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HD DVD and Blu-ray: The Video Game Console Sideshow of the Format War
February 4, 2008
Format wars are similar to full-fledged military wars. For example there is always the main theater of operation, where the combatants face each other with the bulk of their forces and focus much of their efforts, and there are sideshows. These are typically on a smaller scale, and really don’t have much in the way of significance towards the outcome of the greater conflict.
The main struggle in the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD is winding down, and Blu-ray looks like it could come out on top. The sideshow to this format war is still going on in the video game arena, as Sony’s PlayStation 3 offers built-in Blu-ray support, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 features an optional add-on HD DVD drive. Various analysts have weighted in time and time again on how the consoles would affect the format war, but in fact it seems to have made little impact.
This sideshow to the format war made for some interesting news over the last year and a half. In military history the sideshows are sometimes more interesting than the main engagements. Military history buffs like me love reading about General Benedict Arnold’s invasion of Canada during the American Revolution (that was before he became an infamous traitor), or about the exploits of Colonel Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck (http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/lettowvorbeck.htm). During the First World War this German commander successfully evaded superior British-South African forces in a sideshow campaign in German East Africa. For more than three years Von Lettow-Vorbeck led his forces up and down the east coast of Africa, tying down British troops that would have been better used on the Western Front in Europe. His efforts couldn’t possibly help the Germans win the Great War, but he did try to impede the British from winning instead.
That’s sort of what Microsoft managed to do in the Blu-ray HD DVD format war. Microsoft never fully committed to the format, and instead offered an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. Sony focused a bit too much effort on trying to play up the PlayStation 3 as a machine that could do it all: play games, play movies in HD and be the media portal for the living room.
Microsoft used a similar strategy, but early on directed attention away from optical discs and instead hyped up the ability to download content in HD. More importantly Microsoft, along with third party developers actually delivered games that people would want to play including BioShock, Halo 3 and Mass Effect.
Further, by making the HD DVD drive an add-on helped Redmond keep the cost down on the Xbox 360. It didn’t hurt that Microsoft even threw in a copy of King Kong on HD DVD with the drive. Likewise, the system may have even gotten a boost from Paramount’s release of the complete Star Trek series on the HD DVD format.
Sony on the other hand, by including the Blu-ray drive as a built-in, ended up with an overly expensive machine. Sure it was/is the most affordable way to get a Blu-ray player, but a lot of gamers didn’t care about movies on Blu-ray. More importantly when the console arrived in November 2006 there weren’t exactly a lot of movies on Blu-ray to peak interest.
So what does all this mean going forward? Well, even if the bigger format war is winding down it won’t hurt the video game console makers (much anyway). With a Blu-ray victory Sony can hype up that the PS3 has a movie format that is still going strong. Now if the company can get its act together on the gaming front they might be back in the game.
But even if HD DVD is down for the count the Xbox 360 isn’t that badly hurt. Just last week on 1UP.com Microsoft’s Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business was quoted as saying that Microsoft has been “talking to Blu-ray all along.” Is this a bit of revisionist history from Redmond? Well, most wars end up with a little revisionism along the way. And while it is unlikely that Microsoft will unveil a Blu-ray drive any time soon, it wouldn’t be all that hard to see it as a possibility in the future.
The war isn’t over either; as Stewart Wolpin reported recently adult videos could still save HD DVD. That’s a wait and see. But a few truths also came out of this sideshow. First, the PS3 makes a fine Blu-ray player, complete with HDMI outputs. Second, the Xbox 360 with the add-on drive never was the best substitute for a standalone HD DVD player. Even after numerous firmware upgrades the drive can have trouble with dual format discs, and unless the drive is used with an Xbox 360 Elite, you’re reduced to relying on the system’s component outputs. Third, console wars aren’t always won by the best hardware, and gamers want games… not a movie machine that can play games.
Finally, the biggest winner of this surreal sideshow may have been Nintendo. The company avoided taking sides and instead focused on innovative gameplay and made a major come back. Imagine that!
Posted by Peter Suciu on February 4, 2008 | Comments (2)
