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Leaked Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailerOver the last two months we have witnessed certain events within the high definition market shifting in favour of Sony’s Blu-ray format, painting a rather bleak picture for Toshiba's competing HD-DVD technology. Many have since questioned whether or not the final nail is in the coffin, so to speak.
With this in mind, PSU takes the opportunity to examine the hard facts in the on-going format war from the past few months, and provide a handy summary of key events, which should hopefully allow you to make up your own mind on the outcome of this crucial battle.
The hardest blow to the format came during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, when Warner Bros. Entertainment, along with subsidiary studio New Line Cinemas, announced that they would become Blu-ray exclusive, giving Blu-ray a majority in movie studio support.
"Warner Bros move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros.
“The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers,” said Meyer.
With this move, HD-DVD was only left with Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, and Weinstein Company where as Blu-ray now with over 20 studios exclusively supporting them. Consumers who are looking to purchase either player may want to look at what movies will be only available to each.
People can find such films as Transformers, King Kong, The Bourne series, Shrek, and upcoming films like American Gangster, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Kung Fu Panda on HD-DVD. For those interested in Blu-ray, you’ll be treated to such films as Cars, Ratatouille, Casino Royale (James Bond), Saw, Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, and Spiderman Trilogy. Additionally, some upcoming films exclusively for Blu-ray include; We Own the Night, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, National Treasure 1&2, and for anime fans, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.
Outside of film studios HD-DVD has also been losing support with retail stores. In June 2007, Matthew Smith, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at Blockbuster announced to the Associated Press that Blockbuster stores (1,450) will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format. In addition, UK retailer Woolsworth has also announced that they will move to selling Blu-ray only.
In an interview with CNN, Stephen Pope, Chief Global Market Strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe stated that Walmart would be selling Blu-ray players exclusively in store. “Walmart said physically in our stores, we’re only going to sell Blu-ray players.
“You can get the high definition player [HD DVD] if you shop online with Walmart, but if it’s in the store, just Blu-ray,” Pope said.
Now even though the HD-DVD player is cheaper, some say it’s only a desperate move to stay in the game. Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, made a statement calling the HD-DVD price cuts "useless resistance.”
In Jan. 2008, Hiroyuki Shimizu, Principal Research Analyst for Gartner in Japan stated that “Gartner believes that Toshiba's price-cutting may prolong HD DVD's life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format.”
"Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over," Shimizu said.
With Blu-ray vastly eclipsing HD-DVD in studio exclusivity, install base and consumer confidence, it's hard to remain optimistic for camp Toshiba as the high definition format war continues for the new year. Be sure to stick with PSU as we cover Blu-ray's on-going war with HD-DVD as 2008 gets underway.
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go bluray why cant they just end this crap and accept defeat
Oh my lanta.... The LOTR trilogy in high definition. That's something to live for. Once this format war is over(meaning once Blu-Ray wins) they should try and get movies like Star Wars in HD too
will this stupid hd-dvd resistance stop soon?, if i can't get transfomers on bd i'll just get it on dvd
Good to see "Playstation Universe" to stay neutral :P
Give it up HD-DVD
I guess they want to stay to till end so that they can chip some money off of some xbox fanboys
It's a great article, but why write it under the guies of a piece meant to help people "make up their own mind"? This is service to the people who've already made up their minds. That being said, though, who would buy HD-DVD now?
I hope this does not come out to be like the superbowl
*guise
Why dont Toshiba cut there losses and start making Blu-ray players. It would be a lot less embarasing surely?
Blu ray : Democratic.
HD-Dvd : Republican.
go away and die HD dvd, you're like a bad wind..
LOTR Trilogy and ff7: advent children, that's all i need to know. Now just waiting for starwars trilogy, hopefuly sooner than later.
They needed to tell us this all over again, why?
i bet toshiba are feeling a bit blu
i bet toshiba are feeling a bit blu
Why cant Toshiba just give in, can they not see whats going on around them, it must be obvious to them they are being beaten...unless they all sit in the dark with no outside contact. Anyone can see Blu-ray is ahead and will end up winning, why cant Toshiba just give up already!!!
psn id: gingo... toshiba are jus milking all they can from this dead format but sooner or later they will admit defeat and start making their own blu ray players
SPELL CHECK Justin Pinter.
I love the way you spell "oppertunity." (Paragraph 2)
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=920
Ha! They changed the feature's title! :P
HD-DVD's already dead. pfft.
Would have been interesting to see how this would have turned out if M$ had put a HD-DVD drive in the 360 from the begining. Could have been a totally different story, thankfully they didnt lol.
@Nosferatu
You're an idiot! Why don't you like BluRay?
Did anyone else laugh when they saw the lame HDDVD ad during the super bowl? It was so lame. and the timing coudn' have been worse for them. it was right after the halftime show and at my party, 6 out of the 8 people there had already left the room to load up on more food.
@ Nosferatu: I'll forgive you this once for trying to smear Blu-rays image. Please don't let it happen again.
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All I really need now is LOTR and Advent Children.
Anyone who buys into HDDVD now truly is an all day sucker as To$hiba$oft are just trying to clear out their existing supply of these betamax players (no offense to betamax). Bring on the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones boxsets!
Indiana Jones Box Set on Blu-Ray. That will be a great day. I hope it happens.
I just want this war to end, so Blu-Ray has all studios.
Lol, why did you change the headline?
Pfft you guys are making this format war seem so anticlimatic lol. j/k still why write it when you know people have their mind set only on blu-ray here?
we all knew this was going to happen.
Blu ray has already won! Porn studios are going exclusive with blu ray and adv films with animes are going blu ray as well! yeeehhaaaa! Yes! Advent chidren on blu ray. Must buy.
you forgot that adv is blu
Tsk Tsk....this article was just a summary of HD DVD's death
<hears fat lady singing>
HD is getting tortured even after its demise
You guys are like a bunch of kids here shouting for your format to win. Why is it your format? Is it because it's better? No, it's because it's in your PS3! Does this make it better? To you ... yes, but to anyone who knows tech, no. Don't get me wrong, I don't want a format war, I want a single standard but it's too bad these companies couldn't agree on a standard years ago and avoid this confusion. HD-DVD is not a bad format, it supports the same codecs and 1080p signal that Blu-ray does. But most of you wouldn't know that because it's... "pathetic" as Beast_Of_Sparta tried to say. This is not a 360 vs PS3 fight... the Xbox Marketplace has HD downloads from the Blu-ray exclusive studios and HD-DVD studios without needing the HD add-on! So cheer for your forced format all you want, I'll always side with the better tech, not the majority! Now go make some calls on that spiffy RAZR you have!