890°

Disney has issued a pre-CES press release regarding Blu-Ray

Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) announces an exciting new line-up of Blu-ray initiatives in 2008, an ever-expanding Blu-ray slate and new technological-advancements in bonus feature materials, all which guarantee a superior high-definition home entertainment experience.

"This is an exciting time for Disney as we not only announce the release of our first Platinum Disney animated classic on Blu-ray with Sleeping Beauty, but also allow consumers to create an entirely new home entertainment experience with stunning new bonus features and amazing interactive capabilities like never before seen," stated Bob Chapek, President of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

In North America, WDSHE will be releasing new theatrical titles to Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD including The Game Plan (Walt Disney Pictures) on January 22; Gone Baby Gone and Becoming Jane (both Miramax) on February 12; and Dan In Real Life (Touchstone Pictures) on March 11. WDSHE will expand its catalogue titles on Blu-ray Disc with the releases of The Rock (Hollywood Pictures) and Con Air (Touchstone Pictures) on January 8; Crimson Tide (Hollywood Pictures) on February 5; The Rookie (Walt Disney Pictures) on March 4; Hidalgo (Touchstone Pictures), Coyote Ugly: The Double Shot Edition (Touchstone Pictures), Unbreakable (Touchstone Pictures), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Walt Disney Pictures) and National Treasure: Collector's Edition (Walt Disney Pictures) in spring 2008.

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thedigitalbits.com
Cyrus3655973d ago (Edited 5973d ago )

As well the link talks about the HD-DVD will now go on a smear tactic, to say Warner took 500 Million + to go blu-ray exclusive. When infact HD-DVD group offered this to both Warner and fox to go HD-DVD Exclusive.

". It appears that reports are starting to leak online today that Warner was offered as much as $500 million for their move to Blu-ray exclusivity. Seems to me, we told you all last week that money was being waved around (in our 12/31 post - click here and scroll down a bit). What the HD-DVD camp wants to sweep under the carpet today is how much THEY ponied up. The HD-DVD camp's strategy in the wake of their failure is to discredit Warner by leaking details of the deal to the HD-DVD friendly online media. The idea is to make Warner feel as much heat as Paramount and DreamWorks felt after THEY took money to flip HD-DVD exclusive last year. I checked out a couple of these sites this morning, and saw a bunch of this sort of thing: "If this is true, we are shocked and outraged to learn that Warner took as much as $500 million from the BDA!" This is no small amount of hypocrisy! You see... the HD-DVD camp offered Warner (and oh, by the way, Fox as well) a very similar sum of up-front money these past few weeks to flip to THEIR side. In other words, the HD-DVD camp got beat at their own game. Now they're embarrassed and pissed off about it, so they're leaking information to try to dust up outrage among the faithful and the fanboys online."

resistance1005973d ago

Why?

It will only backfire. All Warner will have to say is that in fact HDDVD offered them the money (if they actually did) or that nothing is true, and HD DVD will look even worse and a public backlash will occur.

If i was HD DVD right now i would just accept defeat and move on to cut your losses.

TANOD5973d ago

Why would Warner take 500M from SONY when Warner has like 50% shares of the total 42B yearly revenues??

Warner is much bigger than all other studios combined including SONy and PARAMOUNT.

PLUS use blu-ary.com for BD related news not some UNHEARD websites like this one

Cyrus3655973d ago

Learn to read Tanod, it talks about HD Group leaking that they took the money, when it was them offering the money.

Relax.

RudeSole Devil5973d ago (Edited 5973d ago )

This was a format war, and war is war. Microsoft and Toshiba both where counting on HD-DVD to win, and should of countered Sony's offer. Microsoft of all the back stabbing companies knows this game the best. Where's you balls now Microsoft when HD-DVD needed you the most.

BTW Microsoft and Toshiba offered WB 400 million, so Sony whipped out there coc_ks and won the Format WAR, huge for Sony and the PS3.....

Mainman5973d ago

Microsoft wasn't counting on HD-DVD to win. They were counting on prolonging the format war.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 5973d ago
Darkiewonder5973d ago

That's all that needs to be said about that.

He can swim in my blue water anyday.

wallace10005973d ago

That is indeed a sweet movie, definitely worth picking up.

GodsHand5973d ago

Yes, wheres my Sword in the stone platinum edition blu-ray disc?

Xbrainer5973d ago (Edited 5973d ago )

when did this become a site for movie news? did i miss the memo?

EDIT: okay i understand that this may be good news to some people but why post every single article you see? Its doing nothing but spamming the site.

resistance1005973d ago (Edited 5973d ago )

looks like it, but still if you notice your in the Tech/Industry section not gaming/ps3/360 etc sections

If you stay in the ps3/gaming/360/wii sections you won't notice these storys

TruthBTold5973d ago

dont read it. You act as if this is a pop up on your computer. You were aware that you do have the option to choose to read an article or not. Why waste your valuable time just posting in articles that dont interest you? I dont get it why people do that. There are more than just gaming articles in this website.

RudeSole Devil5973d ago

This is huge victory for the PS3. HUGE HUGE HUGE.

Maddens Raiders5973d ago (Edited 5973d ago )

it's a Blu January!!!

Wow Sony, no risk no reward, huh? Well enjoy your *reward guys and thanks for the *risk!!! : P

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260°

Why Xbox believes it must cut costs and close studios

Companies, particularly public companies like Microsoft, need to grow.

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eurogamer.net
gold_drake11h ago

i mean its pretty simple, they spent close to 30 billion in acquiring activision, they thought they'd make it bk no problem, and that didnt happen.

its just shit that because of MS's miscalculation alot of people lost their jobs.

Jingsing8h ago

This is exactly what many people said would happen including the CMA and FTC. Lies lies and more lies and they allowed a $69 billion buy out to happen.

gold_drake8h ago

oh yeh it was 70 billion. that was my bad haha even worse.

thesoftware7308h ago(Edited 8h ago)

gold,

You can't be serious, right?

Do you think that MS thought they would make 80bill in a year & Half? They haven't even released titles under MS yet, lol.

But in fact, that A/B revenue is already paying off, look at the last earnings call. That $80 billion is long-term money, my guy, no sane person/company would think they would make that back in any short-term situation, it's a long-term investment.

Let's play silly then. If MS's reason for laying off staff and closing studios was due(which it really was not) to the A/B deal, tell me what Sony's reason was for past studio closures, the recent 900-person layoffs, closing Sony London, shutting down Dreams, and closing Japan Studio? Zipper? Psygnosis? cuts at all their internal studios.

Keep in mind, you are claiming MS's reason is because of the A/B deal; please explain Sony's reason.

Hofstaderman8h ago

You actually still defending them? Sheesh.....

gold_drake8h ago

this is not a sony vs MS debate. dont make it something it isnt.

and of course not, but im pretty sure they thought they'd make more money after the deal. they didnt, and closed off some studios.

its pretty insane to think there is any other reason for the closure of studios in this case.

romulus237h ago(Edited 7h ago)

(It really was) due to the Activision Blizzard deal and the loss of physical sales due to gamepass. You keep bringing up Sony in all your posts about this, stop deflecting and trying to change the topic, this is about MS and what they are doing.

BehindTheRows7h ago

Has nothing to do with Sony. Stay on topic.

notachance7h ago

once in a while you see someone too invested in their make-believe console war that everything happened has to be connected to said war…

a bit of banter between fans is normal, this crusade you’re doing now isn’t.

Chevalier6h ago

Wow idiotic. You bring up very old closures not that there haven't been recent ones from Playstations, but, seriously stop deflecting. This has NOTHING to do with Playstation.

Does Playstation got $3 trillion behind them and daddies wallet? No they don't so stop making a fool of yourself.

Xbox has never been profitable really and they just keep losing money so between their worst hardware sales, terrible 3rd party sales and now terrible 1st party sales.

Gamepass numbers that are no longer being announced shows their numbers after 3 years of missed targets has flatlined. Plus their recent gains up to 34 million were ONLY because they folded Gold members in too. Absolutely take your idiotic rhetoric out of here. Keep on topic without deflecting.

S2Killinit6h ago

Ayayayay with these xbox/MS excuses.

Reaper22_1h ago

How dare you mention Sony! Everyone here knows when Sony closes a studio and lay off workers it was the right thing to do. Even when they bought Gaikai and fired almost everyone it was the right thing to do.

Gamers can be such hypocrites sometimes.

andy8557m ago

Is it? That's revenue not profit. Completely different.

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 57m ago
thesoftware7305h ago(Edited 5h ago)

Drake,

"this is not a sony vs MS debate. dont make it something it isnt."

You are correct that it's not an MS Vs Sony Topic, but when exaggeration and imagination mix from a one-sided social group, similar examples are needed to ground radical thoughts; in this instance, the example was that shutting down 3,4,5, even 6 studios during a restructure/ buyout/acquisition is not some anomaly(it can suck) that has to be dissected or spell doom and gloom.

"But I'm pretty sure they thought they'd make more money after the deal. They didn't, and they closed off some studios."

But they did make more money, a lot, actually; the last earnings call showed a huge growth in profit, almost all due to A/B revenue.

"its pretty insane to think there is any other reason for the closure of studios in this case."

The fact that they did make money, kinda throws this out the window, and besides, you don't wake up and say, hey let's close a studio, you look at the output, you look at the dev as a whole, the long term and short term, you weigh it against all other studios and goals, you keep key members, ect..then you close if they are the weakest links...which by MS analysis they were.

Again, I will make a small Sony comparison, just so some of you can understand and see past the bias; Insomniac, ND, and Bungie have made some of the best games ever created, yet Sony saw fit to cut jobs in every of these studios, even tho Insomniac & ND are the biggest producers of PS games, leagues ahead better than Tango and Arkane, yet, they saw cuts, mind you, while being the TOP produces of PS first party. They were told to cut costs, and more jobs may be on the line, and Bungie is being threatened by a hostile Sony takeover. Put that in perspective, as I know that layoffs and dev closures are different, but if the best of the best is getting cut off, it is less than surprising, that lesser studios are closing.

@Cheva,
My response fits well with your comments as well. You even went on to prove that the dev closures are not just due to A/B acquisition. Then you point out Sony has less money than MS, inferring that MS should keep devs open that they see as lesser earners, while Sony having less money makes it okay to close them. lol...it doesn't work that way.

gold_drake5h ago

im not reading all of that. u have ur opinion, i have mine.

thats rly it.

but this aint sony vs ms.

ApocalypseShadow4h ago

You're trying to compare a 100 billion company to a company that has 3 TRILLION worth. SIE has to live or die on their own. And in turn, PlayStation has helped the main company again and again. Sony has to balance out what is working and not working in the company.

While Xbox has Daddy Warbucks footing the bill to keep the platform afloat. They have been bleeding money from Nvidia hardware in the OG Xbox, the RROD fiasco, the attempted 2013 DRM nonsense and the lies about being the most powerful console in the world and the losses of paying out millions to prop up a service hoping it catches on with enough subscribers to justify its existence.

They're not comparable if Xbox isn't allowed to live or die by its actions. It's subsidized. Revenue isn't profit. And if they were profiting on their own, they wouldn't be closing developers. If they were profiting, they wouldn't need Daddy Warbucks spending 80 to 100 billion buying up 3rd party publishers to sustain a loss leading platform.

They stopped announcing game sales, stopped announcing hardware sales, stopped announcing game pass subscribers, they are putting games on their competitors platforms but you're telling us that they are doing great even after killing jobs and closing developers at Xbox.

Stop drinking the Kool aid. You're drunk.

WelkinCole34m ago

I am pretty sure MS knew this would happen and this was part of their plan. I mean if anyone with half a brain can see this happening I am pretty sure a multi billion company like MS knew this would happen

The whole strategy in buying Beth and Acti/Blizzard is for

1. Buy established games they can have under xbox because they have done a horrible job in building their portfolio internally for the past 15 years

2. Following from 1, try and boost xbox competitivenss against a dominat PS which MS after 3 tries still can't crack

3. Follolwing from 2, try and weaken Playstation dominance by taking out these massive multiplats from the PS

4. Following from 3, try and profit off from the PS domiance with selected games they will still have on the PS to make money like COD

5. Obviously get the IP's by buying them instead of creating them which again as I mentioned in number 1 they have been woeful in doing

None of these had anyting to do with keeping all the devs they accuried. MS has always been very shitty to Devs under them. Look at what happned to Bungie for example.

I believe MS in court truely mean it when they said they had to do something because PS was just too dominant. This was their last roll of the dice.

And from the looks of things. It has not panned out as MS had hoped. PS5 is still as dominant as ever and xbox is still behind. Worse still their MP's they got is not irreplaceable as they thought. Starfield? lol!. There have not been any major shift in momentum in this console war in their favor so now its time to start cutting their loses and it starts with the most expensive cost for any company. People.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 34m ago
anast8h ago

They are going to use AI for a large portion of the game development process. Upper management need bonuses and the shareholders need more money. So, people will lose their jobs.

Skuletor8h ago

Maybe they were already using AI to make business decisions, which would explain why they closed Hi-Fi Rush's studio, then said they need more games like Hi-Fi Rush not long after that announcement.

Crows907h ago(Edited 7h ago)

They shouldn't have bought any studios. Some is okay...but they went on a shopping spree...stupid

Einhander19727h ago

The better question is why did Microsoft buy publishers for a service they were subsidizing they knew couldn't support.

And why are so many websites trying to make people feel sorry for Microsoft instead of truly criticizing the fact they are closing studios and killing jobs that would have been fine if Microsoft themselves hadn't gotten involved.

Quit feeling sorry for Microsoft and start feeling sorry for the industry and the all the gamers who are actually losing out.

THIS IS MICROSOFTS FAULT.

RNTody7h ago

The first thing that happens after any major acquisition or merger is a consolidation of the whole new portfolio, which includes cutting any excess, bloat or portfolios that don't fit the larger MO of the big boy. So far, it's been par for the course with Microsoft and that's why gamers have been so against this acquisition. Tango Gameworks is the beginning. You think Microsoft wants to pay to keep small timers like Ninja Theory in business?

There is absolutely zero evidence to suggest that Microsoft will improve any of these studios, but plenty to suggest that they will get rid of what they don't need and hold onto the IP. The real agenda of the acquisition was always to acquire The Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Fallout, Call of Duty, Candy Crush etc. that will create millions in passive revenue stream for Microsoft regardless of where the games release. Microsoft simply wants their cut.

Because of Games Pass Microsoft has no interest in investing in new IP which is risky and requires creative talent they can neither nurture nor manage. Game Pass has also not grown in the way Microsoft expected it to, even post acquisitions. Therefore the logical thing to do, without serious money makers to release, is to cut as much cost as possible.

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100°

Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider pours scorn on EA's AI dreams.

"They want you to believe the devs under them are super stoked to work generative AI into their processes," continued Gaider, "but I assure you what they took as excitement was really a veiled wail of despair not unlike the time that team was informed of their new 'really cool' live service mandate.".

LordoftheCritics3d ago

Publishers see gaming as another stock market.

isarai3d ago

I think anyone with some common sense knew this, im glad i don't support their games anymore, what a sh!t company.

Psychonaut852d ago

Friends don’t let friends buy EA or Ubisoft.

Chocoburger2d ago

I said this yesterday. AI isn't what we want when it comes to crafting artistry. Alas, these soulless corporate morons don't care about their work, only about cutting corners as much as possible.

120°

Phil Spencer and the Battle for Xbox’s Soul

Has the rapid growth of Xbox made the ship too heavy? Following the closures of Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, and Roundhouse, we explore what the future of Xbox could look like.

LG_Fox_Brazil3d ago

This ship was never meant to sail, this ship was made from the get go to sink as fast as possible. It almost feels that they want to lower the standards of quality in the industry so that they can fit in

rlow12d ago

I disagree, Xbox from the get go innovated and changed the industry. They did a lot of firsts and standardized a lot of others. It wasn’t till the beginning of the Xbox1 era that things started to go south.

Stevonidas2d ago

Yep, although I’d argue it started going to shit when they tried to hock Kinect on their audience instead of continuing to invest in their studios and IPs. 2001-2010 Xbox was peak gaming, though.

rlow12d ago

@Stevonidas
I agree they never should have focused on it after the 360 era. But you do have to remember they were faked out by the huge volumes of Kinects sold. To quote info on Wikipedia, “Project Natal, It was first released on November 4, 2010, and would go on to sell eight million units in its first 60 days of availability.” So if your Xbox and see these huge sales on a peripheral where are you going to put some money? Criticism in hindsight is worthless…..if only we could all see our future. In other wards they had no way of knowing. Plus they had engagement numbers and a lot of signs pointed to people wanting it.

Their biggest mistake wasn’t the Kinect, but unlike Sony after the PS3 debacle. They didn’t double on down on exclusive good games. The other huge mistake was letting Call of Duty go to Sony.

Hedstrom2d ago

Phil wants Xbox to be as soulless as him!

Tacoboto2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

Xbox has no soul and Phil has no confidence, and it's impossible to say either do when they killed Tango and Arkane Austin.

Everything they've said since has only made them look worse to a point that they're actually less competent than Embracer.

Markdn2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

Whe you release something like the series S and expect it not to hurt your business model, and developers have to have parity with games. Then you know Microsoft don't care. Series s is the final nail that broke developers,

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