First HD-DVD now Blu-ray...

In a story from The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Corp is lowering the price of their new BDP-S300 Blu-ray player from $599 to $499.

According to the story, this "new player costs half of what the company's first Blu-ray player cost when it launched just six months ago -- probably one of the fastest price declines in the consumer electronics industry."

The BDP-S300 has about the same features as the original player, the BDP-S1, but the new player is smaller.

Sony cites "falling production costs and the growing demand for Blu-ray products," as the reason for the price decline.

It probably also has something to do with "Toshiba, which created the rival HD-DVD format. Its players are now selling for less than $300, 14 months after Toshiba's first player appeared in U.S. stores."

However, mainstream consumers still seem to be holding out for an ultimate victor in the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Currently, Blu-ray has the most support from the major studios.

Lastly, it seems that the majority of the people "buying Blu-ray discs are apparently buying them for their Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles."