Rantoid: Stop talking about HD-DVD

Necros Says: Sunday's working much better for Rantoid, so I'm keeping the column on this day. Also, look for a new randomly-updated column from me soon. Been meaning to start it for a while now. This blog is shorter than usual because I've been playing the shit out of Half-Life 2 as of late.

Destructoid is a gaming blog. It has a well-defined niche, even in a crowded area of media. And the wonderful thing of a site or blog having such a defined purpose - that is, gaming - is that readers know what to expect when coming to the site. For instance, I'm not likely to find a post about the latest brand of dildos on the front page beneath coverage of the new FFXIII trailer (now with three seconds of additional footage!) unless those dildos are branded with Princess Peach's soulless smile.

So then why the fuck do we have so much news about HD-DVD? This is not just Destructoid's problem, but an issue with numerous other game blogs. HD-DVD itself has nothing to do with gaming. It's a movie format, and a format that we knew was dying for nearly two months. No game has ever been made using the format. If some of these blogs were gadget blogs a la Gizmodo, Engadget, or NextLust (giggles), I could understand covering the rise and fall of Blu-ray and the fall and further fall of HD-DVD, but tech blogs they are not. They fall squarely in the realm of gaming blogs. There is no place for your silly high-def format wars here; we have our hands full with epic game console wars.

I know a great number of you are probably jumping down to the comments right now, ready to reply with a key fact that I have chosen not to mention so far: that the PS3 has a Blu-ray drive and that the 360 offers an HD-DVD attachment. To that I say this: bravo. You found a small link which should get mentioned in news posts once in a while. I don't need every post about the current state of the PS3 to remind me that Sony shoved their proprietary format down our throat and managed to make it work for once. Similarly, mentioning a price drop for the 360's HD-DVD player is alright, provided you don't immediately launch into a history of the format and start analyzing Sony's choices over and over again. We know.

The biggest issue I have with this coverage is updates that have no place on a gaming blog, such as this post by Colette. Sure, Toshiba dropping their maligned format is major news. But not for gamers. I question whether Toshiba is relevant to the gaming industry. The death of HD-DVD does not impact my gaming habits at all, and I doubt the industry will be sent reeling, unable to produce more Madden and Mega Man rehashes. The only thing it would impact would be killing off the 360's lukewarm HD-DVD attachment, and we don't need a post announcing its discontinuation followed by another one speculating what this means for the besieged format.

This ridiculous format war has gone on long enough.

We're sick and tired of hearing about it.

Isn't it time game blogs stop talking the topic to the point where it's deader than HD-DVD itself and get back to analyzing how much farther the PS3 need to recover to secure second place in another absurd format war?

Edit: This blog was written shortly before Destructoid published this article explicitly pointing out that HD-DVD has no effect on game sales. Bravo, Gameboi.

Necros roams the anti-wilderness of Syracuse University, searching for prey. When he finds fanboys and trolls, he feasts on them with other regulars on Failcast.