finally, I wonder if people have lost sight of the fact that the Playstation 3 has already outsold the Xbox 360 in Japan. I'm not saying that this is anyone's death knell or guarantee of victory, but it says something nonetheless.
Let's imagine a magical scenario where Sony loses all of its exclusives to platform-agnosticism. Sony Computer Entertainment is improving day by day. You wouldn't have gotten me to praise what I thought was a half-hearted hackjob of a development house a couple of years ago, but God of War rammed a huge helping of crow down my esophagus. So did Shadow of the Colossus, despite my "only" scoring it a 7.5 ("7.5 - Good!" Say it in the voice that the guy on the Gamespot Video Review outro does). And lest we forget - who's Polyphony Digital's big daddy? That's right, Sony.
Truth is, as commoditized as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 may become (at least with respects to each other), first parties and legacy will still count for a lot. Sony can't take Microsoft Game Studios away from Microsoft, and Microsoft can't take Sony Computer Entertainment away from Sony. Hell, it's the same reason why I've played more Gamecube games than Playstation 2 and Xbox games combined - first party offerings.
Plus, you've got the Sony Store. Everyone hooted and hollered when the Virtual Console was announced, but who can forget the thrill of putting in Final Fantasy VII for the first time? Granted, the process to get these games from the store into your hands involves a Playstation 3, a Playstation Portable, an AC adapter, USB cord and about 90 minutes of patience (or a Rubik's Cube, whichever). At least it's there, though, I guess; the point is, Sony's got a library that you can't find anywhere else.
Wow, I suppose I veered off of the "Dual-Format disc affecting Sony" thing. That means I'm thirsty. Chupouts.
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