Warner: No Payoff for Move to Blu-ray

Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara says the studio took no pay-offs to exclusively back Blu-ray.

In a post-announcement conference call, Tsujihara flatly denied rumors that studio had accepted anywhere from 250M to $500M in exchange for dropping its HD DVD format support.

According to the exec, Warner's sole motivation in dropping its HD DVD format support was to ensure growth of the "category" and the long-term health of the industry.

[beoulve]

Any studio realize that providing non-exclusive will only do more harm to blu-ray and HD-DVD. It will slow down Consumer decision to jump in HD media war. Since they already invested money on making HD media, they aren't going to throw it away and go online HD distribution which far from ready for mainstream since 768kbps is still average mainstream download speed. So they picked side and killed one is the right one to go before you lost both.

[TANOD]

well said

[Kaneda]

Did Warner just slap Paramount in the face?

[TheTwelve]

HD DVD supporters are having a hard time understanding that Warner just chose the most common sense direction. Nobody needs to be bribed to do exactly what they want to do.

12

[ravinash]

The Movie studios want to see a winner so they can finish the format war. The longer it goes on, the longer the average consumer is going to be scared off of going to the HD format.
BlueRay is currently the clear winner at this time, so this studio decided to bite the bullet and do what needed to be do and put its backing behind it and make sure the war will end and there is only one choice the consumer needs to make, to go HD or not to go HD...that is the question.

[unsunghero28]

Just, not in that sense. Not bribery.

Warner probably noticed that Blu Ray players and titles are doing far better than HD-DVD ones, and decided to go Blu-Ray exclusive in order to maximize profits. Unlike Paramount, they don't need to be paid off to benefit from going exclusive.

[J@D]

Well, this finally a official statement... now the HD-DVD support it can STOP the whining about "Blu-Ray Camp Buy Up the exclusivity". Well, I hope Paramount chance they position over which format support soon.

[Omegasyde]

Paramount signed a 18 month deal with HD DVD in August 2007 (8/07)
~that means about 13 months until HD DVD is "officially" dead.

Then again Universal could jump ship at any time, as long as their daddy MSFT let's them.

[Cuts2TheBone]

i bought a ps3 for games and not even really realizing what this blu ray thing was about, but im glad its on the winning side as more ps3 will sell now and developers wont have fear about developing for the ps3 and that games will be develop for the ps3 and then ported to xbox instead of the other way around

[joemomma]

Why would they need a payoff when its obvious that blu ray is the winner?

[dantesparda]

Evil Zhuk, Ha, ha ha!

[Blademask]

And Not OK for Bluray.

Its simple economics. Bluray makes more than any payout for the studios.

You guys just backed the wrong technology.

[gamehendge]

Sony - 3 MS - 0

its all over but the crying...

[Omegasyde]

um, MSFT didn't "create" HD DVD, they simple just endorsed it.

Sony - 1, Toshiba - 0 actually.

[unlimited]

Good for them..They can make a lot of money now since its only exclusive to blu ray..thank you warner..

[niall77]

the world is turning Blu

[beoulve]

actually no, $150 million is a great deal. Paramount just waiting for their chance to join blu again.

[heyheyhey]

i agree with beolve- paramount totally pwned toshiba by using them in that way and after they're contract ends (soon) they will join blu-camp and make even more $$$

[General Pinky]

So...i think there is money in this deal..Oi well

[J@D]

This the special case that C.R.E.A.M get into.

*Cash Rules Everything Around Me*

^__^ I just copy this from some where on the Internet I don't remember when ^__^

[Sev]

C.R.E.A.M. is a song by the Wu-Tang Clan during the early 90s.

I was in High School then and was a HUGE fan.

[J@D]

Oh, well look like my musician skills aren't good enough lol I didn't know about that but hey thanks for the details bubble*

[craymoogy]

I will buy more warner movies now!

[pwnsause]

no, Warner did get paid, when things like this happen, part of it is for the money. the other part are cercumstances to the contract. according to the Forum rumor (yes the one that I post over and over and over again) Microsoft(yes M$) told Warner that to go HD-DVD exclusive, they had to be forced to distribute their movies ONLINE (Yes Digital Distrtibution) exclusively to microsoft. basically Prolong the format war, make both formats die, and the movie studios such as Warner to Distribute movies online only for microsoft, no one else. That people is called a monopoly. just read more on more of their intentions. http://forums.highdefdigest...

[turbogeek]

NO DARK KNIGHT FOR YOU LOSERS! BLU-RAY FOREVER THIS WAR IS OFFICIALLY OVER!

[kewlkat007]

is doing the "Super Blu Shuffle" better than these guys.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=...

[pshizle]

a bunch of bull

[cmrbe]

liking Warner more and more now. Its interesting that they mentioned a window. It seems to me that they are implying that if not now Hidef optical disc will come to pass. Digital distribution will only takeoff in developed countries right now. The rest of the world i think another 15 years at least. Those that are saying digital distribution should know that there is a very big world out there.

[sanjay09]

pawned again :)

[TwissT]

Pay off or not WB would have went blu-ray exclusive sooner or later do to the majority of movie studios on blu-ray's side and all the blu-ray sales, and with Paramount the only on HD-dvd side it too might go to BD also.

[Doctor Strange]

The faster this war ends the better. Dark Knight for Blu-ray, Yes

[NoxiousD]

I don't think Sony gave them any money. They knew Blu ray was gonna win this on their own!

[ScorponokG1]

why do you guys support bluray over hddvd. if you look closely and notice that hd dvd does have more superior picture quality, bluray does not, so why do you want that format to win. only because of the name SONY, they nothing but cry baby's who cant stand to lose. so they really did bribe warner and all others studios to go there way. they love forcing stuff on people. but to be honest i hope blu ray fails, i guarantee that it will, its going to fall to online distribution. thats what will be the true winner!! now that gaming consoles can download movies along side netflix and soon to be released set top boxes. and they will offer hd format movies...

[sheng long]

i'm sure the paramount deal included some sort of clause and fine print. Here's to hoping for tranformers on blu-ray before the end of the year.

[Sev]

Sony didnt have to pay Warner because Blu-Ray sales speak for themselves.
Blu-Ray is the clear choice in the format war. It is the superior format.

PS3 will benefit huge from this.

This is great to read as its nice to see that Sony wouldnt stoop as low as Toshiba and MicroSoft had to pay for support.

That is like paying for friends.

Only a loser would do that, and now only a loser would back HD-DVD.

Sony keeps its integrity here.

[rushbd]

the consumers were extremely confused with this ongoing format war. which would end sooner if paramount didnt do what they did. they just prolonged it. I know early HDDVD owners will be pissed. but better less than more people. because if this war continued even longer, more people would be victimized.

Thanks to Warner consumers confusion will be decreased marginally.

[Nameless]

The plot thickens

http://formatwarcentral.com...

[DJ]

They already make a LOT more money off of Blu-ray titles than HD-DVD titles.

[Wvortices]

Thank you WB. History is being made and we knew it among the first.

[TheBrit]

I am going to wander here and there but here it is: Xbox360 / PS3 / HD-DVD / Blu-Ray (throwing arguments out for all)

The format war is ridiculous.

The PS3 will NOT benefit greatly just because it has a frigging blu-ray player built inside of it because it will not drop in price as quickly as a stand alone blu-ray player will, which chuckles will be pretty soon thus making the PS3 an EXPENSIVE blu-ray player once again.

I'm going to admit I am totally annoyed that warner buckled under the dollar and jumped ship - both formats have benefits to the consumers and there is nothing stopping the movie companies from supporting both formats - at the end of the day the crap goes to a stamping company just like DVD's do.

People that want a blu-ray player because it outputs movies at the EQUAL greatest resolution to the HD-DVD player dont give a rats about a game console that has one inside of it.

These are people that know they are getting ripped off by buying Monster Cables because of the name.

People that sprout the stupid 'blu-ray gams are better and can store more data for games than Hd-DVD' are, well just dumb.

All this means is game houses can be very lazy in their programming and not worry about having to compress data, compress sound, be efficient coders etc - it DOES NOT MAKE A GAME BETTER -

Big deal if DVD-9 might have to span 2 disks - It could and maybe will happen but if you code correctly, you can compress. <ok it has happened twice I believe but its a non-disruptive disk change - its not like you have to change DVD's every 2 minutes AND if the game is story lined correctly, you wouldn't need to put disk 1 back in for one thing, and 2, your change between discs would be 8 - 10 hours at least so how much of a bother is that>

If you think Blu-ray in a PS3 is going to make games head and shoulders above an xbox360 (I almost added a Wii but chuckled and didn't) then you are sadly mistaken - to get that content and 'greatness' would mean another 6 - 12 months of development time OR a lot more people being hired to create that content. Get It?

Lets not forget to people, Well over 3/4 of the poeple out there that have Hi-Def televisions do NOT have 1080p capable televisions, they are all 720p or 1080i so WTF is the point in having a blu-ray player or an HD-DVD player in the first place accept for the fact it will upscale a 480p regular DVD to 1080i - <insert sarcasm> whhooooaaaaaaaa my eyes are burning by the incredible amazing unbelieveable difference in quality </end sarcasm>

Let me enlighten those of you that might me reading these posts:

HI-DEF t.v is great for the first month - Hi-Def DVD/blu-ray is also great for the FIRST month

After that you wont even notice it - your eyes will adjust and you will say 'wow. I just spend thousands of dollars / pounds / euros / lira / whatever to upgrade to THIS?!

Your being forced to do somthing because of the way the t.v signals are changing in the USA - be wise about your investment and dont get suckered into some format from Sony OR Toshiba that you might not even need.

DISCLAIMER: Half of the audio equipment in my house is Sony before I bought my Samsung Plasma I had a 52 inch Sony TV - Half of the car stereo systems in my cars have been Sony. So, I am not anti-sony - I just don't think mindless fan boys should sprout their crap because they 'heard its cool'

[RoarrrUK]

You can accept though, that over time, things change. More to the point, your kidding your self if you think DVD9 is enough. Devs (not lazy devs) simply state that the textures required by EVERYONE's graphical demands merit larger textures than before. Yes you can compress, but you reach a point, e.g. when tech moved on a floppy discs were not large enough, that you have to progress. Even DVD-Rs are not large enough these days.

If you have 50GB you can add the game (efficiently coded), add better language support, extras (like uncharted did with many HD video docs), story board etc etc etc for the same price. That's value there and progression. Not being held back by a dying format because your preferred console uses it.

Even PC games say sims need multiple discs right and I'm sure they're more, its time to move on.

I agree that it probably won't affect ps3 sales much but I'm more concerned that tech moves on to cope with a lifestyle that's changed greatly in 5 years with 10Mp cameras, HD etc People need more space, BR provides it, though tbh it should be 100G.

[big0]

Warner could see that hddvd just couldn't get ahead in sales its a waste of money to keep supporting it. They wanted the biggest piece of that 42 billion dollar pie and blu proved to be the best solution.