After
a long wait, Paramount/Dreamworks has officially announced their Blu-ray
re-launch plans. Last year Paramount and Warner Bros. were the only 2 studios
to support both Blu-ray and HD DVD, until Paramount dropped the bombshell that
they would be dropping support for Blu-ray. This came as a shock to most of the
industry, as Blu-ray had a distinct sales advantage at the time due to the PS3
having a built-in Blu-ray player.
Paramount stopped producing all their titles on Blu-ray, even canceling Blades of Glory a week before it was due
to be released. Some of their other titles quickly sold out from retailers; word
was that no more titles were coming, and some movies such as Shooter were fetching over $50 on eBay.
Meanwhile, the HD DVD counterpart could be had for less than half that.
When
Warner decided to drop HD DVD support in January 08, the writing was on the
wall for Toshiba's format. When Toshiba itself pulled the plug, it was just a
waiting game until Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks (the only HD DVD
exclusive studios) fell in line and started releasing their titles on Blu-ray.
When
Universal announced that they would be supporting the Blu-ray format a few
weeks ago, all eyes were on Paramount to join the party. Well, the wait is over
as late last night Paramount
announced their plans for re-entry into the format. Even though Universal made
the announcement first, Paramount is getting right to business by announcing
release dates for Bee Movie, Face/Off, and Next on May 20 – more than 2 full months before Universal's first
Blu-rays will hit store shelves. Other titles announced by Paramount include Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood on June 3rd, and The Spiderwick Chronicles on June 24th.
Now
that all the studios are united in a single format, hopefully we will see the
competition start to heat up again. This remains to be seen because just last
week Phillps raised the MSRP on their latest Blu-ray player from $349 to $399
before it was released. They claim this has nothing to do with the end of the
format war, but it sounds a little fishy to me. Especially considering a
Phillips rep tried to deny the price increase and then later had to correct
themselves when proven wrong.
I'm
sure by next holiday season we will start to see some of those player and disc
sales that were popular during the height of the format war, but that's still a
long wait for those without a next gen player.
Resources:
Breaking: Paramount Unveils Blu-ray Launch Plans
Philips: $349 Blu-ray Player Going to $399
| 
