I Can't Believe Blu-Ray Prices Have Gone Up!

Breaking News! Blu-Ray player prices have gone up with the lack of a competitive format on the market! The public is shocked and appalled, cries of anger are ringing out and the gnashing of teeth has commenced. The people simply can't believe that a monopolistic rule over the next-generation storage format would also mean that a tyrannical rule over pricing on the drives.

In a scenario that really should not surprise anyone, the price of Blu-Ray players has increased in the weeks following the demise of HD DVD. There is really only one valid reason for this and many, many invalid and anti-consumer reasons for this. The only excuse I can give to these manufacturers is that developing and marketing Blu-Ray cost a huge amount of money, and as with all new tech, the early adopters are the ones that pay the fee for that development and help the companies recoup their costs. Every other reason is simply abuse of the market.

This is what we wanted, after all, right? The end of the format war? People whined and cried about the battle and said that they were ready for one format to rule the next 5-10 years of their physical media. And that's what we've been given. Please note that Sony's iron-grip on all things Sony won't make this part of the transition any easier. We just have to hope that the other members of the Blu-Ray Consortium step up to the plate with competitive pricing models and refrain from that ever-so-tempting corporate collusion that US Attorney Generals are so fond of letting slide...

Blu Ray Players Hit 2008 Highs As Competition Dwindles [Tom's Hardware]
[via: Engadget]