Some of you were surprised to hear that even though Sony's Blu-ray format was the only high-definition format available in 2008, it still struggled as consumers elected to continue purchasing DVDs.
All of this turmoil has led to many rumors that Blu-ray and BD-Live are dying formats, but that seems rather unlikely, analysts say, as there is a lot of hope and anticipation that things will finally begin picking up.
Thus far, BD-Live has left many Blu-ray movie owners disappointed, but movie studios are finally prepared to promote the technology properly in the future. For example, Lionsgate will open Lionsgate Live, a new BD-Live portal that will give movie owners access to interactive games, filmmaker chats, ringtones, bonus features, and more.
"In our process to create this portal, using focus groups and grassroots research, we found that BD Live is in a very new stage," Lionsgate VP of DVD/Blu-ray Disc production recently said. "If the initial experience with a feature wasn't immediately intuitive to people, they'd just move on. Users weren't saying they didn't like BD Live, because uber-fans want to get close to the films they love. But it just needs to be easy and fast.”
Lionsgate Live will launch sometime in 2009.
Other movie studios are interested in removing -- or at least delaying -- registration, so owners have the ability to better acquaint themselves with BD-Live features. It will be interesting too see how Blu-ray and BD-Live develop in 2009, as more consumers are aware of the format, even if they aren't ready to adopt the high-definition format just yet.
