Sony Pushes Back Blu-ray Titles One Month

Sony Pictures has delayed the release of its first Blu-ray movie titles by one month to allow time for Samsung to get its Blu-ray players to market.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feinhold said today that his company’s first Blu-ray movie titles are ready to be released May 23, as promised, but the company is going to delay release until June 20 to better coincide with the availability of the Blu-ray players.

Samsung previously announced its Blu-ray players would be delayed until June 25 in order to compete compatibility testing.

The move is an attempt to make Blu-ray’s launch more coordinated than the awkward roll-out of Toshiba’s competing HD DVD next-generation disk format, which saw limited availability of HD DVD players before HD DVD titles were available.

Sony’s first Blu-ray titles are scheduled to include action flicks designed to appeal to the early-adopter, tech-centered crowd: Underworld Evolution (scheduled to release in Blu-ray the same day as standard DVD), The Fifth Element,House of Flying Daggers,A Knight’s Tale,Resident Evil Apocalypse, and XXX, plus comedies Hitch and 50 First Dates and music flick The Last Waltz.