Like It or Not, Porn Still Drives the Bus

It’s no accident that the Adult Entertainment Expo and Consumer Electronics Show are always held on the same week in Las Vegas. The adult video industry was largely made possible by the introduction of the VCR, and the production and distribution of erotic content has always been on the leading edge of technology since the invention of photography. Two reports this week highlight how pornography is still a major force in media.

And don’t worry, all the links are work-safe!

First, in what could be an early indication of who has won the hi-def DVD format wars, Aaron McKenna’s report for TG Daily involved canvassing the folks over at the AVN trade show as to which format they’ve decided on — and it’s HD-DVD in a landslide, thanks to cheaper production and wider adoption than BluRay. If Sony loses this one, I wonder if they’ll even be around for whatever the next format war is twenty years from now.

And in the “Who didn’t see this one a mile away” department, some Dallas parents are shocked – shocked! – that the new Wii browser allows dirty, dirty porn pixels to invade the family television set. (Come to think of it, that might have spiced up our recent contest a bit.) Nintendo, who have cultivated an image of providing innocent fun, might have tried being a little more forward in promoting the Wii’s parental controls.

The report also seems to have pulled a quote from a randy commenter on Kotaku, attributing it to a “child.” Instead, it’s an adult that shares the sentiment I’ve discussed with many a friend — the vibrating, motion-sensitive controller combined with a web browser has, ahem, great potential. But no one has suggested that they’ll give it the responsibility of raising their children, too.