Analyst: Video Format Fight Not Over, Blu-Ray Winning PR War Posted by XanTium | 3-8-2007 16:11 EST

From gamasutra.com: [QUOTE] TDG president and analyst Michael Greeson asserts that Blockbuster's decision to side with Blu-Ray "will have little impact on how the format battle is decided," calling Blockbuster "a blip on the DVD sales radar." He believes that Target and Wal-Mart's recent decisions to sell only Blu-ray players in their bricks-and-mortar stores could potentially be much more significant, though. "The window of opportunity [for HD DVD] closes a bit more with each exclusive retail and content partnership that Blu-ray announces," Greeson says. "Radical moves will be required by the HD DVD camp, such as major equipment subsidies (slice the unit price to below $200 - soon) or significant marketing investment on the part of Microsoft, Toshiba, Universal, and the other HD DVD players (something which we have yet to see happen)." Generally, though, Greeson believes the race is too soon to call, as some PC OEMs have yet to weigh in, and the impact of Target and Wal-Mart's exclusivity decisions won't be determined until after the holiday season. [/QUOTE] Full Story: gamasutra.com

I am so sick of erroneously reported figures on the Blu Ray vs. HD-DVD topic. Stating that Target is only selling Blu Ray is grossly misleading and amateur. One can easily find official statements regarding this matter that inform us that Target is selling BOTH Blu RAy and HD-DVD players, Blu Ray will only be receiving an end-cap featuring their product. These stupidly demagogic statements have become ad nauseum. Please, stop posting this rubbish.

I haven't been to Target in a while, but I'd heard that they were only selling HD DVD standalone players online. This would make the statement true unless you count the Xbox 360 add-on.

Shoddy journalism at its best. Since when did Target go exclusive when all they're doing is selling the Sony standalone BD player and featuring Sony's player on the end of an isle? They're still selling the 360 HD DVD add on and that's all the announcement was. News sites just took it for more than it really was. Also, since when did Wal-Mart announce any sort of exclusive deal to sell just Blu-Ray players?

Target will be selling HDDVD as it sells them now - Sony only bought end shelves and called them 'exclusive'

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/28/false-a...g-up-on-hd-dvd/
http://www.ps3scene.com/news/static/Falsea...-1185675823.php

etc.

I would like to get my voice heard on this topic. My wife works at Target and is the Supervisor of what they call "Outs". She is one of 4 people who decides what products are carried in her specific store and what and where their end caps are located along with who gets those end caps. Most end caps are purchased by vendors and are maintained by those vendors, not Target. The Corporate office has the final say on what products are actually carried in the store, so if Target's corporate office decides that independent HD-DVD players will no longer be carried in stores and sold exclusively online after they have been outed, then theres nothing anyone who maintains the logistics of those stores can do about it. After the Target she works at sells out all of their HD-DVD players, they will not be carrying them in their store anymore. The 360 add-on is not considered a stand alone player, but a video game accessory, so they will continue to carry those in their stores. So, if the article is referring to stand alone players not being carried by stores in the near future, then the article is correct, at least for the Target my wife works at.