From gamesindustry.biz :

Just weeks after announcing there was "little chance" of reaching an agreement on the issue of a unified next-gen disc format, SCE president Ken Kutaragi has confirmed that negotiations are at an end.

Speaking to Nikkei Electronics, Kutaragi said that it was "game over" for talks between Sony, which supports the Blu-Ray format, and HD-DVD supporter Toshiba.

Negotiations began back in February, but the two companies failed to reach an agreement on storage capacities. Blu-Ray discs can hold 50GB of data while HD-DVD discs only hold 30GB, but the HD-DVD camp argues that lower manufacturing costs make for a cheaper, more consumer-friendly product.

Earlier this month Kutaragi said the negotiations were troubled after Toshiba refused to accept Blu-Ray as the basis for a unified format. It now seems inevitable that both formats will hit the market when the next generation of DVD players rolls out at the end of the year, despite Sony's efforts to avoid another format war of the VHS vs. Betamax kind.

Kutaragi went on to discuss Sony's Cell networked processor, which will be used in the PlayStation 3 along with a range of other consumer electronics devices such as "smart TVs".

He told Nikkei Electronics that the microprocessor features eight synergistic processor elements or SPEs because the number eight is an "exponential aesthetic". However, only seven of these will be used as this is "the ultimate aesthetic" with regards to engineering - as announced by Sony at this year's E3, leaving one SPE unused should improve chip yield and slash production costs.

...And that makes me a sad Panda. I'm thinking Sony will win this round though.

Good old Ken, is there nothing he can't f*** up?

how exciting. I just barely missed out on the beta/VHS war and it will be a great life experiance to partake in a retarded media format war.

Thanks for posting that. Interesting if unsurprising to hear.

As one who was around to witness the Betamax VHS war from its beginning, I had hoped that that similar silliness which we have recently witnessed in end user's allegiances to either - R vs +R media formats wasn't going to perpetuate into yet another evolution of hardware tech.

If they continue with this stupidity, my money's on Toshiba unless SONY modifies their usual premium consumer pricing and OEM licencing cost and restrictions to parity.

Same as VHS vs Beta & burnable DVD-5 vs DVD-9, ultimately uptake in the marketplace will be whatever is pitched at the significantly lower pricepoint to the consumer.

Well at least they tried... NOT!

Hopefully the same happens this time as last, the one that provides the cheapest opportunity to the porn industry wins. Looks like Sony is taking porn seriously now with their move to allow it on the PSP.

As others have said, it's probably going to come down to what the porn industry supports.

In the mean time I'm going to stick to DVD for as long as possible until this whole thing blows over.

my money's on Toshiba

Toshiba? Sony has 2 massive film studios plus, I'm guessing, a f***load more money, and the most successful console, plus the largest disc, and don't forget the value of their four letters. How can they lose?

ultimately uptake in the marketplace will be whatever is pitched at the significantly lower pricepoint to the consumer

Not necissarily, see above reasons.

last edited by Tuco at 10:58:45 21/Jun/05

well normally id say the cheapest for the win, but needing larger and larger space to backup my HDD's and i also think alsot of companys would appreaciate having 50gb rather than 30gb to back up Data, so id have to say SONY for teh win this time...that imo anyway.

I'm sure this was posted here a few days ago...

Anyway, I'm hoping that Toshiba come out on top, mainly just because I think Sony are arrogant f***wits.

How can they lose?

The same way they lost last time. According to your points they once again have the technically superior product, but that didn't stop them losing last time.

If they lose this time, I bet it'll be because the small portion of sony that is involved in content production still has far too much say/control of the electronics company as a whole. They f***ed up mini-disk, the f***ed portable mp3s, i wouldn't be at all suprised if they f*** next gen dvd too.

They also f***ed up betamax.

betmax = 1 hour
vhs = 3 hours.

plus its a different market, not only retail but also production these days.

time will tell.

Tuco I don't know where you're getting your 'facts' from, but I'd try another source if I were you.

And forget that silly semi-thesis some dimwit on the net wrote. He/she just plagiarised with noteable selectivity to suit his/her bias, but MOST obviously didn't live the era. It offers a totally erroneous picture of what actually occured.

By the time Betamax and VHS released into the mainstream consumer marketplace and pricepoint, there was no time playback or recording differential. In fact all advantage technically went to SONY. Both formats supported 3 hour recording and playback wih the ace to SONY for a more compact Beta cassette. The Betamax player was also less clunky, reliable and quieter (motor & transport) in operation, with supoerior image quality. But what it lacked was broad brand marketing and price parity. In their arrogance SONY thought they could charge what they wanted for the superior Betamax format and control pricing by monopolising licensing for the format under the SONY banner and just a couple of other acquiesent brand names. Few brands supported Betamax because of that restrictive licencing. A story a lot like that of the battle between the PC (IBM compatible) in its departure from IBM's dominance and arrogance really.

In both cases the public rejected technical superiority and brand arrogance in deference to a lower pricepoint and wider brand choice.

And to see it all in action yet once again, how many people do you know who record to DVD+/-DL vs DVD+/-R? Blu-Ray... Hooray... People will follow pricepoint and accept 30GB just like they accept 4.7GB single layer if SONY try on their usual nonsense.

Hole in one there MiNG.