Sony does not want a DVD Format War

Sony just announced that it is open to the idea of having a single standard for the next generation of DVD discs. At this moment, Sony and Toshiba have formed two camps with the Blu-Ray standard for Sony and HD-DVD for Toshiba. Both are backed by major partners.

It is only recently that Sony realized that its traditional approach of using only proprietary formats is an obsolete way of doing business. In the past, Sony has been very good at creating a “Sony economy” where consumers wanted everything Sony. However, this time has long gone. Now consumers are savvier and the competitive landscape has dramatically changed.

Sony does not have the technology lead that it used to and the last thing that it wants is to engage in a standard war that it might not win. It has hapenned before: remember the VHS versus Betamax battle? Sony lost, although Betamax was better. Ken Kutaragi, the “father of the playstation” might have won after all: he wanted Sony to be more open and this might just be happening.