Sure, you may game on a HD set. I know I do. But in an interview with Eurogamer, Epic's Mark Rein has revealed that "Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs".

That's, uh, a lot. Millions of people. No wonder these console manufacturers keep banging on about a ten-year lifecycle; it's going to take that long for people to upgrade to a HDTV.

Epic's Mark Rein [Eurogamer]

Sony may have won the format wars - seeing HD-DVD driven before them and hearing the lamentation of its early adopters - but longer term the discs may go the way of the Betamax and it's all that pesky economy's fault.

"The economy is the biggest challenge, because there are just so many pieces to the Blu-ray puzzle that consumers face," said Disney's Lori MacPherson, "You need the high-definition television set, you need the player, you need the cables, you need the software . . ."

And films. You definitely need films. The price of which compared to DVD, streaming and downloads might also be a factor.

"We're all constantly looking at (disc) pricing," said Rich Marty from Sony, "What it amounts to is that we'll wait until after the fourth quarter and see how it goes."

Economy grinch may pinch Blu-ray format [Reuters]

"I’ve had confirmation that the filter can indeed be switched off...And the games will display at whatever ratio your console is set at – 4:3 or 16:9. If playing in 16:9 the game will fit and not have black borders at the side."

It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? Yesterday I was "Oh look, another Sega compilation." Now I am leaning heavily towards "Gimme."

Mega Drive Collection filter can be turned off, say Sega [RPG Site - Thanks Alexander!]

That stat was compiled over HDTV sales from only the last year, but the trend is contributed to the falling prices of HDTVs, allowing more of the 21-34 demographic to purchase sets—precious souls between 21-34 want to play their games in HD. And by "HD," we mean "huffing daffodils." It's the only way we'll play anymore.

Survey finds 18 percent of people bought a HDTV for gaming [Maxconsole][And yes, that image is real]

But if we're reading the fine print correctly, there are two super cool things about this deal. First, you don't need to give up your HD DVD player. It's simply free money. Second, there is no start date to this offer, so if you bought an HD DVD player from them when the technology hit the market, you should still be eligible for the rebate.

Here's the full offer from an Amazon email.

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who purchased an HD DVD player from us before February 23, 2008,* you might like to hear about a special offer available from Amazon.com.

New technologies don't always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.** Just use promotional code PROMO CODE HERE when checking out. The code is valid through April 9, 2009, so you have plenty of time to use your credit. Purchases from third-party merchants on our site are not eligible.

In addition, we'd like to share some of our top offers on Blu-ray discs, HDTVs and other high-def technology and remind you that the Amazon.com Marketplace is available to sell items you might not want anymore as you upgrade to new ones. Also be sure to check out our monthly Amazon.com Early Adopters Delivers email to find out about the latest technology.

* On February 23, 2008, the last manufacturer of HD DVD players announced it was ceasing production of those players.

** Offer cannot be used to pay for special-order titles, e-books or downloadable e-content, wireless service plans, gift certificates, gift-wrap, taxes, or shipping and handling charges. $50.00 promotional credit is per HD DVD player purchased prior to February 23, 2008—up to 10 units for a maximum credit of $500.00.

Amazon Handing Out $50 to HD DVD Victims [Gizmodo]

We'll be putting Master Chief's exploits to Crecente's latest hip hop single (as soon as he cuts it, hides it in his brush collection and some very committed Kotaku reader leaks it to Bittorrent).

Halo 2 Cutscene Library [HBO via Xbox360Fanboy]

I think at this point everyone knows how Street Fighter works, so I'll stick to talking about the HD graphics which were all redrawn by the folks at Udon (artists of the US Street Fighter comic). The new sprites looked amazing and almost even more impressive were the backgrounds. Perfect lines, no jaggies, sharp and colorful. They looked simply spectacular.

The particular stage I saw was the one with the people jumping up and down and cheering on the back of a boat. It not only looked great but a fellow journalist and I got a kick out of the fact that even though the art itself had sharpened up, the animations were still olde school rudimentary with each jumping background character only having three or four positions making up their animations. It was a nice nod to the original game while still improving its look. Very retro modern.

The graphics will support a widescreen mode, but there will also be a 4:3 mode for purists who can also revert characters to the original 2D sprites for the full "original" experience. Players will also be able to choose from the original game music or newly remixed versions.

As far as gameplay goes, online versus play will be available along with in-game voice chat, matchmaking, and worldwide rankings. A "Quarter Match" mode has been added which will allow two competitors and up to four spectators to use virtual quarters to buy into two player matches.

There will also be an optional "Rebalanced" mode which makes changes across the board to many characters. The changes were implemented in response to testing by the world's top ranked Street Fighter players. Most of the differences involve a lot of character fine tuning to some of your favorite (and not so favorite) fighters. Balrog, Cammy, Blanka, Ken, T. Hawk and Ryu will all be receiving "character balancing." There is much minutia in the changes that many of the more hardcore SF fans will certainly be interested in. So if this describes you, you will probably want to check out this series of articles by SF tournament player and the new game's design and gameplay overseer, David Sirlin.

All will be revealed when the game hits XBLA and PSN later this year. But for those of you that can't wait that long, the purchase of Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will come with an entry into the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta test.

But the Wii and Xbox 360 aren't far behind with 65% and 66% HD penetration, respectively. Component cables are the most popular option (which isn't all that surprising since the Wii doesn't offer an HDMI option and the Xbox 360 only jumped on that bandwagon late). Yeah, I'm thinking more and more that my theory that consoles sell HDTVs wasn't so crazy after all.

Gamers Ripe for High-End A/V Systems, Research Shows [via maxconsole]

Despite his vast knowledge of video games, Stephen Totilo is, it appears, a television newb. That's right, he owns a (gasp) SDTV.

Valiant in the face of overwhelming odds, Totilo went looking for kindred spirits on the cusp of Microsoft's big HDMI announcement.

He found an unlikely ally in Epic's Mark Rein:

"The amount of crap that can go on in the scene isn't defined by the monitor, it's defined by the graphics capabilities," he said. "I think Microsoft made a mistake when they tied Xbox 360 so much into HD TV. What they should have done — it's complicated jargon, but they should have talked about high-definition visuals and high-definition TVs as separate things. Yes, the high-definition TV will improve the look of the high-definition visuals, but you still get much higher-definition visuals on Xbox 360 than you do on Xbox or PS2. Much higher."

After that Rein started to spiral down into technical jargon and talk of down-sampling, losing both Totilo and my interest.

There's much more involving windows, Gears of War and ancient televisions over on Totilo's site. Me? I'm a big-screen high-def kinda guy. Mostly because I happened to be finishing our basement and needed a big TV to fill the entertainment center.

I do sort of agree. While a standard picture looks like crap on my big-ass TV, I suspect that's because it's so big. High-def looks like normal def to me when seen on a big screen. What do you think? Brian Crecente

Mark Rein says I'm right and Microsoft "made a mistake" [Player Two]

Chris Kohler over at Game|Life is reporting that the first South Park episode ever to be presented in HD will be an Xbox Live exclusive. Starting Tuesday, March 6, the episode, Good Times With Weapons, will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace free of charge for the first two weeks. Then, from March 20 to April 3, Best Buy will be giving away free copies of the episode on HD-DVD with the purchase of an Xbox 360 or it's HD-DVD player.

In case you're like me and episode titles mean nothing to you, Good Times With Weapons is one where the boys acquire ninja weapons from the county fair. The bulk of the remainder of the episode is presented in letterbox format and animated in a great spoof of anime style. If you haven't seen it, I would highly suggest checking it out as it is (in my opinion anyway) one of the ten best South Park episodes ever made. You get ninja weapons, dead on anime style animation, Butters as Professor Chaos and Cartman's genitals. Who could ask for anything more? Flynn De Marco

First HD Episode of South Park Exclusive to Xbox 360 [Game|Life]

At the recent Tokyo Auto Salon, a fleet of Gran Turismo Concept cabinets were wheeled out for car enthusiasts. It was possible to cruise through "Time Attack" mode or "Drift Trial," and each bucket-seat unit was outfitted with hi-def monitors and feedback GT FORCE Pro steering wheel controllers for a "real driving" experience. Well, real-ish. Brian Ashcraft

GTHD At Tokyo Auto Salon [Dengeki Online]

I'm not quite sure what this is all about, but the Korea Times is reporting that Korean company LG Electronics has teamed up with Sega to show off three new HDTV models at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show.

LG plans to introduce three new full HD TV models up to 60 inches in a joint-promotion with Japanese video game giant Sega. The company will display popular Sega games such as ``Virtua Fighter 5'' and ``Sonic'' on its full HD TVs at the expo.

``This joint promotion will give LG a great opportunity to highlight our advanced displays by showing Sega's full HD content on our full HD TVs," Kim Young-chan, executive vice president of digital display global marketing at LG, said in a release. ``Our customers demand the highest standards in technology, and we will continue to expand our offerings to meet everyone's needs from movie buffs to gamers to companies in need of digital displays.''

The article goes on to say that a general lack of HD content in Korea makes the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 the only viable options right now for true HD content.

I get that, but why wouldn't LG just team up with Microsoft instead of going with a third-party manufacturer? Brian Crecente

Samsung, LG Set Up Duel in Las Vegas [Korea Times, via Rocky Mountain News]

The 360 versus PS3 argument often comes down to the question of hi-def DVD format. With neither Blu-ray nor HD DVD taking a clear lead in the format wars and consumers confused over which side they should back, in rides the white knight, Warner Bros. Next week at CES they plan to announce the Total HD disc, which is media capable of playing both HD formats, allowing studios to release one version of their productions instead of having to make two versions or worse, completely snubbing one install base altogether.

This is just brilliant, really. If the Total HD disc gains widespread acceptance then consumers won't be as wary of choosing a player, gamers can go back to arguing over games instead of movies, retailers will move more product, and neither HD DVD or Blu-Ray formats have to admit defeat by the other.

The only thing that could screw this up is pride on the part of the specific format backers, though I put forth that any studio that tries to force a format down our throats once the Total HD disc becomes widely available doesn't care enough about the consumer to warrant our money anyway. Michael Fahey

New disc may sway DVD wars [CNET via Evil Avatar - Thanks Chilly!]

Half of Team Kotaku is getting their game on in HD. Then, there's Florian whose "TV" consists of little more than a bedsheet stapled to the wall and a spotlight. Most HD owners swear by their purdy televisions and find it different to even *cringe* watch anything below 720p. Gamasutra rounded up a handful of pundits to get their opinions on how important HDTVs are and what this means for, well, Nintendo.

Michael Pachter: I think HD resolution is the essential difference between this cycle and the last. Although it is clear that there will be much more happening on-screen, with more independently acting characters, the visceral improvement in graphics is probably the first thing noticed by consumers. ... HDTV is the second fastest growing consumer electronics product (behind the iPod), and it's going to end up the household standard in a few years.

Mike Wolf: HDTV is a critical feature of the new generation of consoles, particularly down the road 2-3 years [from now] when adoption of HD TVs will be much higher than it is today. Sony is obviously using the same strategy it used with the PS2 by offering a low-cost version of the latest format for home video, which worked with the PS2 with regards to beating out the Sega Dreamcast.

...Ultimately, the gamer is looking for the best gaming experience, and HD is a part of that, but not the end-all. Equally important is inventive game play, which is the main focus of Nintendo with the Wii. I don't think Nintendo will lose out on customers by not offering HD.

Ben Bajarin: I do not think the gaming industry is jumping in prematurely at all. There is great demand among the early market that flocked to buy the Xbox 360 and that will flock to buy the PS3. It is definitely important to give the market a 720p and 1080i/p gaming experience, but I would never advise a game developer to not support standard definition TVs for the foreseeable future.

What about those in Kotaku-land? Who owns an HDTV? Is it a must have for next gen? And most importantly, how big is it? Brian Ashcraft

I Want My HDTV [Gamasutra via 1Up]

According to Sony, the official US PlayStation 3 site's caveat that the HDMI connection is required for 1080p signals in Blu-ray movies is fallout from uncertainty over the Image Constraint Token - a next-generation anti-piracy measure.

Sony has made an issue of pointing out that 1080p, which the Xbox 360 is incapable of, is the Holy Grail of "full HD". As it stands now, the only game that is running in 1080p, said Fargher, is Gran Turismo HD - a tech demo crafted by Polyphony to showcase what the system is capable of.

This is in line with our earlier report, where a development source told Kikizo that, "even with [final hardware] in mind, reaching good frame rates at 1080p with next-gen graphics is almost impossible. Instead many developers, ourselves included, are reworking so they run at 720p. "

In other words, movies will play at 1080p. Games won't, and maybe never will. Not that this is really new, but it's always distressing to have the obvious reiterated officially. Florian Eckhardt

No 1080p PS3 Games Yet, Says Sony [Kikizo]

Ee hee hee! I like the headline "Shortage of Blue Lasers". It makes me feel like I'm living in the neon-grit future that I crave, instead of this obese, mooing present.

Anyway, now that everyone is making or planning to make HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives, the laser supply is taking a strain. Blue laser diodes, which both HD DVD and Blu-ray use, are difficult to manufacture. The yield rates for the things are not increasing much, even though the demand for them is. But Sony's got our back!

This puts Sony in particular in quite a bind. Sony has obviously invested quite a bit in the Blu-ray format and the company would very much like consumers to pick up a Blu-ray player and not an HD DVD player or the HD DVD peripheral for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In order to make sure that the Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 does not run into any further problems, Sony has actually suspended shipments of blue laser diodes to other customers so that the components can be used for PS3 manufacturing first.

Hoarding all the blue lasers for the gamers, eh Sony? That's the girl I married! Eliza Gauger

Report: Blue Laser Shortage May Affect Blu-ray/HD DVD Battle [GameDaily BIZ]

Go Nintendo links to an interview in which Mercury News reporter Dean Takahashi talks about the Wii's chances at success. He says:

If gamers don't like the GameCube 1.5 graphics, then it will fail. Nintendo's biggest mistake may have been its failure to support high-definition graphics at all. I don't know if the graphics will wow anyone.

My reaction to a lot the Wii stuff I've seen has been "that looks better than I thought" as opposed to a "wow" per se. That begs the eternal question: Do we really need to see Mario's mustache in HD? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Go Nintendo]

Today, Sony Japan launched its official PLAYSTATION 3 website. There's a rundown of hardware and software. Sony's also got a PLAYSTATION 3 Concept Site. The website features pics of the PS3 (two so far) and interviews (one so far). First up, Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi talks the game's upcoming network connection, high def and what the PLAYSTATION 3 means to him. These should keep diehards happy with a steady trickle of next-gen PR. Brian Ashcraft

PLAYSTATION 3 and Concept Site [Sony Japan]

Last week, game publisher Activision held a small Call of Duty 3 event in which the first level was bandied about. Dutch site Shizzle was on hand and reports that the footage looked pretty much like the clip that's been circulating on the internet recently. So, what's new? Shizzle's Karsten writes:

They said Call of Duty 3 would be a PS3 launch game, and the game would not have 1080p output (the game will be identical to the Xbox 360 version, so 720p/1080i).

So, because the two versions will be identical and minus the 1080p gold standard, does this mean the Xbox 360 is making PS3 games uglier? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Shizzle]

Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's RPG Ninety-Nine Nights requires a hard drive, according to its official Xbox homepage. Make that, Canadian page, which clearly states "Hard Drive Required." The US one says nothing of the sort.

While 360s are only sold with HDs in Japan, not every single owner in North America has one. Creating "Hard Drive Required" titles might be another hidden cost for consumers. That doesn't seem to be the case for the error different requirements on the American and Canadian N3 sites. We assume the metric system or ice hockey is to blame. Brian Ashcraft

Mistake, Eh? or No Mistake, Right? [Xbox Canada & America]
More Here [Gamer Andy]

UpdateTurns out a HD isn't needed after all, Msoft just screwed up on their official listing of the game. Whoops.