Michael Bay on Warner Going Blu

Director Michael Bay posted this message on the Official Michael Bay forums:

"Well another studio down. Maybe I was right? Blu ray is just better. HD will die a slow death. It's what I predicted a year ago. Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray. That makes it easier for Wal-Mart to push Blu Ray. And whatever Wal-Mart pushes - wins. Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!"

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

"I do blu, what about you?"

[TheTwelve]

Michael Bay's not Christ but he speaks the gospel!

Give this man credit for keeping it real.

12

[HeartlesskizZ]

he is so open minded and I find his comments always honest and to the point =D

[n_n]

good call Micheal... i'm sorry, even though i love Transformers the Movie, i bought it used on DVD because of the Paramount news... once it goes Blu you & Paramount will see my $.. this goes with Dreamworks films... so once Transformers goes Blu i'll snatch that and even donate to your Make-A-Wish... deal?

[Guwapo77]

When Transformers came out in the movies, I was thinking man I can't wait till I see it on Blu-ray. But then that little Xbox robot that transformed...I was like oh hell naw...its going to HD-DVD. So I thought he was a huge fan of HD-DVD but I see I couldn't have been more wrong.

[Lifendz]

PS3 FTW!

[BrianC6234]

Way to go Michael Bay. Tell it like it is. HD DVD isn't needed. Blu-ray does enough and is bigger. No matter what Toshiba does with HD DVD Blu-ray can match it and be better. Double the size, so can Blu-ray.

[Shadow Flare]

"Bumblebee, stop leaking lubricant all over HD-DVD"

[resistance100]

lol classic bubble up

[jorellpogi]

Optimus Prime - "Bumblebee, stop leaking lubricant all over HD-DVD"
Bumblebee - "But they deserved it?"
Optimus Prime - "Okay, pour some gasoline and light them up then!"
Bumblebee - "Aye aye Sir!"

[MaximusPrime]

*Watches and laughs*

[whoelse]

Well said Michael :D

[MK_Red]

"Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!"
Classic :)
BTW, I absolutly hate Transformers movie and even though I like Bay and his cause, but his works after Pearl Harbor are just terrible. Heck, The Rock and Armageddon are his only good films IMO and good only in a fun cheesy way.

[Shadow Flare]

ah cmon MK, transformers is well good! We all have our own tastes but, "Judging by the boy's pheremone levels, i suggest he wants to mate with the girl". Yeah?! Aw cmon, its a brilliant film

[RadientFlux]

I think Micheal Bay is a hack, but the masses love his "explosion every minute" movies. I'd take a movie like "No Country for Old Men" over "Transformers" any day.

[perseus]

Transformers wasn't that bad. At least it was more historically accurate than Pearl Harbor.

[TheTwelve]

I loved the Transformers movie and was crushed when Paramount switched. I was really looking forward to it on Blu. As Bay said...it's coming soon!

12

[Bathyj]

Ha, I complained to the manager of my local VideoEzy store. (Shes a ditsy blonde friend of mine). They had Pearl Harbour in True Stories. She said "What? I thought Pearl Harbour really happened".

I just laughed at her.

EDIT.
How the fuk did I get a disagree? Were you there arsehole?

[Neurotoxin]

Agree with your MK_Red Transformers was indeed a complete let down, not sure who was to blame for the travesty of the film it was but they completely ruined what could have been every 80`s child`s dream. To much Cheese and not enough dialogue between the actual robots which made it the series what it was in the 80`s. I think the last 20 minutes was really good, when you cut the pointless US marines out and actually have the robots kicking the hell out of each other. Should have just remade the 80`s Film in a Live Action Remake, now that would have been good ;).

..... Of course cutting Hot-Rod completely out this time around..

[MK_Red]

Neurotoxin, exactly. Anyone who has seen the 80s classic series knows that the new movie looks like an Uwe Boll film compared to that. First, Robots do nothing a stupid human child is the one who saves the world. Second, Autobots are all stupid and comic characters in new film. Megan Fox can't act and dialogues are terrible. Plus, what's the point of transferring the Cube to the chopper when any of the Decepticons can destroy it in moments.
And seriously, Optimus owning his lfe to a small human child!! WTF!??

And indeed, where the heck was Hot Rod? (Not to mention many other legendary characters. Plus, in the Bay movie, BlackOut forgot to use the powers he had in the intro scene... why?).
The only good thing about Bay's movie is explosions and it's special FX but then aside from a few cool Robot on Robot action scenes, what new thing Transformers had to offer?

[Neurotoxin]

All points agreed. And the fact they made Jazz a midget and killed him is unbelievable. Frank Welker should have voiced Megatron and all human scenes should have been way shorter. Whoever thought up the idea of this Bloody All-Spark Cube thing should have been battered with bamboo sticks.

.... Story should have been this, a winning formula.

Autobots & Decepticons Crash land on earth millions of years ago, then reawaken in present day, Autobots have to stop Decepticons Destroying the Earth.... Bring on the massive city destruction, robots kicking the sh*t out of each other, with the occasional stupid human line that is swept away by some better transformer idea. Simple...

....But as always appealing to the children, much like the recent Star-Wars prequels (which were indeed Shiite), is all studios want to do. Bloody Peasants.

I Know Bay`s a big Transformers fan, but something tells me the film was manipulated by the studios to be the Crap Fest it was. Maybe he will redeem the Franchise in the sequel. We want dino-bots ;)

[MaximusPrime]

@4.3:

LMAO, good one ;)

[shysun]

I loved Transformers much more than SM3/POTC3/SRK3rd... me and my kids watch it all the time. When it comes out for BD I'll buy it again!

[TwissT]

Mk even though the 80's classic was better than the action movie due to more better dialogue, there where tons of mistakes in that cartoon movie. DIDN'T ANYONE NOTICE OPTIMUS' TRAILER WOULD COME FROM NO WHERE?
and there was some greediness behind the scenes, because most of the reasons why tons of the transformers died was because there toy line was being discontinued. *thinks of Ironhide dying and crys* Personnaly I liked the human side of things it was ment to attract non-transformer fans and from the looks of the critical reception it looked like it did.

[monkey602]

For the first time ever I completely disagree with MK_RED I loved Transformers. Mostly because I wasnt a fan of the old cartoon series though and this movie came as a surprisingly good shock to me.

[MK_Red]

Well, we all have our own opinions and maybe I'm too obsessed with the old series :)
lol, good one TwissT on Optimus' trailer in old series. That's the only thing I didn't like about the classic series.

monkey602, we can always agree to disagree :)

[Andronix]

I have to say I knew he would like this news. It shows that big shot Hollywood movie directors can take the format wars quite seriously too!

"Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!"

[Mercutio]

I ask you.

[Robotz Rule]

Blu-Ray FTMFW!:D

[Yoma]

Woho :D

[kg7310]

Ive always wanted transformers on blu ray!
and I couldnt afford a HD DVD player its just worthless ....

[coltsfreak18]

"and I couldnt afford a HD DVD player its just worthless ...."
and you can afford a ps3 (i assume). i know where you are going, considering the ps3s have so much in them, but hddvd players aren't exactly expensive?

[Salvadore]

ROFL..

[Bathyj]

I love a celebrity who rants like a normal guy.

[MrSwede]

That's exactly what I think is cool about this too! And he must know that what he posts on his forum will end up on news sites all over, which makes it even cooler.

[Devr]

"Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up"

Wow. Zing!

[vloeistof]

yeah transformers 2 xmas 2009 on blu.

the dark knight is blu !!!!!!

[NoxiousD]

LOL omfg this is hilarious. But, he was always pro Blu. He tried to stop Transformers from going to HD DVD and has tried countless times to get it on Blu Ray. LOL. That is what he owns actually it was on his website going to try to find the blog. I want my transformers on blu ray i been waiting so has others! remember this is not a flame war on microsoft just HD DVD "How hard can it die?" thats the question!

[sak500]

I dint have to buy HD addon to watch transformers in HD. I d/l it, all 7+gb of it. Btw, ur ps3 wont play it.

[m9105826]

It will if you a.) convert it or b.) author an actual dual-layer DVD.

[rofldings]

Really? I dl'd tons of HD movies and shows that play directly from the PS3. (No need to stream or hook up sh!t via USB like the 360 ;))

[DJ]

That's a pretty tall order. I just put normal Divx content on my PS3's hard drive, and the HD content is almost purely Blu-ray titles. I say almost since I get the HD Trailers for games/movies off of PSN.

[ITR]

Wow, MB sounds like he's 16 and is a blu fanboy.
I'm glad my boy GL doesn't talk like that.

If it all goes blu...I wonder if all the Tosh machines can be firmware updated to read BD discs. If so that would be killer for current end users.

[m9105826]

Not a chance. It uses the wrong kind of laser diode.

[EZCheez]

Definitely not possible.

[THE_JUDGE]

Mike knows what he's talking about. I'm not buying any Paramount til they go blu and when they do Transformers will be at or near the top for me.

[prowiew]

What Michael Bay is doing is winning a lot of enemies if he continues to say things like that. BTW I loved transformers.

[Raptors]

Exactly. I don't understand why he has to sound so immature about it...If he was saying the same thing but about HD DVD you guys would say all sorts of things about the guy. I have no problems with him preferring blu ray. Heck I have a ps3 so Id love to see Transformers on Blu Ray. However, at the end of the day he is a professional and should come across that way.

[CrazzyMan]

Choising WINNING format is OK and LOGICAL - as WB did.
Choising LOSING format is only you preference, but nothing great.

Btw, if he likes blu-ray, why he must say, that he loves hd-dvd? just because company, where he works decided to supprot format, which would never win?
He was against paramount moving to hd dvd camp. Then what problems with you guys?

[GaMr-]

Pwnded by this Rant/ you go Mr. Bay. No bribes over here. Now if only we can get that message through to biased websites. Gamespot anyone?

[lucas107]

can anyone tell me why blu ray is better? i hear a lot of people say it but noone actually know why. last i heard hd-dvd players had more options and were pretty much the only stand alone players that could be updated very easy via internet. other then the storage of blue ray being slightly more which really isnt all that necessary can anyone tell me why blu ray is leaps and bounds better or is storage all ya got?

[season007]

like, emm slightly more storage?

[Guwapo77]

Its all about the storage size my friend. At this point Blu-ray pretty much matches everything HD-DAVID does as features since last month's release of Profile 1.1 from the Blu camp. Prior to that, Red team had them beat on features.

But the biggest feature of them all, storage.

Blu = 25gig per layer
HD-DAVID = 15gig per layer (rumor has it that some players weren't compatible with 51gig disk)

As you may already know, each layer added to a disk increases in production costs.

Another thing, the standalone player thing wasn't created until this format war. Never before being a standalone player mattered. So it was HD-DAVID way of spinning the facts saying HD-DAVID sold more than Blu-ray and suckerd folks to buy it not knowing they were being outsold by millions (the average consumer, not those with tech background).

[prowiew]

For all the crying xbox fanboys who will not buy a ps3 or a blu ray player no matter what, I recomend a dvd player that upscales to 1080p. You will be amazed by the little difference there is between dvd and the hd formats. They are cheaper and play divx. Buy that until blu ray become mainstream in 2011 maybe.

[sak500]

My friend 360 is already doing it quite well. It plays xvid/divx files perfectly (the newer versions that is) plus it plays HD divx/xvids as well. The quality is great. I can either stream it over teh network or copy it on a usb and watch on my 360. Now considering picking up external hdd for this very purpose.

Edit: Sonyturds cannot digest this and thus the disagrees

[prowiew]

Thats true. Im just saying. I got one and is awesome how the dvds looks.

[aiphanes]

I have both and i never, ever watch a DVD on the xbox 360 because the picture quality sucks. On the PS3...any dvd will upscale to 1080p and the video is so awesome. This has been know for a long time. The Xbots just don't what you to know about it.
DVD playback on the PS3 is awesome. Sony put its heart and soul into the PS3 hardware. There was a firmware update last year that allowed 1080p upscalling to all DVDs...and sony says they can get the upscalling even better. They are using the cell for processing.

In about a year all HD discs will be bluray..so it won't matter...but at least all your DVD discs will look awesome in 1080p on the PS3..

[Lumbo]

Sorry, but upscaled DVD is not even close to HD content (regardless if HD-DVD or BluRay). You can not "magically" add details to a DVD that are not present in the video material. What you will get from upscaled DVD is the same picture as on SD, magnified to HD rez+smoothed and antialiased.

I fail to see the point in taking HD material and then reduce it to SD quality via DivX-ing it at such low bitrates. Macroblocking all over the place and detail lost everywhere. Why not simply buy the cheap DVD instead?

The only reason for upscaling DVD players is that cheap panels have bad upscalers aka only magnify the picture to the full screen with pixelmultiply. Buy a good HD-TV and you will see that upscaling players look not a iota better than the upscaling of the TV.

[riksweeney]

>Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!

I give it six months

[tatotiburon]

I love Transformers but i'm looking forward to STAR WARS SAGA, c'mon George give us the good news so i can buy a PS3.

[TwissT]

I would love to see the Star Wars Saga in Blu-ray that would be soo awesome *geeks out*

[TwissT]

It just sucks Michael Bay didn't choose to be on the losing side, he was forced by his greedy movie studio Paramount lol.

[Ital50Stal]

So tell me people, why is Blu Ray superior? quality? nope, same...disc size doesnt matter (right now for the moment)...the only advantage to size is blu ray has uncompressed audio but on the other hand, doesnt a standard dvd still have great audio with its tiny 4.7gb?

I still see hd and blu ray being the same crap...I want HD to win because i have the add on for 360 already lol and it sounds better sayin "hd dvd" rather than "Blu Gay disc"...but Blu Ray will probably win so i gotta wait for gran turismo 5 to come out so i have a reason to buy a PS3 :)

[Ridrick]

Disk size does matter.

[Caliber]

What do you mean "disc size doesnt matter"? Is that why the HD-DVD version of Alexander had to be split into 2 disks since they couldn't fit the entire movie on one disk?
Having to change disks in the middle of a movie is not "next gen"

[Ital50Stal]

Just to add to my comment above...from the looks of it, Michael Bay had a 3 way with ceo's from sony & GM ...Transformers was a huge ad for GM with a side plot movie somewhere in there.
Transformers lost its roots, it was just another big budget flopper...

[Chaos Striker]

It had a budget of $151 million and grossed $706 million. I highly doubt that it was a flop. (Info from Wikipedia)

[Spydiggity]

The movie was still trash. Just like spider man 3. people love to go see over hyped movies regardless of story and acting.

[Ital50Stal]

Spydiggity, good comment...Just becuz something made alot of money doesnt mean its good...IE Halo 3 (this coming from an xbot)

[eagle21]

Win.

[unlimited]

yup blu ray is unstoppable..

[Ital50Stal]

Ill only give credit to Steven Speilberg on your list cuz only his movies are always good and they dont have insanely high budget and 90% CGI to help him out unlike that POS Michael Bay...George Lucas couldnt come up with a new idea unless it skeeted him in the face (how many times has star wars been released?..god damn!)
And WTF is Roger Ebert on any list for, that idiot doesnt believe gaming is art?...im sure he's never seen Mass Effect, BioShock..and even Uncharted..did i miss anything? He shouldnt have an opinion with anything.

[HarryEtTubMan]

sweet.. just more fun things to put in my PS3... but I'm relaly looking forward to the 2008 and 2009 games(and the next 7 years after that!)

[unlimited]

I love it when he says transformer is coming to blu ray soon!!

[chfthnder26]

i just lost a lot of respect for that guy cuz he should be a little bir more professional instead of sounding like some punk as* fanboy

[ScottEFresh]

I'm sorry did you just call The Rock movie cheesy? I will fight you right now.

[SupraDOHC]

Bubbles for making me laugh

[wangdiddy82]

They even have movie directors that have movies exclusively out on there product hating on them.. ouch..

BLu ray just dropped a BOMB on the hd dvd camp.. Just throw in the damn towel.. I need universal and paramount back on blu ray..

[retro]

I don't know what rides this cowboy? Bay is an uninformed by-stander at best in the format war.

Warner got $500.000.000 from BDA for the switch and I really don't care - DVDs rule for the next 5 to 10 years anyways and then I'll switch to digital downloads.

HD DVD is effectively dead and Blu-ray will go LaserDisc.

[aiphanes]

DVDs will be around for a while...but bluray will take over in 2 years...digital distribution will not be viable will 5 to 10 years from now...by then bluray discs will be up to 200 GBs...they will be able to encode at the max bit rate and be able to put everything into the movie.

DVDs are old tech...all game machines will be bluray based in the next generation even the wii 2.

Digital Distribtution will complement disk based media...people still want to go to the store and buy their movies at best buy and walmart.

Xbox live crashed over the hollidays because it had too many users trying to use the system. What is going to happen when you have 6 million people downloading a 15 GB HD movie file at the same time when transformers 3 comes out? Also the US has one of the worst average broadband data rates in the world. For Digital Distribution to work...everybody will need at least a 50 meg pipe...the avg is less than 1.5 megs now.

[Ital50Stal]

aiphanes, how did retro lose? was there some kinda competition he was involved in? blu ray vs retro..some n4g user

you are an idiot...nobody in here lost anything..if blu ray wins the war, ill still get up in the morning and go 2 work...same as if HD won...why make this into a competition?
This all had to do with multi million dollar companies fighting over who will take more of your money..not which one will be working to serve you...think

[retro]

Haha, no I'm certainly not bitter, BTW I already own a Blu-ray player.

I don't see why HD DVD or Blu-ray are the next-gen-formats. Yes, they've got more storage, not bad... but that's all about it? C'mon!

What I really like about Blu-ray is the extra hard layer applied to the surface of the disc which makes it more robust against scratches and dust than DVDs.

But can Blu-ray or HD DVD really compete with digital downloads? I guess not.
1998 I had 56kbit
2001 I had 512kbit
2003 I had 1,5mbit
2004 I had 2mbit
2007 I have now 6mbit (could have max. 16mbit)

What do you think will be in 5 years?

It took DVDs almost 10 years to compete with a extremely inferiour VHS system, how long do you think will the transition from DVD od HD-formats be? My guess is that DVDs will be around for a very veeery long time.

I'm simply playing the waiting game until I get what I want, and that is max. $10 movies on a disc-medium or downloads without DRM crap.

[CrazzyMan]

you had 2 mbit for 3 years, what makes you think, that you won`t have 6mbit for next 3 years?

by the way WHY you didn`t go for 16mbit? and when you are planning then to go?

also, 20 BD discs takes as much place as 1 book. And around 500GB.
You know, people LIKE to have a COLLECTION. MANY people collect something.
BD will be here for next 10 years. Deal with that.

40BD = 1TB, 40 discs, which i can play anytime, and i DON`T need to wait 6 hours till the movie will download.
even 1TB discs will be in EVERY house only after 5 years in best case.
go to any dc++ hub, and you will see that 80% of people shared less then 100GB.

DVD will be here for next 3-5 years atleast.
BD already here for next 5 years atleast.

[Spydiggity]

who cares about the opinion of this I-told-you-so HACK?!?

the movie world would be a much better place without Michael Bay.

[wangdiddy82]

That will take sometime for consumers to get use to.. I for one like to go out to a store like best buy and buy my product.. Its more fun.. lol.. Rather than sit home and download it... Isnt that what digital distribution is???

[retro]

You have a valid point, but how many people buy BMV (books, music, videos) at Amazon.com now?

There still are a lot of shopping related experiences and psychological things that will keep "physical shopping" always a factor.

But just look at iTunes... and its success. People will switch to such services in a matter of seconds if the service is good (no hassles, no DRM crap) and the price is right (cheap).

[Samer305]

LOL did he just say transformers will come out on blu-ray one day.Hahahahah

[DJ]

Great to see him confirm that Transformers is coming out on Blu-ray...eventually. I'm still holding off from getting the DVD version simply because of that.

[sonyfanonly]

how many times does it got to be said blu ray is the supperior format and most popular

[aba]

michael bay is a joke.

[wallace1000]

Transformers is one of the reasons i bought an HD DVD player in the first place. I just hope that it comes to blu-ray, so that i can get it when i buy an blu-ray player. That is one fantastic movie.

[pshizle]

bluray fanboy and has nothing to back it up why is it 1000x better than hddvd

[DJ]

Both formats support the same video/audio codecs, but Blu-ray offers better disc protection (Durabis Technology) and vastly more storage space, which equals higher quality audio and video compared to HD-DVD titles.

Even movie studios prefer Blu-ray due to its lower manufacturing costs compared to HD-DVD. Per layer, the cost is nearly identical. But since it takes a Dual-layer HD-DVD to match a Single-layer Blu-ray disc, it's obvious that storage capacity does have a hand in production costs.

[Tyrael]

I think this Michael Bay quote is about as significant as Paris Hilton's opinions on politics. You get paid to make movies, now quit being a whiny fanboy and get back to work before South Park makes fun of you again.

[pshizle]

im sure there are things that hddvd have that bluray doesnt and vice versa

i just hate when people say bluray is like god and is 1000x better than hddvd

the sad thing is i have an hddvd player and its great...now since WB is gone is basically over unless toshiba pull it out of their a$$ and hddvd is still alive

all my favorite movies are from WB =(

[DJ]

Durabis Coating and Storage Capacity are the only differences. And yeah, I just noticed that half of my Blu-ray movies are from Warner Bros. They make a lot of good movies, so go figure.

[wallace1000]

Warner do make a load of sweet movies. That is why this move is so devastating for HD DVD. 3 of the 4 HD DVDs i returned were Warner. They are the one studio that alone can and have decided the format war.

[KidMakeshift]

Michael Bay "it needs more explosions"

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

It's nice to see fanboyism reach such hights. Go Bay Go!

[unlimited]

I know this might be so difficult for HDDVD owners hearing this from him.A lot of them is either returning it to the store they purchase at or go selling it on ebay.They always told me transformers wont come to blu ray but now look what happen !!

[lawgone]

"Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray."
Hmm, I'm not sure what that one means. Maybe he's just a better director than writer.

[Led Zeppelin]

Regardless of his stance on Blu ray, he isn't a good director. Transformers is his only good one...IMO

[DJ]

The Island or Bad Boys 2?? I gotta agree that Pearl Harbor and Armageddon had horrible scripts though. To this day, I think the only reason he signed to those two movies is because he said to himself "I could make some damn good action scenes."

I think the time he spent with Spielberg helped him realize how important characters are though.

[lawgone]

I agree...I was trying to be nice. The Rock was decent but Armageddon and Pearl Harbor were horrible. Although I purchased Transformers I haven't watched it yet.

[name]

Wouldn't digital downloads basically be piracyville? That's just like when people have ipods, they download them the same way as people who steal music. So people just steal music. You'd think Microsoft learned that from their PC division, I guess not.

[ForROME]

Thank God, HD DVD just die already ive been saying it for a year, its over.

[jomigirock]

Blu Ray FTW! we all knew this would happen but Michael Christ over here think it's because of his talentless movies he makes. Transformers is the only good Michael Bay film trust me I am a film student ;)
j/k

[ephoenix6]

I like this guy