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Posted
Feb 19 2008, 12:21 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
The battle to become the high-definition replacement for the DVD is over today, with Toshiba's decision to pull out of the HD-DVD business. Toshiba will stop making HD-DVD players and aims to stop shipping them to retailers by the end of next month. No one else makes standalone HD-DVD players. Expect to see huge sales on HD-DVD players and movies over the next two months, but don't let anyone you know take the bait: this format is dead, dead, dead. Still, Sony's Blu-ray camp shouldn't be celebrating just yet. Sure, Blu-ray won this battle for high-definition video, but it faces
much bigger challenges in the race for consumer adoption. Its biggest competitor is and has always been the plain old DVD.
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Posted
Dec 14 2007, 11:01 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
 Give Nintendo credit for at least trying to address the Wii shortage frustrating many parents this month. The company said today that you'll be able to buy a raincheck that will guarantee a Wii gets into your hands....by the end of January.
Here are the rules: You can only buy the raincheck at a GameStop store on Dec. 20 or 21. And you have to pay full-price ($250) for the system at the time you buy the raincheck. Here's the funny thing: Nintendo is guaranteeing the Wiis but then saying the rainchecks are only available as supplies last. And we've seen how long anything related to the Wii lasts in stores.
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Posted
Dec 03 2007, 05:13 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
I was shopping at a Best Buy in San Jose yesterday and here's what I found: 
Stacks of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. When I asked where the Wiis were, a saleswoman gave a small snort and shook her head. The store was out.
It's a common scenario across the country, and in other parts of the world. A year after its release, the console that many expected would be in third place has become a hit of such proportions that people still line up overnight to buy one. I've had a Wii since its launch, and spent a good chunk of the weekend playing "Super Mario Galaxy." This console definitely holds up over time.
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Posted
Nov 09 2007, 06:58 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Sony head Howard Stringer talked Blu-Ray this week during a visit to Manhattan, saying his format is in a "stalemate" with HD-DVD. He played down the battle as no biggie.
"It doesn't mean as much as all that," he said. He added that the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD teams once talked about uniting under one format, but that didn't happen.
I think Sony just blinked. Stringer drops bombs like these just as we're heading into the holiday shopping season? Shoppers are going to be picking a side in the great Blu-Ray/HD-DVD fight, but does Sony even care?
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Posted
Oct 18 2007, 10:31 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Sony makes some historic blunders. One of the biggest was making digital music players that wouldn't play MP3s, the most popular digital music format. Those devices played Sony's own ATRAC format, which the company killed a few months ago.
Sony hasn't learned from its mistakes. Consider the PlayStation 3, the too-expensive game console that hasn't become the hit the company wanted. Sony's finally selling a cheaper PS3 in the U.S., just in time for the holidays. It'll cost $400, but will have only 40 gigabytes of storage -- half that of the standard version, which is getting a price cut to $500 from $600.
That's fine. Some people don't need more than 40 gigs anyway in a video game system. But get this: the cheap PS3 won't play games made for the PlayStation 2. That feature is called backward compatibility, and it's a dealbreaker. A typical PlayStation 2 owner probably has a nice library of video games. The new PS3 won't play any of them.
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Posted
Sep 24 2007, 11:37 AM
by
Kim Peterson
So Microsoft admits there would be no Xbox without "Halo." In other words, the first-person shooter franchise basically carried Xbox through those tough first years when Sony's PlayStation 2 dominated the video game market.
How times have changed. The PlayStation 3 has had more fumbles than Madden 08, and Sony is struggling to make serious market share inroads with its new console. About 1.75 million PS3s have been sold in the U.S. so far, compared to 6.3 million Xbox 360s (though to be fair, the 360 debuted a year earlier than the PS3.)
This week, Microsoft is basking in the glory of "Halo 3," which comes out at midnight. The game is getting glowing reviews, and will bring in tons of cash (buyers plunked down $125 million for "Halo 2" in the first 24 hours -- a record in 2004). It will probably be the best-selling game of 2007, now that the next "Grand Theft Auto" game has been delayed until next year. Games sell hardware -- and "Halo 3" will be a boon for Xbox 360 sales.
Microsoft shares are up slightly today. Maybe some investors have "Halo" fever
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