Like Gerstmann-gate, this is a time to blog and we bloggers love it, as we get to be pretentious again and satisfy our egos by writing about the same thing over and over again. I am no different, and this issue is no different. This is the beginning of the end of the HD-format war, with Warner being bought by the Blu-ray lobby group for allegedly $500million, leaving Paramount, Universal and Toshiba in a difficult position. Or is it really that difficult for them? Haven’t they already made up their minds and the end to format war was already over months ago? Things like this don’t come to the public’s attention nowadays any faster than it did before the internet.

Is HD DVD dead? Yes. It will not be many years before Blu-ray will be the only alternative on the market, and I think by 2009, even by the end of ’08, Blu-ray = El Rey. During the course of this year, Blu-ray sales of both players and discs have increased while HD-DVD took a step back, which is a direct result of the rising sales of PS3 as well as better marketing for Blu-ray. I hate to say it, but Michael Bay was right, and like Mr. Bay says, whatever Wal-Mart pushes, wins . Marketing and money is everything. The media industry is one dirty business, and will always be won by the ever raging rein of the almighty currency . The problem for any HD distribution format is the already established mainstream appeal of the DVD. It will take a few years, about 3-4, before we see the sales of HD format discs to surpass the sales of DVD discs.

The death of HD DVD will also mean the death of the Xbox 360. By the end of this year PS3 will have marginalized the gap between 360 and PS3 sales, and developers have adapted to the delicate, intelligent and pain-in-the-ass-hardware that is the Cell processor and the 256mb of RAM (lol?). The 360 is already obsolete and will be even more so by 2009, and by then the next Xbox will have been announced and planned for a 2009 holiday release. That’s right I said it.

Did Microsoft know this was going to happen? Was this a factor in the decision not to include a hd-dvd player in the 360? I am a suspicious man with conspiracy thoughts coming out my ass, so I’ll bet that there was an uncertainty in the Microsoft camp regarding the HD format war. Not including a HD playback device, and painting themselves in a corner with the arcade/core SKU’s point to yes, they were aware and uncertain. So, will Microsoft announce the 360 Ultimate with a built-in HD DVD player? Not bloody likely. There is no need for another 360. There is a need for another Xbox, with IP-TV, 320gb hard drive, built-in Blu-ray player, motion-sensing controls and a hell of a lot graphical power to surpass the PS3. The problem is with the built-in Blu-ray player. Will it actually be there? Blu-ray has become so familiarized with the PS3 that it's gonna be very hard for Microsoft to incorporate it into one of their products. But it seems like Microsoft doesn’t have a choice, because an all-digital-distribution-future is a long away ahead.