85:15 for Blu-ray in hi-def Software Sales for week ending Jan. 13

[U]

I also agree it's not over yet but if S/W sales continue to favor BD 85 to 15 it won't take long for retailers to pull the plug on HD DVD. In fact, as far as I'm concerned there are already signs of that starting to happen... Of course, take this for what it's worth as I certainly don't consider myself a "credible" person.

[99semaj]

I guess my caustic tongue and choice of words has got me in trouble again. Maybe sitting at an airport bar and trying to participate in forums while my flight is being called is not the best time to talk intelligently.

What I was trying to infer was that some people are pretty emotionally charged about this and not making very logical points (IMHO). By "credible" I was referring to those who have long been contributing to this debate, not just those who appear to have jumped in post-Warner-announcement because they are mad-as-hell and need a place to vent their frustrations.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Fair enough, and lots of people on all four sides (blue, red, purple, and don't care at all) have been emotionally charged.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Just to illustrate how volatile these numbers are, Amazon sales rank for HD DVD January 14 and 15 were the same as pre-Warner announcement. They had taken a huge hit from the announcement but then bounced back noticeably early this week before falling back down a bit. Notwithstanding 3:10 to Yuma, Blu-ray is below its Boxing Week levels and has been steadily dropping through January with a slight bump at 3:10 to Yuma, but still below late December numbers.

[Stargazer]

I would expect all retail sales in the first 2 weeks of January to be lower than December Boxing Week sales.

[U]

On the topic of salesrank, BD now has 12 discs under 100 while HD DVD only has one... And the one happens to be Planet Earth... again! No wonder BBC doesn't want to drop the format.

[JesseJ]

The drop for the week is more than 50% of the previous week's sales. Things aren't much better on the hardware side either. We missed this when it was first posted, but Business Week reported last week that word at CES was that HD-DVD player sales were already being impacted by Blu-ray's gaining momentum during and immediately after the Christmas holiday:

"Industry watchers were abuzz with reports that retailers were seeing heavy return rates on HD DVD players since Christmas after buyers realized many of the movies they wanted were only on Blu-ray."

Keep in mind, that was prior to Warner's announcement, which likely also caused no small numbers of returns. The industry is now closely watching the hardware numbers (the latest NPD Group market research data should be in soon) to see what it reveals.

Thanks to thedigitalbits for this recap.

[HT gearhead]

It's not unusual for sales to dip in January, most people are paying off their Xmas bills this time of year. As for heavy returns on HDDVD players the WB announcement will surely add to those numbers. The side effect may be some stores will simply drop the format altogether after liquidating current stock.

[adit]

Originally Posted by HT gearhead

It's not unusual for sales to dip in January, most people are paying off their Xmas bills this time of year.

Not quite...

In the week since the studio's surprise early-January announcement that after May it will support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format, sales of HD DVD players ground to a virtual halt, giving Blu-ray hardware a whopping 93 percent sales advantage, according to data from the NPD Group.

According to raw retail data collected by NPD, consumers bought just 1,758 HD DVD players the week of January 12, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc machines, up from 15,257 the previous week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/indus...10822520080124

[calvin940]

In the week since the studio's surprise early-January announcement that after May it will support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format, sales of HD DVD players ground to a virtual halt, giving Blu-ray hardware a whopping 93 percent sales advantage, according to data from the NPD Group.

According to raw retail data collected by NPD, consumers bought just 1,758 HD DVD players the week of January 12, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc machines, up from 15,257 the previous week.

Originally Posted by adit

Not quite...

Actually, not quite is right...

That's according to a new article at BetaNews, which quotes an NPD official as saying that a series of free player bundles led to inflated weekly numbers for team Blu.

[darrylr]

Of course this thread is actually about the software sales numbers

[shabbs]

Which reminds me, where are they? No leaks this week?

[darrylr]

Not yet. I did start a new thread to talk about them though.

[calvin940]

Originally Posted by darrylr

Of course this thread is actually about the software sales numbers

Ya I know.. but I got baited into talking hardware. I can't resist sometimes.

[oilblue]

Originally Posted by adit

Not quite...

http://www.reuters.com/article/indus...10822520080124

Even with that jump in sales from one week to the next in January, the weekly numbers for BD players are down from the average December sales rate (see my post here). HT gearhead wasn't wrong.
----

As darrylr mentioned though, this thread is about software sales, not player sales. The thread I referenced is more appropriate for posts about player sales numbers.