Some Blu-Ray, HD DVD Discs Sell Only 200 Copies

An anonymous reader writes "Much has been made of the strong sales for some recent high-def disc releases (such as 'Casino Royale' on Blu-ray), but a new Sony research report reveals some startlingly low sales numbers for other titles released on the next-gen formats. When disc sales of under 1000 can land you on a weekly best-sellers list, you know your format is in its infancy."

Re:Strong sales

[Dogtanian]

"Casino Royale" is being sold in a bundle with the PS3 in my country. Could this be where many of the sales of that particular movie are coming from?

You're right [portableplanet.co.uk], I think this applies to the UK(?). At any rate, it's notable that companies love to manipulate sales figures to give the impression of market share. (My parents saved a lot of money on their last car because it was "pre-registered" by the makers so they could include it in "on the road" figures. Same unused car, but because it was somehow "second hand"- except it wasn't- they saved a bundle.) Casino Royale may be popular, but I have trouble believing it's really that far ahead without taking the promotion into account; and I've no doubt that Sony included those units in the "Sony's 'Casino Royale' smashed high-def records by shipping 100,00 units to retail "

Re:Casino Royale Blueray sales a promotional trick

[Dogtanian]

Look elsewhere in the thread; Casino Royale is being bundled with many PS3s.

Re:Strong sales

[DaFork]

You're Right

Did you read the article you linked to? The first 500,000 users who register on the PlayStation Network will receive a copy. Every time they did this in the past, they shipped the disc directly to the registered user and not to retail.

Besides, they sold 200,000 PS3s the first two weeks in the UK and the Casino Royal numbers two weeks after the UK launch launch were only 100,000. I think that the majority of new PS3 users would register for their free disc; therefore the free offer numbers are obviously not represented in those sales numbers.

Re:What about your target audience?

[Cowclops]

"Really old sets" doing "790(i/p)" only? First off, 1080i and 720p are the standard HD resolutions. Interlacing is a trick only avaliable on CRT sets, so most current tvs are not "at least" 1080i, but rather they ARE 720p. The native resolution of the LCD/DLP/whatever panel is usually either 1280x720 or 1366x768, except for on the not-quite-yet widespread 1080p sets.

And, composite video is for low quality 480i. Component video allows 1080i/720p, but of course only on a high definition set. There are plenty of TVs out there with component video that only handle 480i.

Re:What about your target audience?

[shimage]

Just a nitpick, but LCD sets are almost always either 1366x768 or 1080p (the break seems to be between 37" and 42" sets). DLP sets are usually 1080p, although you can still find the occasional 720p set (the point being, that it's always either 720p or 1080p, and not something in between). Plasmas are usually 1024x768. At least, that's how it is where I shop. It's probably different elsewhere. I don't think you can call a WXGA screen "720p", although it will certainly accept input at that resolution.

Re: Similar to Vista

[greed]

Yup, my cheap Blu-Ray player (or expensive PS2 and PSone game machine) plays conventional (and burned) DVDs just fine. It actually is slightly nicer to use than my dedicated DVD player; so I watch movies in the PS3 and leave TV-on-DVD in the DVD machine so "resume play" works. (It doesn't remember last-play position after eject. Hmmm, I think the PS3 does, maybe the dedicated DVD player is completely useless now.)