Stringer: Format War At Stalemate
by Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 11/9/2007
New York — Sony CEO Howard Stringer said during a public interview Thursday the high-definition disc format war between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD is at a stalemate, according to an Associated Press report.
“It's a difficult fight,” AP quoted Stringer as saying during the interview at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in Manhattan. “We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides.”
Stringer, whose company is one of the strongest Blu-ray Disc promoters, went on to downplay the importance of being the sole winner of the battle, adding that there was an opportunity before he was named CEO to unite the two camps and present a unified format, and he wishes now he could travel back in time to make that happen, the AP said.
Meanwhile, Stringer said the PlayStation3, the company’s Blu-ray Disc supporting video game console, is the best-selling console in Europe after a price cut three weeks ago. A similar price cut in the United States has doubled sales, he said.
