Blu-ray promotions

[checkingout]

Now that the end is near for the 5 free movie promotion, what can be expected next? With the 80GB PS3 discontinued, and rumours of a 120+ GB PS3 it seems like some deals should be in the making?

Ironically, now that many HD-DVD (and format war fence sitters) owners are in the market for a Blu-ray device, it seems like there are hardly any more sales. And I look!

[HarakoMeshi]

The PlayStation devision turning profitable is veeeery interesting. Opportunity for a price cut?

[MyopicRaiderfan]

I made an amazon PS3 purchase today so i wouldn't miss out on the free movies. If there is a price cut it better be within 30 days from now.

[Favelle]

We need a massive BOGO and a wealth of new catalog announcements. That would kick a$$.......

[checkingout]

Agree! It seems like BD is just 'kicking back' and enjoying profits for awhile. I realize they spent tons of $ last year on BD promotional deals and deserve to profit from their efforts. However, it seems like they should keep it going for a little while longer to get all these people on-board.

I just read in Smackdown that Best Buy is offering BD movies 2 for $50 bucks...that's insane!!! 2 for 15 or 20 bucks has proven to get results. Especially Hardware should be discounted. Plus the 5 movie deal is bye, bye. I'm starting to think about buying another HD player for $100!!!

Originally Posted by Favelle

We need a massive BOGO and a wealth of new catalog announcements. That would kick a$$.......

[snp]

Agree with that. I've been disappointed they haven't kept up some of the December <$300 hardware sales. A bogo this week or next at a couple of stores would be a nice counter punch to this Superbowl thing.

I do think Bluray is in a pretty unstoppable position, but nonetheless it's disappointed me they haven't really gone for broke during this little bit of time HD DVD has to capitalize before BD gets it's MSRP sub $300-350 players on the streets. Only thing i can think is they're doing some things behind the scenes; that there's some reason they've taken their foot off the pedal atm retail. If there isn't, and HD DVD does make some inroads - enough to possibly drag it out a little - it really is the BDA's fault. It's theirs to lose.

[szhjcn]

I agree, they need to keep the pressue on and can't afford to relax just yet, otherwise it could drag on a lot longer.

If they are kicking back, then they only have themselves to blame for letting this go on for longer than it has to.

Maybe they are working hard behind the scenes, but it would be good if we could see something happening as well. So another BOGO, reconfirmation of new hardware coming out with pricing, PS2 Firmware for DTS-MA & Profile 2.0, more news about profile 2.0 capabilities - software tools for authoring, plus any new titles coming to BD soon even if no dates are set yet, Matrix, BMB, etc.. would be nice.

[Mr Magoo]

I think the issue for BD is inventory right now. After the big sales push in December and then a sales surge for players after the Warner announcement, SA player inventories are down. Remember it takes several weeks to make a player in Asia, put it on a ship get it to port in the US and then truck it through distribution channels to the store.

Before I get flamed, this is not to say there are not BD players readily available in stores but just that inventories are tight. With tight inventories there is no incentive for massive price cuts.

As anecdotal evidence of this, I dropped by my local north Atlanta Circuit City yesterday and I noticed a handmade sign indicating they could not honor their Sony BD player deal in their 1/23 flyer because of inventory shortages with the manufacturer (Sony). This store at least as of yesterday had no Sony BD players available but I think they did have the Sharp.

As I have said in previous posts, this whole situation will be rectified within about 90 days as the supply chain gets filled back up and also as new BDA models arrive this spring/summer. If you can hold off until then I think you will see more competition and better pricing and probably get a 1.1 player for a good price.

[steaky]

demand went up after the Warner deal, and likely the deal was not final until the time it was announced. So they need 2 months to adjust and get stock up.

[mitchl]

Originally Posted by MyopicRaiderfan

I made an amazon PS3 purchase today so i wouldn't miss out on the free movies. If there is a price cut it better be within 30 days from now.

There is a good chance you can get some credit from Amazon even more than 30 days out.

When the sale was running on Close Encounters and Spiderman Trilogy earlier in the month, I contacted Amazon, and even though I had bought those titles 60 and 75 days earlier, they issued credit for the price difference.

If the 40gb drops to $299, Amazon probably will do something for you (mine was called a one time, but a friend says he gets "one time" credits about once every couple months.)

[mitchl]

Originally Posted by snp

Agree with that. I've been disappointed they haven't kept up some of the December <$300 hardware sales. A bogo this week or next at a couple of stores would be a nice counter punch to this Superbowl thing.

I do think Bluray is in a pretty unstoppable position, but nonetheless it's disappointed me they haven't really gone for broke during this little bit of time HD DVD has to capitalize before BD gets it's MSRP sub $300-350 players on the streets. Only thing i can think is they're doing some things behind the scenes; that there's some reason they've taken their foot off the pedal atm retail. If there isn't, and HD DVD does make some inroads - enough to possibly drag it out a little - it really is the BDA's fault. It's theirs to lose.

I think that HD-DVD's disintegration has caught the BDA players by surprise, even though they caused it. They didn't know until probably hours before that the Warner thing would happen.

I think the reason that you haven't seen more drops is 1) you don't adjust your prices to a competitor who is going out of business; 2) I think that there is a supply issue.

On #1, why should Sony and the boyz take a loss or drop their prices too much just because Toshiba wants to? BD is still outselling HD-DVD, and even if HD-dVD gets some weeks of SA sales, they are still going to lose. The lower prices will come, but they should come reasoned and not as a reaction to Toshiba. Only this Sunday will we see the BB and CC flyers reflect the Toshiba new prices-- so next week is really the first time we might see sales or reductions published if BD is going that way.

On #2, because Christmas was so good for BD, I wonder if the supply of players wasn't quite there. BD makers seemed to be more reasoned in their supply amounts-- It would take a few weeks to ramp up for a new price drop. THey would not want to come out with a $240 price point on a BD player today if they don't have the stock for it. The f'r would blow out so quick and then you could have a while with very constrained product. So the BDA players won't want to drop prices too much before they can stock up.

[checkingout]

Well, without the 5 movie promo, one might as well wait. Sorta like all BD players just went up $100 overnight...
5 movies x $20(approx) $100.00.

[cnyreject]

I plan on going blu eventually but one of my pet peeves about this Blu-ray verses HD-DVD is that looking at what most of you have is nothng more then a PS3. A game machine with Blu-ray capabilities. But still primarily a gaming machine. If you were true belivers then as I look down the list of what people own I would see a lot more Blu-ray players. Not a game machine trying to be a blu-ray player. Sony is winning the war off a artifical idea that if they sell enough game machines they are bound to win. Well maybe, but get away from the game machine and plop down honest money on a offical Blu-ray player.

Im sure I will here about this from all you gamers out there but the reality is at least the HD-DVD has never felt that they should introduce a new technology like HD DVD's with a game machine. And Microsoft doesn't even think that way either.

[lostn]

I plan on going blu eventually but one of my pet peeves about this Blu-ray verses HD-DVD is that looking at what most of you have is nothng more then a PS3. A game machine with Blu-ray capabilities. But still primarily a gaming machine. If you were true belivers then as I look down the list of what people own I would see a lot more Blu-ray players. Not a game machine trying to be a blu-ray player. Sony is winning the war off a artifical idea that if they sell enough game machines they are bound to win. Well maybe, but get away from the game machine and plop down honest money on a offical Blu-ray player.

The game machine happens to be a better player than the standalone. That's why it's popular. In fact, it's the best player out there. The only one capable of upgrading to 2.0, and it has the fastest boot of any player. PQ is as good as any. For the same price as the cheapest SA, you're getting a 40GB HDD, ethernet, wireless, and PS3 gaming is just icing on the cake.

I view it as an SA that also happens to be able to play games, rather than the other way around.

Im sure I will here about this from all you gamers out there but the reality is at least the HD-DVD has never felt that they should introduce a new technology like HD DVD's with a game machine. And Microsoft doesn't even think that way either.

That's a misjudgment on their behalf. If they did that, perhaps they just might have won? Or more likely, it would be 50:50.

[arrowspark]

Originally Posted by Favelle

We need a massive BOGO and a wealth of new catalog announcements. That would kick a$$.......

I'm tired of seeing all those bluray BOGO deals. It does me no good as i don't have a player yet. I want a good BD player deal (Profile 1.1 or better for < $250). BDA should put out a very enticing BD player promotion to coincide with those tax rebate checks that people are supposedly gonna get in May.