Worth Reading?
Shortly Warner announcement on Blu-Ray exclusive endorsement, the HD DVD Consortium canceled their press conference at CES 2008. It wasn’t a silent retreat, perhaps a regrouping of new strategy destined to fail turn the format war around. Toshiba has spoken and acknowledged Warner shocking move to its rival but they have not lost the battle just yet.
The president of Toshiba America Consumer Products, Akiyo Ozaka is very disappointed with Warner Warner Bros.’ decision but stated that they have not lost the war. Jodi Sally, Toshiba’s vice-president of digital audio-visual marketing told the media that Friday was a surprised and difficult day for her. She said “It’s difficult for me to read that HD DVD is dead, but we’ve been declared dead before,”
Toshiba did little to reveal what they will do next but claimed that HD-DVD still has the best technology in the Format war, they will prevail. In Far East, David Gibson, consumer electronic analyst at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo said Warner’s deal changed the game outcome and “it’s game over for HD DVD”. In Tokyo trading Sony shares ended 0.7% higher while Toshiba fell 2.3%.
photo credit REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Toshiba says HD DVD has not lost out to Blu-ray [via reuters]
I was an avid HD DVD supporter, even going as far as purchasing the HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, but even I must admit, this move definetly shifts the balance of power to the Blu Ray camp. With Warner Bros. being one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) movie distribution company in the world, HD DVD has one hell of a fight on it’s hands. As much as I wanted to see both formats florish (I planned on getting a PS3 eventually anyway) it looks like it truly might be game over for HD DVD.