Sony prepping hybrid Blu-ray movie/game discs
PS3 maker plans to offer two to three titles that include both feature-length film, interactive tie-in this year.
Sony is facing an intense uphill battle if it hopes to catch up to its rivals in the current-generation console sales race. Hamstrung by a dour global economy, the $399-$499 PlayStation 3 is consistently outpaced month to month by Microsoft's Xbox 360, the cheapest of which sells for $199. And that's to say nothing of Nintendo's market-dominating $250 Wii, which has outsold the PS3 45 million units to 21 million through December 2008, despite the fact that both consoles have been on the market for a comparable period of time.
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Sony isn't without an ace up its sleeve, however. From its inception, the PS3 has been marketed as much as a high-definition Blu-ray Disc media player as a gaming machine. By the end of the year, Sony will begin to better synergize the two defining elements of its system by releasing discs that contain both a Blu-ray movie and a game, reports Video Business.
"We are actively pushing, and the way that we see the future is that the movie and the game are placed on the same disc," John Koller, director of hardware marketing for the PS3, told Video Business. "There are a lot of developers who say, we have this game based on a movie, wouldn't it be great to marry these concepts? We will definitely see this stuff this year."
Video Business reports that details on the initiative have yet to be ironed out. As it currently stands, Sony reportedly plans to offer an entire movie on the same disc as a PS3 game. PSPs would also factor into the proceedings, as gamers could transfer and then watch the film on their handhelds. Sony expects two to three titles to ship using the hybrid method this year.
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