Wal-Mart goes Blu-Ray Exclusive

by Xav de Matos { Feb 15th 2008 at 9:30PM }

We could literally copy and paste the same news we've been reporting all week and just change the company names and this news story would make perfect sense. In a move that shocked no one, Wal-Mart has announced that they are exclusively backing Blu-Ray in the next generation optical disc war according to Reuters. Following nearly every major studio, Netflix, and Blockbuster retail locations, Wal-Mart is one of the last companies to choose a side and it's possible that their weight in the market may officially call this war off.

When contacted, a Wal-Mart representative also told Joystiq that the company would "exclusively carry blu-ray players," leaving us to wonder about the fate of the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on. While Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski said no confirmation has been made, cold calls made to 10 different Wal-Mart locations yielded zero no luck finding the HD add-on to our favorite machine.

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: blu-ray, format-war, hd-dvd, xbox-360-add-opn

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Rae @ Feb 15th 2008 9:38PM

the blu devil has obviously won....no need to report about these things anymore

Carnie @ Feb 16th 2008 3:45AM

Word, as far as the 360 HD-DVD add on goes...nothing more then an expensive paper weight....

Cal @ Feb 16th 2008 9:18AM

No need to report about these at all, the 360 is not HD-DVD, HD-DVD is merely an accessory to the 360.

TheBlahMasta @ Feb 15th 2008 9:38PM

This is all Sony's fault...It's like they planned all of this from the beginning...

Who Flang Poo @ Feb 15th 2008 10:06PM

Well since Microsoft said they will go Blu if HD-DVD offically dies, Sony just pretty much just screwed themselves.

soul899er @ Feb 15th 2008 10:16PM

your an idiot, they will have a Blue Ray add on, not built in, i know your thinking that itll have built in so that there's space for more content, but youre wrong, Sony and Toshiba designed the Blue Ray so its the other way around, Microsoft is Screwed, they would be givin Sony the cash

mojojojo @ Feb 16th 2008 5:41AM

sad news for you,blu-ray is sony's so you wont see any microsoft product having blu-ray on it any time soon :(

Magetto @ Feb 19th 2008 9:58AM

Sony gets royalties from everyone using Blu-ray. Somehow I doubt they're just going to ignore the potential millions of buyers of a Blu-ray add-on just to try and screw their competition in the video game market Sony isn't just a videogame company.

Adam @ Feb 17th 2008 12:17PM

@ mojo

Bluray isn't "sony's"

CrazyKinux @ Feb 15th 2008 10:07PM

HD-DVD is dead. Long live Blu-Ray... I guess...

Anticrawl @ Feb 15th 2008 10:10PM

Regardless of who won between the two pointless formats we will have a true new format within a year or two. Holographic cards here we come!

Seriously though, look at the specs. Both formats are embarrasing when you view the specs. The blue laser tech is insulting, red laser disc as of now are capabile of storing more than either company could ever hope to achieve with their piss-poor standard. (SEE: VMD's)

John McPoop @ Feb 15th 2008 11:35PM

Your going to be waiting a long time for affordable holographic storage media. While it is certainly superior to dvd, hd-dvd and blu-ray as of now its only good for big corporations who have massive storage needs. in fact, by the time holographic media is as affordable as the expensive blu-ray digital downloads will be on the horizon.

CODEGODE @ Feb 15th 2008 10:18PM

Why was there two in the first place we only needed one. This shit should have ended last year.

Adam @ Feb 15th 2008 10:22PM

It is all pointless i wont be buying blu i download my shit utorrent ftw.

The Sound @ Feb 15th 2008 10:30PM

Have fun waiting hours to get a barely high-def version without true surround sound, and no special features.

Pro-Truth League @ Feb 15th 2008 10:52PM

Actually, you can get damned high quality 720p and 1080p rips with DTS and Dolby Digital now a days. But yes, you'll still have to wait for it.

Who Flang Poo @ Feb 15th 2008 11:07PM

I dont even care anymore even if PS3 does end up beating 360 it will only be because of Blu-Ray. If you ask me 360 already won, they made 2 billion more then Sony and 1 billion more then Nintendo. It also has an attatch rate of 7. The PS3 has won the format war and thats all they can possibly win.

John McPoop @ Feb 15th 2008 11:42PM

jeez man what gives?

The PS3 hasn't won anything. The console "wars" aren't even a war. Why the fcuk are people figthing over consoles? Is Microsoft going to send you a check if Sony discontinues the PS3? Will your life be complete if the PS3 and Wii dies off? Does it really make you happy Microsoft made 2 Billion as you say? Quit being such an idiot and get a grip. If you like the 360 then good for you. Learn to be a fan of games and not consoles you fcuking retard.

Justin @ Feb 15th 2008 11:21PM

Wow, didn't think you guys would be so angry.

Jer @ Feb 15th 2008 11:24PM

I likes my HD. Too bad the companies didn't give the consumers a say-so. I'm still buying them. And when I can't anymore, there's still standard DVD and that's fine with me.

John McPoop @ Feb 15th 2008 11:48PM

You know as well as I do thats just rhetoric. The consumer chose Blu-Ray and thats why movie studious jumped onboard for blu-ray exclusivity. I think that HD-DVD was the more open standard and most likely better for consumers. But, I also think between the two blu-ray is the technically superior format. In the end its good we have 1 format so true competetion can begin in the HD market.

Sony made a huge gamble putting blu-ray in the PS3 and it paid off. i think if Microsoft put a built in HD-DVD drive from the start the format "war" would have been very different. You would be looking at a huge number amount of HD install base with the 1 year jump and better storage media for games (see lost odyssey 5 disc's)

Chris @ Feb 16th 2008 12:33AM

RIP HD-DVD
We hardly knew ye

ccc @ Feb 16th 2008 1:45AM

This isn't good news. Looks like its all but offical in the format war.MS will have to adapt to survive now.

Truckondo @ Feb 16th 2008 3:15AM

This is great news. Now consumers can get off the fence and buy Blu-ray with confidence. I'm glad I sold my HD DVD add on last Sept. I noticed all year long how the market was going and I made the right choice by picking up a PS3 60gb for mainly Blu-ray playback. This is the first time in my life to own all 3 current gen consoles and I can say it doesn't bother me a bit.

nnarum23 @ Feb 16th 2008 2:06AM

Microsoft probably won't release a BD add-on... Microsoft has never supported or liked Java... Java is a key component in BD... I guess we'll see though...

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 16th 2008 4:20AM

Once again the inferior format wins(VHS had lower quality than Beta but more storage space) oh well I guess its good its over now. This time the average consumer won't be dragged into this. Now that this is all over lets get back to making people get HD TV. Also guys think about it this way, this is probably going to be the last major format war. Next time it will most likely be the transition to Digital Distrubution.

Congratulations Blu-Ray, won practically fair and square, PS3 trojan horse was a bit cheap though.

Bill Kutargi @ Feb 16th 2008 6:40AM

@Sky Shark X2

WTF are you talking about??? Both formats were pretty much the same! Each could do each others things as long as the data on Blu-ray didnt exceed the capacity of HD DVD, In fact when its put in that sence, Blu-ray seems the better format. All in all however, its "movies" that make a "movie format" and in this case, Blu-ray had the better selection.

Sky Shark X2 @ Feb 16th 2008 7:24AM

.....dude HDDVD maxes out at 30GB dual layer, Blu Ray maxes out at 50, however I believe Blu Ray has a lower read speed thus why PS3 games have the install option to help lessen load times assumably. Also I think I heard either their audio format or video format has slightly less quality than HD DVD. That's how they were diffrent and Blu Ray already had a headstart out of the box with capacity alone. It made more sense(I backed HD DVD by the way so I'm just stating the truth here about Blu Ray as best I can) as a movie format, a storage format and a video game format. A dual layer Blu Ray disc could hold a small hard drive's worth of data(for example my Dell Inspiron's 50 GBish hard drive. So that made it a clear choice on storage, movie wise, you can fit more features and episodes onto boxsets on a blu ray disc and for games you could clearly put more content on there.

railven @ Feb 16th 2008 9:35AM

@Sky Shark
Sorry, you've been misinformed.
Here is something:
Blu-Ray/HD DVD both have higher read speeds than DVD, but unfortunately they aren't at the same spin speed yet (DVD 12/16x vs HD DVD/Blu-Ray 2x/4x) Once either format (most likely Blu-Ray now since Toshiba might phase out HD DVD) hits a constant 4x read speed - it out reads DVD. Factor in Constant versus Variable read speeds, and it could do it at 3x.

Blu-Ray is a better product in terms of spec. However, HD DVD (thanks to Microsoft and HDi - but Microsoft bailed on HD DVD @ CES '08) launched with a stronger list of features.

As it stands HD DVD does PiP and Web Enabled, and Blu-Ray (only @ Profile 1.1, which is still hard to find in SALs) only does PiP. We'd have to wait for Profile 2.0 to match what HD DVD can do out of the box.

As for Audio, HD DVD's file capacity (which you stated DL-30GB versus DL-50GB) has caused studios (Paramount/Univesral - see American Gansta/Beowulf/Transformers) to use lossy audio (not High Definition) while Blu-Ray movies all have lossless audio (high definition.) HD DVD doesn't have better audio, but lots of people argue that the lossy audio is just as good as the lossless, so it boils down to opinion. Spec wise Lossless greater than Lossy.

Gemini Ace @ Feb 16th 2008 6:58AM

Yea, but what side did the porn industry take?

duzzyman @ Feb 16th 2008 8:08AM

Sonys going to say there consoles outsold or outpreformed the 360 now just because of blu-ray. But really who wants a console that has no games and the worst online experiance you can't buy.

Maestro @ Feb 16th 2008 8:45AM

I don't get the people who are upset. The 360 will be just fine. Bioshock wasn't on BR, Mass Effect, wasn't on BR, Halo3 wasn't on BR, COD (for the 360 anyways) wasn't on BR...are we talking about a game console or movie player here people?
I can also promise that this year the 360 will have many more great games come out and none of them will be on BR either. So bottom line you don't need BR for a great game.
That being said, I also have a PS3, and BR movies look awesome on it. I'm OK having a game console and a movie player and they don't need to be the same unit.

RJ @ Feb 16th 2008 9:12AM

can MS please announce a Blu-Ray add on now, so I dont have to go out and get a ps3

Who Flang Poo @ Feb 16th 2008 1:06PM

@ John McPoop

No I don't want the PS3 to fail I want it to get better because I am really pissed that I spent 600 bucks on a piece of shit that I have not touched in ages. Instead of making sales off of Blu-Ray they should actually make some games that can pull me away from my 360 and Wii, but sadly I dont see that happening anytime soon. And no it doesnt make me happy that the 360 made more money, I was trying to say that most of that was off software sales and even if the PS3 beats out the 360 in sales, money and attach rate is what matters. So I was pretty much saying that if the PS3 beats the 360 it doesnt deserve the credit. Buying a PS3 has made me hate Sony even more, beause I kept hearing shit from them that says how great it is going to be, so I got one like a dumbass and just blew 600 bucks that I will never see again. As much as I hate Sony I still want the PS3 to actually get good games to make sales and not get all their sales from Blu-Ray. Oh, and by the way I am a fan of games, thats exactly why I prefer the 360 over everything else. Also forget my last post I worded a lot of things wrong and didnt get the point in that I wanted.

The Sound @ Feb 16th 2008 1:56PM

More sales = more 3rd party support = better games.

Simple math. Sony touting the PS3 as a Blu-ray/Multimedia/Game system will help, and no matter how many people may buy a PS3 'just for Blu-ray', those people factor into the amount of consoles sold. Game makers see that, and know they have a larger audience.

Who Flang Poo @ Feb 16th 2008 1:24PM

ITS OVER, TOSHIBA DROPPED HD-DVD JUST GO LOOK AT PS3FANBOY.COM THEY HAVE AN ARTICLE ABOUT IT!

Charles @ Feb 16th 2008 1:28PM

It's not like Blu-Ray is doing all that great. Just way better than HD-DVD was able to do. Doesn't matter anyway, physical media is doomed. It not like either format was more than marginally better than DVD anyway. Most people are quite satisfied with DVD quality, and tons of people rent there movies on demand through PayPer-View anyway. I mean, how many DVDs do you own that you only watched once? I bet a lot more than the ones you've watched more than 3 times. I mean, unless you are one of those crazy videophiles that spends way too much time and money on soon-to-be obsolete hardware, this "war" was just pointless. And if the Netflix rumors about both systems turns out to be true, it will have turned out to be even more pointless, if that's possible. Remember the supposed successors to CDs 8 years ago? Super-CD and DVD-Adudio? Yeah, I had to jog the memory too.

Perverted @ Feb 19th 2008 10:02AM

I just bought a 360 :)
So I figure I'll comment here....
I never bought a HD DVD or Blu-ray for the price there's just not a massive upgrade....It's great a format has been chosen for the rich and tech junkie among us.....
Hell I never even bought a DVD player....I waited for Digital distribution, the true victor.....