Well, I guess we can't blame the domination of the Blu-ray format on everyone's (least) favorite superstore, at least according to some sources: Toshiba is supposedly conceding defeat and withdrawing from the next gen DVD market. It should be noted that Toshiba has not made any official comment. A number of Kotakuites have sent us the Japanese source NHK and Reuters articles that are brief and to the point, citing an (anonymous) internal Toshiba source: Toshiba's been losing the war and is giving up, with official details to follow later.
The company said it will continue to sell HD-DVD products for a while but will stop further development of HD DVD. Meanwhile, it said its DVD factories in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, would be closed.Market observers said that Toshiba could suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Ouch, if it's true.
Toshiba plans to withdraw from HD-DVD production [NHK] and Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war [Reuters]











Comments
There is no doubt it is true. The war is finally over. Hell, Circuit City has Transformers as a BD double disc listed now in its system.
I think it's interesting that the Presidential campaigns and the format wars are coming to a head at roughly the same time.
Die, die, die, you rotten hell.
The ONLY thing that sucks about this is that I was an early adopter of the hddvd. I wonder if 5-10 years from now I will be able to get big money for the hd-dvd's when people discover that bluray causes cancer or something. I am off to buy a ps3 at walmart today, hopefully they dont put out a "buy a ps3 and get 5 dvd" offer after I purchase this.
Can't wait to see Sony's reaction.
Yea man the news is all over alot of sites. I believe it is 100% true.
Thank god. Now we just have to read 309834234 PS3 fanboys proclaim their "victory". Victory over what, I don't know.
Finally... now if you excuse me, I have to buy American Gangster in BD.
No big surprise here. And as someone who owns BOTH formats, I can honestly say this is great news because now at least one format will get the full attention of the industry and we'll start to see the great releases ramp up.
Bring it on.
@Mr Fortitude: At most, you'll get to have a nostalgic moment when movies mention HD-DVD to date themselves/make a joke, a la BetaMax.
So all they said at CES were LIES!!!!!
@Mr Fortitude: What game are you getting?
PSN: IntelSilver
Finally I feel like I can venture out and make a purchase on a solid-backed format. I'm kinda cool with that. Alot.
nothing wrong with ppl claiming victory. On the opposite side of the rainbow, 360 fanboys claim victory over anything over the ps3.(Exclusivity and such)
So much for compititon now. Now with Blu-ray, lets see the cut-throating of each company trying to seel their Blu-ray players.
Also lets see if this will affect costs on new release Movies if they will rise.
again i feel bad for early adopters
@scottyboy218:
well... the same thing the M$ fanboys would said if the HDDVD had won this "war"
also how do you do these @user messages.
@Trystero:
Oh you mean like those people that say "Wow do you remember a link for the past, that was a good game." I usually say yeah I still play it. I live for those moments.
Doesn't Toshiba get money out of the PS3 because of Cell? So wouldn't they want the PS3 to sell well, therefore it's almost win win =D
@IntelSilver: I havn't decided, probably warhawk and Fall of Man for the multiplayer.
Well the format wars were fun while they lasted... NOT!
@Mr Fortitude: Sorry man you have had to have purchased the PS3 before the end of January.
@k4polo: To the right of the message you want to quote, you click the arror that points to the left. The grey button.
Wow.. Kotaku is really slow on the news lately.. about 4 days late.
Planning to do more cake news or something?
+ Watch video
@ProfWho: What I meant was, I hope after I buy this they don't come out with another offer similar to that one.
Most of all I'm just glad the format war is over, but this is kind of sad only because I feel that Toshiba makes much, much better quality products than Sony.
@Mr Fortitude:
thx
@tamago007: Doubtful. I think 360 owners would be amused, but MS only sold 170,000 of the HD-DVD players? MS was not invested in the war, nor were 360 owners.
Remember when every Xbot was raving about how BD was the next beta max and how sony would fail...
Yeah.. Im loving this now.
What's even more awesome... when this becomes the standard... geuss who will have to use it...
thats right ladies and gents... Microsoft.... Gotta love it.
And to think that it only took Sony twenty years to finally win a video-medium format war. I feel bad for Toshiba, though.
good by region free :(
Sony, you must claim the spoils; you must claim their women! Do it now!
Sorry to hear, stuff like this is always a blow, but it was about time. Now hopefully Blue Ray discs will come down in price.
You know, the great thing about High Def TVs? No one will be able to argue with me if I tell them wide screen gives them the full movie. Though, I'm sure people still bitch about the little black bars on the bottom.
@Lain: The thought process of fanboys amazes me.
Seriously, who F'ing cares? I can't imagine living a life where I actually cared about things like this so much. Laughable.
@Lain: Unless MS decides to use it as a proprietary format in their next system to avoid paying royalties. Until the Wii, even Nintendo went their own way with game storage so as to protect copyrights and patents. Who says Microsoft won't do the same?
Excellent. If this is true, hopefully anyone who invested in HD-DVD is woefully regretting their purchase right about now (for some reason I feel really strongly about this whole format war).
Now can we finally get Hot Fuzz on Blu-Ray?
@HykCraft: 24 hours...maybe. It's a video game blog, not media/tech blog.
@Mr Fortitude: Nice. I'm buying Warhawk today probably.
PSN: Chimere788
@FlashIV: 2008... where no one can sense any kind of sarcasm at all.
All of these latest moves are just the last dominoes of something that hstarted a while back; the format war officially ended when Warner Bros jumped to Blu Ray. Anyone that didn't recognize that at the time had their head in the sand.
Come on yall lets forget the fanboyism and let the healing begin. We have one format now and thats good for everybody.
@SCOTTYBOY218:
But there isn't 309 million sony fanboys. ;)
There are however, a growing amount of kids who like pointing at anyone with a different opinion and calling them a fanboy for it. Luckily, there are also people with a WIDE perspective on things.
Good the war is over...
Sony is STILL full of shit. I can't support a company that sells this: [www.playstation.com]
@KidU:
This is most true.
@DoesNotEqual:
No reason to feel bad. They make some crappy products (primarily their cable modems. Those things are shitty).
Sadly, MS will likely be the last people on earth to give up on HD-DVD. So, no Blu-Ray addon for 360 owners. :(
I really wish they'd just set their pride aside for one day, say "we bet on the wrong horse, and we made a rookie console design mistake", take the hit, and fix both mistakes. Don't do it for us, MS, do it to at least shut up millions of fanboys who think RROD and HD-DVD jokes are original.
@Edge of Blade: thats a really bad reason not to support a company
@SageofAnacostia: I've got a Toshiba HDTV I bought something like six years ago that still works like a charm. I gotta shed a tear for their failure!
@Edge of Blade: that's because you're a fanboy wth kind of reason is that for not buying ps3 MS sells vista and you don't see me complain.
LMAO!
So much for all the dumbass anti-Sony pieces of shit!
@Edge of Blade: You clearly lack the sophistication to appreciate Playstation™ brand wine glasses.
EDGE OF BLADE :
Must I link up some unpretty 360 stuff as well? lol. I take it you support NO game company.
Good, now lower the god damn prices of Blu Ray movies. You shouldn't have to pay $40 for a god damn movie, $25 for a dvd is nut crunching steep.
@ShaggE: yeah, but those HD-DVD jokes are now viable.
and if you think about it, they really can't say "oops, we made a mistake". it shows weakness in the company as a whole. it would make them look bad in the eyes of the public and the press.
@ktun: once again... Most Ridiculous Comment. way to up morale, buddy.
This has nothing to do with Sony "winning" or "losing". NOTHING. this is a format issue, not a console or even a company issue.
@MonkeyBiz: standard def 4 lyfe. $20 for a new movie is fine by me.
@MonkeyBiz:
Prob expect the oposite since now there is no HD-DVD format to compete with. Now they can set the price of movies to what ever they want.
Damn, Toshiba fell HARD. Big win for Sony.
Great!
This finishes also and the next gen really starts :)
@remanance: unpretty 360 stuff.... like that recent, grabbing-on-to-the-last-strands-of-life price of $129 for the HD-DVD drive?
it's like they're saying "we know the format we chose is going into the coffin, so..... have a price cut on it!"
@Edge of Blade: If thats how your brain functions than chances are you dont support any company at all which is admirable. So you probably dont buy gas for your car because exxon and oil destroy the universe, you certainly dont have an xbox or any msoft product because lets face it msoft made vista and have been one of the biggest monopolies since their inception. Question, do you wear pants? Cause theres these things called sweat shops...
@frank0127: Yeah, of course not, but I can always wish.