Anilrgowda

It's been known for a while now that Sony designed the PlayStation 3 to be as much of a games machine as it is a way to get millions of Blu-ray players in homes in an effort to put an early end to the whole HD-DVD/Blu-ray pissing match. And, not surprisingly, Sony Computer Entertainment America is all too happy to trot out the latest numbers showing that Blu-ray is taking a commanding lead over HD-DVD -- at least if the numbers have anything to say.

The stats come by way of Nielsen VideoScan, the consumer research firm that tracks the two competing formats' sales at retail, and they are fairly impressive. According to Nielsen, Blu-ray has banked more in cumulative sales, and in the first week of January, for every 100 Blu-ray movies sold, only about 47 HD-DVD flicks were picked up. In the second week, the gap widened a little further, to only 38 or so HD-DVDs to every 100 Blu-ray movies. It's interesting, sure, but it is quite short-term, and we're curious to see how things will pan out once PS3 sales die down a little.

SCEA polled PS3 owners (you may remember filling out a survey when you first signed up for you PlayStation Network ID), and according to the replies there, 90% of PS3 owners have watched a Blu-ray movie, 80% have bought a Blu-ray movie, and 72% plan on renting a Blu-ray movie to show off their shiny PS3's 1080p video playback functionality. We're not sure how or if having Talladega Nights as a pack-in with the first half million PlayStation 3s sold here in the States has any bearing on those numbers, but they're still fairly impressive.

The hi-def format wars are far from over (no matter what you hear each side claiming), but getting some basic numbers is always interesting -- or at least provides fuel for the console warriors to fight the good fight. Did we say good fight? We meant retarded squabbles. Honest mistake.

Source:ALL - News- TotalPlayStation.com