Davis Freeberg

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    • DivX and Xbox 360: A Potential Win-Win For Everyone
      I'm not saying that it's impossible for DivX to come to the PS3, but in my mind it's unlikely. It could have been that the DivX logo is the default image for when Sony can't read the file, but can recognize that it is a DivX file. From what I understand, the betatester that leaked the images still couldn't get the file to play. Right now, Sony does sell DivX DVD players in some of the international markets that have a high adoption rate for DivX, but they haven't released DivX DVD players in the US. If Sony was serious about DivX, I would think that they'd end this embargo before taking that kind of a step. Sony will always be a content owner first and that is why their gadgets are so proprietary. When the PSP came out UMD was doomed to failure from the start, but Sony insisted on pumping all kinds of money into it. When it comes to the PS3, they are pushing Blu-Ray. Somehow, it's hard for me to see the content side, opening up their architecture, in a way that they can't control. I'd love to be wrong, but am too jaded to believe that Sony will ever support an open digital platform.
      Nov 09 18:36 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • DivX and Xbox 360: A Potential Win-Win For Everyone
      <i>"Nothing invokes more bitter defensive debating prowess than vilifying a ‘fanboys’ console with brash claims of annihilation purely to support you plea for extra functionality. I have a 360 but I am not convinced that DivX support would weigh heavily in a prospective purchasers mind."</i>

      I don't think that DivX support would cause 100% of the customers to buy it, but with an estimated 10% of the global population engaging in some form of p2p (closer to 20% for gamers), it would give them a good reason to choose the Xbox over the PS3. As far as PS3 support for DivX, I'm a skeptic. From what I understand, it looks like the PS3 activated the .AVI wrapper and not actually support for XviD or DivX. There's always a possibility that Sony is also in negotiations, but given their studio exposure, I think that they'd be reluctant to partner with the mp3 of video.
      Nov 09 16:04 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • DivX and Xbox 360: A Potential Win-Win For Everyone
      I'd argue that the Xbox 360 is crushing the PS3 right now. Forcing consumers to buy Blu-Ray was a huge mistake and one that is reflected in the weak sales on the console.
      Nov 09 09:38 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • Game Over For Sony In The Console Wars
      Phoenix, I think we could argue that the the console wars go back even further than that, but it's been the last three that have turned this into a global mega business . Was it the commodore or the Atari that is considered the 1st, I'm not sure, but I think we both can agree that by the term 3rd generation, I'm referring to the most recent consoles.
      Jul 27 13:12 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • Game Over For Sony In The Console Wars
      Thanks for the thoughts Jimmy - First off, I'm not a professional writer and don't pretend to be. The article is merely my thoughts as a blogger on the console wars. If you want financial analysis, go contact one of the brokerage firms who pay big time money to have people look at this professionally. If you want the opinion of someone who actually loves and plays video games, than come to my blog. If you look back six months ago, you'll find that I basically said a lot of the same things, before the miserable sales hit. You can call it FUD if you want, but in another six months, I'll have another post blasting them, if they continue to perform at these levels.

      I used the June number because it was the most current and because it demonstrates how difficult it will be for the PS3 to ever be as popular as the PS2. I'm not sure what to say about the E3 press "picking" Sony as the winner, but all the gamers I know are drooling over the Wii and not the PS3.

      You're right about me not liking Blu-Ray. I personally, think it should be up to consumers to decide which next gen platform should win and not monopolistic companies. As long as Universal won't release their titles on Blu-Ray and Sony won't release theirs on HD-DVD, the entire next gen DVD market will be dead.

      I had trouble getting current estimates on total PS3 sales, but if you want to argue that next December will be strong, I can understand that, however considering that they've sold a mere 2 million (my guesstimate) consoles after 9 months seems pretty pitiful considering the amount that Sony spent on this. Weren't they predicting that they'd sell 2 million in the first 2 months? What happen to the 6 million estimate from last March? The last 9 months includes a holiday season, including the highly anticipated launch and if you average this out it does bump up the average number of consoles sold to closer to 225K per month, but even at these levels, it'd take a lot longer than 10 years for Sony to replicate the ps2's success.

      I used to be a hardcore PS2 fan, but they lost me when the Xbox 360 came out. I'm sorry if you disagree with my assessment on the console wars, but I think you are crazy if you think Sony has a snowball's chance of ending up on top of the 3 generation of consoles.
      Jul 26 15:12 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • No Shortfall in XBox 360 Shipments - Yet
      Good homework and interesting stuff. Microsoft could always slash prices for the PS3 launch or they could be anticipating strong early holiday buying, but 10 million seems like a tough number for them to hit.

      Nonetheless with Sony's supply problems and Microsoft benefiting from good inventory controls in Q4, their lead won't be easy for Sony to catch up to. It's strange to think about it, but the situation is almost the exact opposite of what it was like when the Xbox and PS2 came out only in reverse.

      The wildcard in all of this will be the Wii of course. How Nintendo got so cool again baffles me, but their Wii is undoubtably going to be one sexy machine and with it pricing more like a high end DVD player then a computer, I suspect that Nintendo may sell more then Sony or Microsoft. Regardless of what happens though it will be fun to watch.
      Oct 30 15:57 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • Microsoft Media Center To Benefit From Movie Download Craze
      Sorry Barta, but I'm going to have to disagree, the iTV will be a huge flop. For years Apple fans have been calling for Jobs to introduce an Apple with a TV tuner and if they were doing that then I might agree with you, but Moviebeam has already proven that people don't want to pay $300 to have the privaledge of paying for TV. As for wireless keyboards already being around, I agree with you, but try plugging that wireless keyboard into your TiVo and see what happens. Absolutely nothing. TiVo needs to bring the internet to the TV exactly so that I can watch iTunes on it and YouTube and whatever content you crave.

      You can say that Microsoft is still a geek product, but the numbers don't lie. This year alone Microsoft will sell more Media Centers then TiVo has sold DMRs in the last 7 years. To date no one has solved the last 10 foot problem and with the lack of content available online, it will take an internet enabled DVR before we see this solution. To date, Microsoft has the only solution. Oh and Myth too, but that really is a geek product.
      Oct 06 10:07 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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