With Sony squaring up pretty aggressively to the Christmas market in the shape of its impending European PS3 price cut, the HD-DVD Promotional Group has retorted stating it expects the move to have little effect on the next-gen market.
With Nintendo's Wii still dominating console sales and the PS3 selling well if not spectacularly, Sony is to launch a stripped down 40GB model at a much more palatable £299. This new model will not be backwards compatible with PS2 games however (unlike the currently available model) and will have a smaller memory and stripped down features set, but will be one of the cheapest Blu-ray players on the market. The 60GB PS3 has seen its price slashed to £349, but is to be discontinued when current stocks run out.
'The European PS3 price cut will have a minimal impact on the adoption of next generation HD formats.' Commented Ken Graffeo, co-chairman of the HD-DVD Promotional Group. 'The real battleground is in sales of standalone players and HD-DVD is out in front by a massive margin.'
While we understand this stance in theory, it seems slightly unrealistic to discount any genuine next-gen capable machines, PS3 Blu-ray and Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive included.
Quoting independent research from across the European Union from GFK, the group points to a 70 per cent standalone player market share, and it's sticking to these guns like glue.
This they say is complemented by a marketing campaign equally as aggressive as Sony's including an ultra-budget HD-DVD player costing less than €400 due very soon in the shape of Toshiba's HD-EP30, and an even cheaper model from Venturer also on the horizon.
No sign of a truce any time soon then.
www.hddvdprg.com or www.blu-ray.com
