Well, things aren’t looking good for HD DVD after yesterday’s announcement that Warner Bros. is going 100% exclusive with Blu-ray beginning May 2008. This leaves HD DVD with only Universal and Paramount supporting their media. Of course both studios are exclusive to HD DVD, but Paramount’s exclusive deal ends December 2008 and Universal, at least to my knowledge, doesn’t have an exclusive deal and can begin supporting Blu-ray whenever they please. Oddly enough the HD DVD camp is still trying to spin things their way as they have issued the following statement:
While Warner’s decision is a setback for HD DVD, the consumer has benefited from HD DVD’s commitment to quality and affordability — a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. We believe widespread adoption of a next generation format will ultimately be determined by the consumer.”
That is sort of what has already happened. Warner Bros. even mentioned in their release that the reason they have decided to go exclusively Blu-ray is because that is the media the majority of consumers have chosen, and I assume they base this on the sales figures of their titles with Blu-ray outselling their HD DVD counterparts and with their Harry Potter library on both formats as well as the recently released Blade Runner box set I would say they have a decent sampling of sales data to take into consideration.
One thing the announcement did do was cause the HD DVD Promotional Group to cancel a cocktail party and a press conference this Sunday evening in Las Vegas to tout the “progress” it has made in high definition video and the ongoing format war with the Blu-ray consortium at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008. Their statement with regard to that went as follows:
Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, we have decided to postpone our CES 2008 press conference. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” the cancellation read. “We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps. We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD’s commitment to quality and affordability – a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format.”
This shouldn’t be looked at as a slap to the face for Universal and Paramount as if their titles aren’t good enough, but considering Uni and Par are now facing off against Disney, Fox, Warners and Sony they have quite a battle on their hands.
Obviously the PlayStation 3 is a major reason Blu-ray has taken the lead in terms of software sales as I recently added the impressive machine to my hardware station and am truly impressed with the ease of use considering it is primarily a videogame console. Ironically, HD DVD players have outsold standalone Blu-ray players according to CNET, and I am sure this is in large part due to the massive sale over the holidays.
Does HD DVD stand a chance? Probably not, but I can tell you I personally love the format and several of the titles I have in my HD DVD library.
Will Blu-ray win out? It may win the war, but to speculate as to whether or not it will entirely be adopted by the public is still up in the air. Many believe digital downloads will be the ultimate way of the future, but issues of server space and bandwidth are going to cramp that style for quite some time.
