3 ms·

Sheer availability upon release was a huge factor as well. VHS racked up a lot of distribution and production partners before launch, which meant that there we

Sheer availability upon release was a huge factor as well. VHS racked up a lot of distribution and production partners before launch, which meant that there were simply far more VHS players available worldwide than Betamax players. It also didn't help at all that the Sony team really alienated people by being notoriously difficult to work with (there are plenty of stories and anecdotes about meetings with the Sony leadership at the time[0] Far more interesting is the fact that Sony learned from this experience and did everything right when it came to Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. After all that, though, they won the standards battle (Blu-ray won out), but they lost the war[1] (the future of content delivery is likely to be neither Blu-ray nor HD-DVD, but something more akin to streaming services). [0]I have (a physical copy of) a Harvard Business School case study that describes this in detail, - there may be a digital version, but it's paywalled). [1] http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/02/sony-winning-the-dvd-battle-bu/ http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/02/sony-winning-the-dvd-battle-bu/

theandrewbailey 12y ago
Another point that people forget is that Sony has nothing better to do than to make new formats for things.[0] Like 5% of startups, about 5% of Sony formats really took off. No one really remembers it, but Sony came up with Compact Discs and 3.5" floppies. PC storage in the 90s would be very different without them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_formats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_formats
bitJericho 12y ago
While digital content right now is a big thing, there's a lot of us that only buy physical media. I don't want to invest my hard earned money into something of no actual value. I don't buy digital downloads, I only buy on blu-ray (though I would go with dvd if something's not available on blu-ray). I don't buy mp3s or whatever else, I only buy CDs. The only thing I buy digitally is from Steam because they are far and away better than dealing with physical game media currently.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  I might have understood your argument with regards to DVDs, CDs, and so on. But when you use Blu Ray as an example I get lost. Blu Rays are inherently no more a "sure thing" than digital media, by design. Blu Ray discs when inserted both check the licence of the Blu Ray player and the Blu Ray player checks the licence of the disc. If either is "invalid" then the disc won't play (and incidentally both discs AND players have been blacklisted in mandatory updates). MP3 on the other hand is much more "free" than Blu Ray. There's no licence, there's no revocation, it "just works" and will likely always "just work" which definitely cannot be said for Blu Rays. Blu Ray is an absurdly overly complex technology. So much so that most digital content is less complex than Blu Ray by a significant amount.
  - bitJericho 12y ago
    Blu-ray DRM is incredibly simple to bypass. In 20 or 30 years when the collection will still be worth a couple bucks at a garage sale, DRM free players will be the norm.
- theandrewbailey 12y ago
  > While digital content right now is a big thing, there's a lot of us that only buy physical media. I don't want to invest my hard earned money into something of no actual value. ... I don't buy mp3s or whatever else, I only buy CDs. DRM-free files have more value to me than stacks of optical discs, because raw files are easier to back up and keep in several places.
  - bitJericho 12y ago
    I'd love to ship you my collection of X. I'll give it to you for 20 bucks plus shipping. Let me know if you're interested ;) Also, I can make backups of my blu-rays all day. I can transcode them or whatever I like. It's not like just because sony says no I have to listen to them.
    - theandrewbailey 12y ago
wmf 12y ago
Sony learned from this experience and did everything right when it came to Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD Maybe not everything. I remember that BD-J alienated Microsoft and offered no real consumer benefits. Sony also didn't bribe Universal enough, leading them to go HD-DVD-only.
fnbr 12y ago
What's the name of the case? I'd like to look it up and read it.

theandrewbailey 12y ago

Another point that people forget is that Sony has nothing better to do than to make new formats for things.[0] Like 5% of startups, about 5% of Sony formats really took off. No one really remembers it, but Sony came up with Compact Discs and 3.5" floppies. PC storage in the 90s would be very different without them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_formats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_formats

bitJericho 12y ago

While digital content right now is a big thing, there's a lot of us that only buy physical media. I don't want to invest my hard earned money into something of no actual value. I don't buy digital downloads, I only buy on blu-ray (though I would go with dvd if something's not available on blu-ray). I don't buy mp3s or whatever else, I only buy CDs. The only thing I buy digitally is from Steam because they are far and away better than dealing with physical game media currently.

Someone1234 12y ago
I might have understood your argument with regards to DVDs, CDs, and so on. But when you use Blu Ray as an example I get lost. Blu Rays are inherently no more a "sure thing" than digital media, by design. Blu Ray discs when inserted both check the licence of the Blu Ray player and the Blu Ray player checks the licence of the disc. If either is "invalid" then the disc won't play (and incidentally both discs AND players have been blacklisted in mandatory updates). MP3 on the other hand is much more "free" than Blu Ray. There's no licence, there's no revocation, it "just works" and will likely always "just work" which definitely cannot be said for Blu Rays. Blu Ray is an absurdly overly complex technology. So much so that most digital content is less complex than Blu Ray by a significant amount.
- bitJericho 12y ago
  Blu-ray DRM is incredibly simple to bypass. In 20 or 30 years when the collection will still be worth a couple bucks at a garage sale, DRM free players will be the norm.
theandrewbailey 12y ago
> While digital content right now is a big thing, there's a lot of us that only buy physical media. I don't want to invest my hard earned money into something of no actual value. ... I don't buy mp3s or whatever else, I only buy CDs. DRM-free files have more value to me than stacks of optical discs, because raw files are easier to back up and keep in several places.
- bitJericho 12y ago
  I'd love to ship you my collection of X. I'll give it to you for 20 bucks plus shipping. Let me know if you're interested ;) Also, I can make backups of my blu-rays all day. I can transcode them or whatever I like. It's not like just because sony says no I have to listen to them.
  - theandrewbailey 12y ago

wmf 12y ago

Sony learned from this experience and did everything right when it came to Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD Maybe not everything. I remember that BD-J alienated Microsoft and offered no real consumer benefits. Sony also didn't bribe Universal enough, leading them to go HD-DVD-only.

fnbr 12y ago

What's the name of the case? I'd like to look it up and read it.