There can't be a war without casualties, without an ultimate victor and a loser. This applies to just about any type of conflict, including the one between the two next-generation DVD formats, namely Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD, which, in light of several announcements made over the past weeks, might actually be over as we speak.
First of all, there were the big announcements from January when Warner suddenly changed its mind about which format to support and went Blu-ray only. This move triggered some pretty strong reactions from other major studios (pornographers included), but also from other important names in the industry, because, for example, Blockbuster and Netflix, the biggest movie rental chains in the US, announced that they also decided to go Blu-ray only.
However, perhaps the toughest blow to HD DVD came from Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, who also announced that it will go Blu-ray exclusive from now on, practically cutting off Toshiba's latest hope for survival (selling hardware at very low prices). Thus, HD DVD now lacks the support of content providers (studios), distributors (rental chains, retailers) and hardware. Could things get any worse? Well, surprisingly, they actually can.
Thus, the situation's quite bleak on Toshiba's home turf as well, since, as Reuters reports, public Japanese broadcaster NHK has released a statement saying that Toshiba's about to quit the next-gen DVD game.
Toshiba's answer is expected soon, but the company's official position following the numerous rumors regarding the demise of its format is that it's currently reviewing its HD DVD business strategy. Practically, the company's officials are probably thinking very seriously about what's better for the future: investing in a dead format or cutting their losses (although the respective losses reach, according to various sources, hundreds of millions of dollars).
So, in the end, all I hope is that Toshiba will finally admit its defeat so we can all go on with our lives and finally know for sure what next-gen player to purchase. After all, it's not even that much of a loss (well, it is, but not on the long run), because it's becoming quite clear that optical media will be ultimately doomed, with either solid state memory or the Internet occupying the position of main entertainment content delivery vehicle.
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