Will Wal Mart be backing the HD DVD? It would seem that BluRay would feel confident after selling 1,000,000 copies, but it looks like Wal Mart has decided who they will be backing… and it isn’t BluRay…
WalMart will be purchasing about 2,000,000 HD-DVD players. The Chinese site is saying that they will be purchased from Wal Mart for $50 each.
It is rumored that they will sell at Wal Mart stores for anywhere from the $199 – $299 range. [Via Gadgetell]
However, thats not the entire story, for it seems that Wal Mart may only promote HD DVD and will not back BluRay in the near future…
Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner
There is one retailer that has the power to call the winner of the protracted Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fight and that vendor is Wal-Mart. Over the weekend they apparently leaked plans to bring in a massive number of low cost (possibly sub $200) HD DVD players for Christmas.
It means that any studio wanting Wal-Mart’s support after year end had better be selling HD DVD movies. Wal-Mart won’t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them.
In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart’s business and given how material this business is to them, you have to think that an anti-Wall-Mart decision would have a material impact on their bonuses and career longevity. It certainly puts Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, in a particularly uncomfortable position.
So, if this move by Wal-Mart is true , and it appears to be (but we won’t know for sure for a few months yet), the format war is likely over and Wal-Mart has declared the winner.
If all of this is true, it will be a blessing for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. It will mean more support for HD DVD, and less support for BluRay. What system would you rather own if BluRay flops?
Technorati tags: HD DVD, BluRay, Microsoft Points, Wal Mart, Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3
Posted by daking240 
