Firmware 2.42 has just been made available on PSN for all you PS3 owners out there. Although there are no Blu-ray upgrades to speak of, the official word is that “This update improves the playback quality of some PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation format software.” Hopefully this update should go along without a hitch this time.
Tags: Playstation 3, PS3, PS3 News
The first quarter of Sony’s fiscal year shows a profit in its games division with strong sales of the PS3 leading the way. Sony’s game unit helped the company with $51 million in operating income. 1.56 million PS3s were sold worldwide this quarter, good for an increase of 860,000 units over last years first quarter. Overall however, Sony Corp posted a decrease in earnings over last years fiscal first quarter. Severe film declines brought a 47.4% drop in income, good for $330 million in net income.
It’s good to see strong PS3 sales keeping Sony’s game unit profits up. This can only mean that Sony will continue its effort to keep Blu-ray in its forefront, in much the same way they did to win the format war.
Tags: Playstation 3, PS3, PS3 News, Sony
In a recent article by Forbes, details are given on the moves that Sony took to ensure they’d win the format war. Among the things that triggered ’sheer and utter panic’ for Sony, was the announcement last August that Paramount was choosing HD-DVD over Blu-ray. The $150 million deal that Toshiba struck along with $99 HD-DVD players they began to offer motivated all division of Sony to begin working together. Looking to push sales Sony offered to help pay for Best Buy ads in Sunday newspapers nationwide as well as pay for Blu-ray store displays. Among the things Sony did, that we know about, was drop the price of the PS3 and offer free Blu-ray movies with the PS3.
Looks like Toshiba really had Sony scrambling to stay ahead. Interestingly, it seems like Toshiba’s deal with Paramount is what caused Sony to react and do enough to eventually win the format war.
Read the full article by following the link below.
[Forbes] via [EngadgetHD]
Tags: Blu-ray News, HD-DVD, Playstation 3, PS3, Sony
Amazon is offering a good way to begin your Blu-ray collection with their latest deal. If you’re looking to jump into Blu, Amazon will give you eight Blu-ray movies for $80 with the purchase of a 40GB Playstation 3 ($399) or Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player ($379). The eight titles are Black Hawk Down, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dogma, A Few Good Men, Gattaca, Life of Brian - Collector’s Edition, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and The Fifth Element. This makes for a great deal with each movie costing only $10.
[Amazon]
Tags: Amazon, BDP-S300, Blu-ray Deals, Blu-ray Players, Playstation 3, PS3, Sony
Panasonic announced the DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player at CES 2008 and said it would feature Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio all for a $700 sticker price. It is the first complete Blu-ray player to get reviewed by CNET and it came away with good marks on its “excellent image quality” and “outstanding soundtrack support”. However, standard DVD performance is lackluster, with operational speed still sluggish compared to Playstation 3. So while they name it their favorite standalone player so far, they say the majority of buyers are better still much better off with a PS3.
Click the link below for the full review
[CNET]
Tags: Blu-ray News, Blu-ray Players, DMP-BD50, Panasonic, Panasonic DMP-BD50, Playstation 3, PS3
As we previously reported here Wal-mart is now offering a free $100 gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player including the PS3. The best deal is the Magnavox Blu-ray player which costs $298 and will essentially lower it to $198 with this deal. This offer is good from June 8th through June 13th, right in time for Father’s Day. The gift card is good for both in-store and online purchases. If you decide to spend it on Blu-ray movies, Wal-mart has also got you covered with titles such as 3:10 to Yuma, Shooter, and 300 on sale for $15 each.
[Wal-mart]
Tags: Blu-ray Deals, Blu-ray Movies, Blu-ray News, Blu-ray Players, PS3, Wal-Mart, Walmart
If you’re looking to be a proud owner of the standard, non-gunmetal, 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle then your best bet is to by your computer when it goes on sale later today on Amazon.com at 10am PST. This bundle will cost $499 and includes the 80GB PS3 system, a regular copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, and a DualShock 3 controller. According to Amazon, “demand for this item is so great, we anticipate selling out very quickly.” The system will be available in stores June 12th but they are expected to sell out quickly.
[Amazon]
Tags: Blu-ray News, Playstation 3, PS3, PS3 News, Sony
It looks like Wal-Mart is aggressively promoting Blu-ray by adding new dedicated sections for movies and players in its more than 1,200 locations. They are pushing the sales of Blu-ray players by offering a $100 store gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player in the month of June. We had previously reported this sale which only applied to the PS3 but is now expanded to all players.
The new Blu-ray section will be called the “Hi-Def Blu-ray Experience Area” where shoppers will find a wide selection of Blu-ray movies as well as Blu-ray players from manufacturers Magnavox, Samsung and Panasonic. These three brands are new to Wal-mart as they only carried Sony Blu-ray players previously.
Highlighting it’s new support for Blu, Wal-mart will give customers a $100 gift card good on any store merchandise for customers who purchase any Blu-ray player between June 8 through June 14. This will be a good deal considering the $298 Magnavox Blu-ray player Wal-mart already carries. You can essentially get a $198 Blu-ray player with $100 worth of movies. The $200 price tag is one that will be especially tempting for customers.
Gary Severson, senior VP of home entertainment at Wal-Mart said, We are excited to be a destination for families looking to create a high quality, affordable home entertainment experience with our new, wider selection of high-def TVs, Blu-ray players and movies.”
It’s good to see retailer giant Wal-Mart dedicated to promoting Blu-ray as it should do a lot to help sales of movies and players. This might even increase the good sales figures
we’ve seen so far this year.
Tags: Blu-ray Deals, Blu-ray Movies, Blu-ray News, Blu-ray Players, PS3, Wal-Mart, Walmart
Looks like Wal-Mart is giving people good reason to take the dive into the Blu by offering a free $100 giftcard with the purchase of a 40GB PS3 system. The gift card can be used to purchase anything which means you can add a few Blu-ray movies or games if you’d like. The deal is currently available online for purchase with a $10 shipping cost or you can opt for in-store pickup to avoid shipping costs. The deal will be available in-store at all Wal-Mart locations from June 1st through the 7th if you prefer to just walk in and pick this up.
Looks like this is a great deal if you want a Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player or next-gen gaming system. Either way it’s $100 for you to spend on whatever you’d like.
[Walmart]
Tags: Blu-ray Deals, Blu-ray Players, Playstation 3, PS3, Wal-Mart, Walmart
Sony CEO, Howard Stringer, at “The All Things D” conference said the Blu-ray format will ‘more than hold up’ against growing consumer interest for internet-based digital downloads. Stringers comments were directed at the new battle Sony faces as more consumers download videos from the internet.
Stringer went on to say that historically there has been a long lead-time in format evolutions like physical to digital media. He believes it will be a long time until people start migrating away from Blu-Ray to digital downloads.
On a funny note, Stringer mentioned that if Sony had lost the format war, his gravestone would have read “Betamax 2.”
We think Stringer is right on this one because people still like to see they physically own a movie. There is still no feeling that replaces showing friends your collection of DVDs or Blu-rays as opposed to showing them a list of movies on your computer or television.
[CNN Money] and [D6 All Things Digital]
Tags: Blu-ray News, PS3, PS3 Games, Sony
