Microsoft Fueling HD Wars For Own Benefit? 359
DaveyJJ writes "According to Transformers' director Michael Bay, in a story over on Electronista, Microsoft is deliberately feeding into the HD disc format wars to ensure that its own downloads succeed where physical copies fail, he says in a response to a question posed through his official forums. The producer contends that Microsoft is writing "$100 million dollar checks" to movie studios to ensure HD DVD exclusives that hurt the overall market regardless of the format's actual merit or its popularity, preventing any one format from gaining a clear upper hand."
Because heaven knows.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Both Sony and MS throw money into supporting the horse that their respective wagon is tied to. That's how it is.
And I agree that in the long term on line distribution will win, but before it can the internet as we know it needs some substantial upgrading. Not to support the concept (it already does), but to support what happens when the masses start using it.
They wrote the HD content software. (Score:5, Interesting)
What's a few $100M here and there when you have the potential to collect so many licenses from consumer boxes?
Plus, the Blu-Ray content software is written in Java. What better reason for MS to hate it?
Re:I call bullshit on this one... (Score:5, Interesting)
True, Downloadable video is nice, as is stuff like Video on demand. I can picture telling my kids that "In my day, if you wanted to watch a show? You just had to wait until it was on." However, I don't think that downloadable movies will ever overtake actually having the disk in hand. If I want to watch Army Of Darkness, I don't want to wait 20 minutes for it to stream, then hope that my connection stays steady enough to prevent it from freezing. Just pop in the disk, no problem. The more steps you take from wanting to watch a movie, and pressing play, the worse off it is, in my opinion.
Re:I call bullshit on this one... (Score:5, Interesting)
Throw in the added benefit of taking some of the wind out of the PS3 and it seems like a very cheap way for Microsoft to purchase marketshare in several different markets (Console, DVD Downloads, Home Electronics).
Re:Because heaven knows.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Bingo! MS isn't trying to destroy physical media anymore than Verizon is trying to destroy the POTS. While both know that the future doesn't lay in these technologies both also know that for now they're pulling down a reasonable profit with them because of mass usage.
By the time the internet is seriously up to the task of delivering HD styled content to the masses both HD DVD and Blu Ray will have gone the way of the laser disc. The lifespan of these new formats will not be longer than that of the traditional DVD. We've been DVD for what now? 10 or 12 years? Do people here honestly think that technologies like FIOS are going to be nation wide (let alone world wide) in the next decade? I think people are fooling themselves into the ultra futuristic world of downloadable content being just around the corner. We have communities within 20 miles of a somewhat major city (if you can call Pittsburgh a major city) that still don't have DSL or Cable internet. This doesn't even bring the frail backbone of the internet into question.
Online content as a mass market is still a long ways off and it's ability to replace physical media won't be a reality in the next 10 years.
Re:Doesn't sound like Microsoft. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I don't care for the why. (Score:3, Interesting)
Of those, only one is true and one is partially true. HD DVD is region free and its the one great feature it has. It is only partially true to say HD DVD is cheaper since it is only because Toshiba is subsidizing it. The technology for Blu Ray and HD DVD is virtually analogous and therefore incurs similar costs. It's just the Blu Ray camp doesn't have the luxury of subsidizing its players since we're talking of dozens of companies working to an industry standard, not one company trying to force it.
As for backwards compatible... what???
In comparison Bluray suffers from being region locked, having much more unfriendly, more problematic DRM and doesn't support backwards compat. in DVD players.
Some discs are region locked, some aren't - Blu Ray is not doing itself any favours by doing this. The DRM is not more problematic. Backwards compatibility is just fine in Blu Ray players that support DVDs which would be all of them.
Re:proof? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, I have no idea whether similar deals are in place for Blu-ray. Sony, of course, is a major studio on its own, so it clearly has a vested interest in releasing exclusively on Blu-ray.
[disclaimer: I'm a bit of a Blu-ray fan, I like the higher capacities]
It is likely that the days of physical objects for movies (whether they be DVD, HD-DVD, or dilithium crystals) are numbered. Even the writers noted this in their negotiations for a new contract with the studios -- at the last minute they gave up their demand for 8 cents on each DVD sale (as opposed to the 4 cents they are getting now,) almost certainly because they see that fighting over 4 cents on a DVD is fighting the last war -- not putting them in place for the next one.
Thad Beier
Re:Doesn't sound like Microsoft. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I call bullshit on this one... (Score:1, Interesting)
Seriously though, I think Michael Bay is just a wacko who's bought into way too much industry punditry. If his directing is any clue, he was probably fed some absurd story with a heavy reliance on pseudo-science fantasy and unrealistic motivations for all involved parties. That, and some really top-notch special effects.