Michael Bay's format war conspiracy theory: it's a Microsoft fix

Hi I've been following this forum for some time now and found this on engadget, just another stone in the water....

Microsoft will go online with XBox movie store in europe next weak (only one year after the US). So its not that crazy to think like MBay.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/04/michael-bays-format-war-conspiracy-theory-its-a-microsoft-fi/

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/04/xbox-live-video-marketplace-to-launch-in-europe-next-week/

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[Post edited by JohnJohn on Dec 5, 2007]

Guess what Sony has planned for next year. A Movie Download Store for the Playstation 3.

Don't believe everything.

Here is DVDTOWN.com's take on the Bay story.

My Bad....

I like movies with the best quality possible for a fare price, don't give a sh*t where its recorded, on DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD/Hard Disk/.

MBay has a tendency to fly off the handle from time to time. He's just annoyed that he wasn't offered any of those vapor-bucks. Either that, or he was kicked in the head by a angry Transformer.

1- This M.Bay guy is nuts, now I know why you guys felt the way you did a few months back, when there was a thread making fun of him. Some one needs to keep him on a leash.

2. While i love my 360 with media center, now AVI file support (dashboard update) Arcade games, and HD games.. I rent a movie here and there on Live, (beats driving in the snow for a silly rental), and i dont want to leave the house, But I'm all for hard copys.

Michael Bay can do math right? 100 hundred million dollars is less then the budget Paramount gave him on Transformers. During the commentary he said 150 million isn't a lot for a movie. So it isn't enough for your movie Michael but it's enough to get Paramount to completely drop Blu-Ray and future revenue streams?

After reading the news, Microsoft accuses Blu ray camp confusing Micheal Bay by supplying him with Kool Aid. And they do have a proof.

movielove try not to blur the lines here. 150 million for a movie stil has to recoup losses, pay back actors and such and continually advertise, 100 million$ payment to a company is pure profit, and they don't have to do anything to get it, just not do something, and don't think that payoffs stop there, there are other incentives that go into these kind of deals, Paramount obviously knows they won't sell as many being exclusive to one brand, they're not stupid... this 100 million is probably just to pay for the losses, and will continue with another check once that estimated loss exceeds or matches the original settlement, the payment is an investment msoft does take the loss, but for a man that has billions, 100 million here and there, for something that will eventually discredit both formats and benefit msoft, is cheap.
PS: Does anyone else think that this is really beyond fact?!? Why do you think other HdDvD players cost about 300$ and have the same features as the cheapest toshiba? and then for some reason Msoft has an HDDVD add-on for 129$? Toshiba invented the HD-DVD and they can afford to sell them for 100$... do you know how much r&D costs? they are definitely losing money on the cheaper players. Look im no fanboy, i own niether format and niether console, but msoft is known for this kind of thing and also for engineering monopolies, they lose a ton of money in suits all the time. It is smart though, because they get away with a lot of it. By the way i don't like apple either, and proudly own vista, which isn't as bad as people say it is. I just wonder how long it will be until ms gets slapped on the wrist by a consumer watchgroup.

im sorry i just don't see how this is beyond possibility. Msoft is one of the most sued companies in the world. I've read this kind of thing before the whole MBay "conspiracy theory" from a tech site about a year ago. It's just good business, bad ethics, but good business

also, like i said i own niether format, however i would want a winner that had HDDVD features

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[Post edited by theprof00 on Dec 5, 2007]

"I've read this kind of thing before the whole MBay "conspiracy theory" from a tech site about a year ago." --theprof00

I remember hearing this theory quite a while ago, too. It was just as dumb then as it is now.

Microsoft pours hundreds of millions of dollars into developing a compact VC1 codec and helping HD DVD studios with their transfers and manufactures hundreds of thousands of Xbox 360 add-ons and spends further millions on advertising just to destroy the very format they're promoting along with the competition? So they can get in on downloading movies, something that won't even be feasible for most people for at least another decade?

The...theory...is...nuts.

John

nuts for you maybe
gates owns 29billion dollars just in stock alone.
vc-1 works with the download function, MS almost has a monopoly on digital HD distribution and is developing a stronghold. MSoft also supplies VC-1 decoder only for HDDVD. and the r&d for vc-1 to microsoft? not even worth bothering about. Msoft is worth many more billions, they can afford it,
whats funny about your rants is that even though you call them rediculous, they still seem to be on the winning end of these deals!!

"...whats funny about your rants..." --theprof00

MY rants? That actually brought a smile to my face. You're supporting a conspiracy theory about as wild as suggesting that the President blew up the Twin Towers, and you say I'M ranting?

Anyway, prof00, I don't mean to argue with you. If you believe it, you believe it, and I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm only suggesting that the alternative is far more plausible to me.

John

i think msoft would put as much money in hd dvd as possible just to screw over sony, lol. They can afford it , and sony isnt the sony of old! The ps3 is selling horrible! Sony pushed the game industry into bluray, and most game makers say it cost to much to develop for the ps3! i think the ps3 is gonna be a failure(so far its getn its but kicked) and will be the downfall of blu ray.

Scionguy05,

Although the PS3 is selling horribly, the XBox 360 followed just as horrible a sale's curve during it's first 4 quarters - actually worse, considering that the PS3 has been around for only 3 quarters in much of the world but has already sold 5.59 million units to date. The XBox 360 sold 5.9 million units in its first year. The WII continues to kick both their butts.

As far as the PS3 being the death blow to Blu-ray, I'm not sure how getting 5.59 million Blu-ray players into homes is going to accomplish that.

Skyhawk, I would LOVE to know what the game sales statistics are for the PS3 and not from some bluray created web site either. The PS3 has been out for one full year now. I can guarantee you that game sales for the XBOX360 are far higher after one year on the market than the PS3's after one year.

The bottom line is the PS3 is a great game console but it still has zero games. None. Like you said 5.59 million consoles world wide and they're giving away movies with the console instead of games. What does that tell you about the state of the PS3? In fact, what does that tell you about Sonys priorities?

Looks like they're focusing their resources more on bluray than they are PS3 games.

Quote:
Looks like they're focusing their resources more on bluray than they are PS3 games.

You could very well be right. It would seem that their inclusion of free movie(s) in the PS3 box rather than games addresses polls that showed only 20% of PS3 owners "knew of/or used" their PS3 to watch a Blu-ray movie. It's my theory that they would rather use the PS3 now to increase consumer awareness of Blu-ray as a strategy to push the dominance of the format and worry about games later. Of course, I could be wrong.

Edit: My son just told me you're wrong and that the PS3 actually has at least two games

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[Post edited by Skyhawk on Dec 6, 2007]

Haha...tell him I stand corrected

One game that I do look forward to on the PS3, and I'm amazed they haven't released it yet because it is such a popular game, is Socom. Socom was so much fun online on the PS2. My brother and I would play that game for hours and hours like we were teenagers. The Socom games did so well for Sony that I'm amazed they haven't released a PS3 version.

THAT would sell really well.

EDIT: Spelling.

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[Post edited by Falcon01 on Dec 6, 2007]

The problem with comparing the PS3 to the 360 as far as sales in their first years. Is that the 360 had the luxury of coming out first and didn't have any competition. So while it may have struggled at first there were no other game systems fighting for next-gen market share. By the time the PS3 was released 360 already had one Killer app (Gears of War) and another one on the way (Halo 3). Plus you had the Wii coming out of left field and surprising everyone with a innovative game experience. Then of course at launch the PS3 was priced out of everyone's range at 600 dollars. The PS3 has finally started to gain traction now that there's a model in the 400 dollar range. I'm not saying it won't do better but I have a hard time seeing it move out of third place.

As far as this theory goes, I think it's easy for some people to believe because for so many people Microsoft=evil. I've never really understood how anything Microsoft has ever done is worse then any other big corporation. I guess because they won't make Windows open source Bill Gates must be the devil himself.

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[Post edited by Movielover316 on Dec 6, 2007]