dak4.com - Sony wins one?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market.

[ Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses ]

This leaves BluRay as the only High Def on a Disc format left in the game. I'm a bit surprised how quickly that went. I'm rather sure that there are still some Super Beta people out there who refuse to give up the ghost. What is the actually market condition that hammered the nail in HD DVD's grave?

Apple rumors?
XBox rumors?
Universal and Paramount rumors?
WB facts?
Wal*Mart cruelty?
Netflix joining Blockbuster in support of BluRay?

Who really knows. What I do know is this means that Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount will all be changing their tune to BluRay soon. And that means Back to the Future, Heroes, Shrek, Breakfast Club, and many other goodies coming to BluRay.

Props to KooshMoose for sending me the Kotaku link.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:31:45 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1] -
gadgets | technology

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 9:56:27 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

I'm very disappointed in this turn of events. But it seems to me that Sony has simply won the marketing game. I don't see HD DVD titles advertised at all hardly regardless of all the deals that have been made, and Sony's are pretty heavily advertised. It's also easier to spot a blu-ray disc in the store than HD-DVD, with the blue packaging or trim standing out. It shouldn't really be a surprise, but I did not expect Sony to overcome all the hurdles with marketing alone. But they basically can with HDDVD's near total lack of marketing.

Doug1

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