The end has come. Blu-ray emerges as the winner of the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray format wars!
Toshiba Corp, the company that makes HD DVDs, is planning to stop production on HD DVD players and other equipment compatible with their high-definition video format, giving Blu-ray free reign in the market place to become the single high-definition standard.
As a result Toshiba is expected to suffer tremendous losses amounting in the tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders as they take steps to exit the business completely, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said on its website today, via Reuters.
The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp’s Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.
Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs.
Toshiba plans to continue selling HD DVD equipment at stores for the time being but will not put resources into developing new devices, NHK said. This means the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player add-on will stop being produced as well.
Well one thing’s for certain, all those PS3 gamers who picked up the system in part to play Blu-ray movies will definitely be happy to know that they made the right choice in deciding to get Blu-ray over HD DVD.
Now it’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft starts production soon on a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 like they’ve talked about in the past. — Picture credit Digitaljournal, via N4G