The price cut, which will become effective Aug. 8 — when the market should have more HD DVD titles — will bring movies down from $34.95 to $29.95. According to ARS Technica writer Eric Bangeman, stagnate sales could be a factor in the decision to drop prices.
While Bangeman speculated that the move could be a sign of a looming price war in an industry fearful that consumers will be slow to adopt either new format, he concluded that title prices might not be the keys to the kingdom.
According to Bangeman, hardware will likely determine the ultimate winner in the next generation format war.
“When the dust clears, the winner will probably be the one that breaks through the magic $299 barrier first,” Bangeman wrote. “As long as there is a wide selection of movies available.”
While Sony and Pioneer have had to push back the release of their Blu-ray players to August and September, respectively, the format does have one advantage over the less expensive HD-DVD, according to Bangeman. Sony will ship its PlayStation 3 with an embedded Blu-ray player, giving it access to households that might have elected not to buy either format before a winner could be declared.
A Samsung Blu-ray player, the BD-1000, is expected to hit shelves between June 20-25.
Blu-ray will launch its first titles June 20 after a nearly month-long delay. Only a handful of Sony Pictures/MGM Home Entertainment releases will be made available for the initial wave, which will be launched with little fanfare.
"Regular consumers aren't paying much attention to this," Gartner Research analyst Laura Behrens said. "It's too confusing at this point, but HD-DVD is doing well with early adopters."
Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler put the blame for lackluster consumer support on both formats, saying that neither camp had made a “big bang” with the public.
