San Diego — Explosive sales of Sony’s new PlayStation3 (PS3) video game console helped products based on the high-definition Blu-ray Disc platform top sales of products based on the rival HD DVD platform for the first time this month, according to research gathered by market researcher Nielsen VideoScan.
Sony’s Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) unit, which handles the PS3 business for the company, announced the findings this week. Sony said sales of the PS3 have surpassed 2 million units worldwide.
Nielson also found that Blu-ray title sales have outsold HD DVD titles by more than a 2-to-1 margin during the first week of January with 47.14 HD DVD titles to every 100 Blu-ray titles. The sales rate rose closer to 3-to-1 during the second week of the month (38.36 HD DVD titles for every 100 Blu-ray titles, according to the Nielsen study).
According SCEA customer survey data, 90 percent of current PS3 users have watched a Blu-ray movie on their PS3, 80 percent say they plan to purchase a Blu-ray movie and 72 percent stated that they plan to rent a Blu-ray movie in the near future, SCEA stated.
Every PS3 system is equipped with a built-in Blu-ray Disc player that will play back HD Blu-ray Discs in addition to PS3 and PS2 video games, and standard DVD videos.
The PS3 also allows output of full 1,080p resolution images for playback on compatible “full HD” displays.
Representatives from Toshiba and the HD DVD Group did not respond to queries seeking their assessment of the findings.
