Is the PS3 pushing Blu-ray or is Blu-ray pushing the PS3? Right now, neowin.net’s Emil Protalinski would say that Sony’s PlayStation 3 is pushing Blu-ray. Back in March, in response to a question on whether putting Blu-ray in the PS3 was a sound decision, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison was quoted as saying: “No regrets whatsoever. And it’s those kinds of decisions, painful though they were to live through in the last quarter of 2006, those are the decisions that are going to propel PlayStation 3 to be a platform that lasts for ten years, like we’ve seen with PS1 and PS2. And it will be, I believe, reflected on as the smartest decision we ever made.”

He remembers the mockery of this statement quite well. “Yeah right! All that Blu-ray has done for the PS3 is made it more expensive and therefore given it less sales!” That may be true, but let’s look at it from a different perspective. Blu-ray seems to be consistently beating HD DVD. Sure, the gap isn’t something to write home about, but nevertheless, despite various set-backs, Blu-ray somehow manages to come out on top in the sales numbers. In August, Paramount and Dreamworks chose HD DVD exclusivity for the next 18 months. From January 1 through September 30, Blu-ray discs amounted to 2.6 million units compared with 1.4 million HD-DVD discs in the U.S. This news was followed by HD DVD Transformers becoming the best-selling first day and first week HD movie ever. Despite no such titles from Blu-ray, that same week ending October 21 Blu-ray still beat HD DVD, albeit by a slim 51% to 49% ratio. Why did Blu-ray still manage to get the upper hand?

Source: Neowin.net

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