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 The High Definition DVD Studio Support Petition Campaign |
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HD DVD Sales Soar Yet Again !! HD DVD Sales Continue to Strengthen! Two New Exclsuive Studios set to make big difference! As if it weren't enough that HD DVD sales have continued to grow strongly, the addition of Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks as exclusive studios to the HD DVD library means that over the next few weeks we will see a positive shift in the competitive position betwen Bluray and HD DVD sales. Fully 60 titles were immediately affected by the decisions, as some were removed from the Bluray library, and other new additions to the HD DVD library were rolling out. To see an analysis, click here... As you will recall, HD DVD sales have repeatedly passed the Bluray sales in various Top 10 and Top 25 trackers throughout this year, and it is becoming more frequent, as the formats draw closer to each other. We will watch these sales trackers as the week progress, but here is today's snapshot:
April 15th, 2007 HD DVD Sales Soar To First Place! And HD DVD Takes The Lead In Europe! Showing that the sudden drop in HD DVD sales in the first quarter was likely due to the temporary limited amount of new releases, HD DVD sales ROARED back to life in late March, as scores of new releases made their way back into the release pipeline and onto store shelves. As you will recall from my last opinion piece on the sales of both formats, there was a surge in Bluray movie sales after the Christmas launch of the PS3 – but not nearly enough, in my opinion, to eliminate the people’s choice, HD DVD, from the competitive landscape. I predicted that some of these new PS3 owners would have an initial curiosity which would result in a sales surge for Bluray – particularly as Sony included discount vouchers for the movies with each PS3 sold. However, it seemed that BD sales started dropping off in February, at which point a series of “2 week sales” events for Bluray movies, including a “50% off” (the retail price, not street price) at Amazon were kicked off, starting around the 6th of March. The effect of the sales clearly halted the slide in BR sales temporarily, as you can see by the graph below, but BD sales then plunged again, as you can see. However, during March, the temporary lull in HD DVD releases ended and titles were being announced left, right and center. Amazon trackers in particular showed the effects of these new releases, as HD DVD owners waved their credit cards at their screens and summoned the titles to their homes! In fact over 70 titles were announced to land by July (see links) – including The Matrix Trilogy (see links), in two different sets for HD DVD only (due to continued BD development problems apparently (see links). Buoyed by recent stories and editorials in respected publications, giving the nod to HD DVD as having the superior picture and the best Hi Def players on the market, (see links) HD DVD owners shrugged off repeated assertions by the BDA that the “war is over” and made your choice – HD DVD! Top Ten disc sales of each format account for the greater portion of weekly sales, so we thought you’d be very happy to see the chart for the last 90 days for a good perspective on HD DVD's resilience (we've also got the Top 25 sales at the bottom of this page: 
You can see the latest updates to this chart here on HDgamedb.com. Here's the last 30 days:
Here's another perspective from eproductwars:
You can get more info from eproductwars here. I have listed the MANY HD DVD titles available and announced to date over (here) and have also created a thread to help you pick your favourites, here. For some reason – it appears that Sony has not released its latest Nielsen/Videoscan sales summary comparing the two formats. Could it be that they don’t like what they are seeing? The answer seems pretty obvious in my opinion – they probably don’t like what they are seeing. From what we are seeing, HD DVD is once again taking first place in HD movies sales volume. The enthusiast’s favorite format seems all set to rule again! And HD DVD Takes the Lead in Europe In another related story, the The Financial Times, of London (via MSNBC), proclaims: “Toshiba takes European lead over Sony in HD”. This story is covered in detail here. It also mentions that HD DVD is preferred by the studios there! In yet another related story – Business Week has proclaimed that price DOES matter in this format war. Their story can be found here: “Bluray vs. HD DVD: Price Matters”. Says Business Week: “And even though Blu-ray, championed by Sony, has more major movie studios in its camp, that alone is unlikely to give Blu-ray the edge, says James McQuivey, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. No major movie studio will ultimately refuse to support a format compatible with players being used by a significant slice of the potential audience, McQuivey says. Now that’s what WE’VE been saying all along. Looks like we’ve reached our critical mass. HD DVD is here to stay. Here are the Top 25 Sales for the last 90 days also, to give you a good perspective:
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