Sony: Blu-Ray Prices Won't Drop Below $400

Blu-ray proponent Sony had an interesting response to the latest salvo in the HD disc price war: Toshiba's $99 HD DVD player, on sale at Best Buy and Wal-Mart starting today (while supplies last, as they say). The consumer tech giant has apparently decided to hunker down, and keep its prices in the stratosphere.

In an interview on Thursday, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said the company's Blu-ray player prices will fall about 20 percent come the holiday season...to a rock-bottom of about $400, compared to the $200-and-cheaper HD DVD players that have been cropping up in stores.

TVPredictions.com reports that Glasgow seemed confident that consumers will ignore the massive price differential and go the Blu-ray way. "Hopefully when all the (movie) titles reach the market this season and the beginning of 2008, (consumers) will see the (difference) in performance," Glasgow said, according to the TVPredictions story.

It sounds like Sony's strategy is to take the high road—high as in price, mind you—and cast HD DVD as the bargain-basement alternative. That's one way to go, all right, but it may well lead to Blu-ray (and Sony) losing this format war.

Meanwhile, the best bargain for Blu-ray shoppers remains, as always, a PlayStation 3. The new 40GB, $400 PS3 goes on sale today; no backward-compatibility with PS2 games, but at least you'll be able to play some next-gen games in addition to watching the lackluster Spider-Man 3 in HD.

Related:
Blu-Ray Price to Drop 20%, Sony Executive Says [Bloomberg News]
Shocker! $99 Toshiba HD DVD Players at Best Buy, Wal-Mart [Yahoo! Tech]
Sony: $399 Blu-ray Player; That's All, Folks [TVPredictions.com]