After some harsh words about Paramount selecting HD DVD over Blu-ray back in August, and then retracting them the next day, Michael Bay is at it again. In an interview with USA Today he dropped bombs like “It’s a good DVD. But not as good as it could have been”, in reference to the new Transformers DVD, and he still seems to prefer Blu-ray in the format war:
“It’s short-sighted and it has delayed consumers’ moving to HD (home video),” he says. “As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is. Consumers are smart, and they are going to wait it out.”
Transformers sold a record 100,000 copies on HD DVD in its first day of release, and 190,000 for the first week – a record for a film on either of the HD disc formats. But not a record for the most sold – 300, which was released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, sold over 250,00 copies combined in its first week. Since Blu-ray continues to outsell HD DVD 2:1, one has to wonder just how many high-def copies Paramount could’ve sold if they hadn’t abandoned their dual-format stance. I bet they would’ve broken the 500,000 mark, especially since it is exactly the kind of film that would appeal to many of the PS3 owners out there. (Picked up from Format War Central.)
And, on the topic of Blu-ray sales, it has outsold HD DVD for the first nine months of 2007 by a margin of nearly 2:1. From January 1 through September 30, Blu-ray sold 2.6 million units to HD DVD’s 1.4 million.
