Right about now, the executives at Sony who were initially sweating out their decision to include Blu-ray in the PlayStation 3 must be giggling like a bunch of little schoolgirls. What was once attacked as one of the biggest mistakes in gaming history is starting to resemble a good idea. The momentum for the Blu-ray camp may have been slow in coming, but today it would seem that they've found a friend, and landed the motherload -- in Wal-Mart -- who will be completely phasing out HD-DVD disks over the next couple of months:
"We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases," said Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment in a statement.
Considering how powerful a force Wally's World is, that has to sting pretty bad -- but it gets worse for HD-DVD fans. The Hollywood Reporter is circulating the rumor that industry insiders are expecting Toshiba to walk away from the HD-DVD table at any moment. Is the format war finally over? We sure hope so. It overstayed its welcome as it was.
Catch the Press Release, after the jump:
Wal-Mart Moving Exclusively Toward Blu-ray Format Movies and Players Bentonville, Ark., Feb. 15, 2008 - Wal-Mart Stores, U.S. today announces that its 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores will move forward this year with one hi-definition movie and hardware format: Blu-ray. The change will take place quickly over the next several months whereby the retailer will phase out HD DVD offerings and reorganize shelf space. By June, Wal-Mart stores, Sam's Clubs, www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com will offer only Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, as well as standard definition movies and DVD players, and up converts.
"We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases," said Gary Severson, senior vice president, Home Entertainment, Wal-Mart, U.S. "With the customers best interest in all we do, we wanted to share our decision and timeline with them as soon as possible, knowing it will help simplify their purchase decision, increase selection, and increase adoption long term. We anticipate enhancing our selection with continued great values in hi-definition Blu-ray products, so our customers can further enhance their entertainment experience at home."
Wal-Mart will continue to sell through remaining HD DVD product, but in less than 30 days customers will see a more predominant move toward Blu-ray in stores, clubs and online. As the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart thoughtfully reviewed all areas and impact in making its decision, and is excited to move forward with one format and share its future plans with customers.
[Via
CNNMoney -- Thanks,
dvddesign, Jonothan, and whoever else I may have overlooked]
Contest:
1:59 PM on 02.15.2008
| 
exactly what ive been saying from the beginning.
hd-dvd sounds just like what it is...while blu ray there is something mysterious about it..you wanna have sex with it but you are afraid it wont call you the next day.thats what people want.
Having said that, I still think regular old DVDs suit our needs just fine...for movies. As for games, I can see the need for extra space.
When dealing with the American consumer, one thing matters over everything else. what is that one thing you wonder?
the coolness factor.
sadly.
It's easy to say otherwise now, but who the hell would've thought that consumers would recoginize the Blu-ray name as the next step in DVDs? It doesn't even have DVD in the title.
Sony pushed their format at the expense of early PS3 adopters, pushing a "media center" over a game console. It's exactly why I went from a Sony fanboy to a disappointed onlooker, but good for Sony I guess.
/hug pstriple
Bought at launch, I feel vindicated. Now, if only they'd realise more actually good games...
couldn't have said it better myself
I'm glad the format wars are ending. I wasn't going to buy either one until I was sure that it wasn't going to lose and be phased out. I don't think I'm alone in such a position either.
I for one welcome our new high-def overlords.
please don't kill me oh benevolent masters
1) the HD market is currently nascent. it has zero penetration. so winning this war is like winning an argument on the internet.
2) Competition is *good*. There's no reason to pick one format over the other. While there was choice, both sides tried to make their format better, while not alienating their customers. Now? As much as people talk about HD-DVD players being worthless, let's see how fun things are when BR 2.0 comes out. There's absolutely *no* reason for sony to keep backwards compatibility in. *none* And we see what happened to PS2 backwards compatibility for the PS3...
3) This whole thing is a non-issue created by the stupid exclusivity deals and media hype machine. Several movie companies were developing for both, and not losing money doing it. Why does it have to be either or?
4) "Consumers have chosen." right. Not even. Consumers have had it chosen for them. There aren't enough consumers invested in either format to have chosen as a body.
But whatever...
luckily its looking good now, but silly ps3 fanboys are acting like theyre happy. little do they know they were all just pawns in sonys money making chess game.
down with the man.
fuck blu ray and hddvd. I watch all my movies on laser disc.
The jump to DVD was so vast that it was inevitable. This just won't cut it and before next gen we'll see a better format, hopefully hardware open source (though I wouldn't stake my money on that either).
Funny thing is I still remember how badly game bloggers trashed Sony for doing that, jumping into the hate bandwagon. That it didn't need BRD installed, that DVD was more than fine for gaming and that Sony could have learned from Microsoft in just giving it a add-on player.
I Wonder where they went...
anyway where i live the sooner the war is over in the US the sooner i will get my hd content here.
Planet Earth is AMAZING eh?
Yeah good for Blu-Ray. Soon I'll have an excuse to buy a PS3.
Also, the people saying that HD-quality video isn’t much of an upgrade over DVDs...come on! Have you even seen what Planet Earth looks like in HD? Granted, the difference becomes more pronounced as you go up in screen size, but I have a 26" LCD, and I tested out my copy of Planet Earth on Blu-ray versus a friend’s DVD copy. The disparity in quality was like night and day.
Thank you for supporting me!
Also, finally!
That 360 looks like its gonna RR soon if you keep it close to the BS3, lol. Ive seen it happen before on one of the topics here.
Wii looks so small...
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL i'm glad many fanboys will be stock with their useless HD-DVD player
hummm what some of you said last year ??? oh yeah .. the PS3 is to expensive with is BR player and the BR format will die very fast .... sry but a 200$ (many bought it at this price at the launch) HD-DVD is way more useless and now we all know HD-DVD is dead ...
also for those M$ fanboys who thinks DL is the future instead of BR just because you don't want sony to win the console war ... i will have the same comment for you next year ... just be honnest and admit sony is not so bad after all
Judging by its center position, are we to assume that the Wii is the backbone of your gaming set-up? I see that it's managing to hold its own ;-)
But really...DVD over VHS big difference. Blu-Ray over DVD is marginal.
Good point. It's not like any discounts were passed on to the consumer, if HD-DVDs were indeed cheaper to make.
Furthermore from a pragmatic point of view, it was obvious that millions of PS3s woult have some weight on this outcome. We all know that both sides probably engaged in some dubious corporate shenanigans but from a technical and user base perspective HD DVD stood no chance. Maybe if they had toss a few hundred million more at Warner or Fox it might have gone the other way but we'll never know now.
HD DVD is dead and Blu Ray is the king. The sooner Toshiba sweeps up their mess the better.
Sony are also riding more on the back of DLC. Toshiba still have a chance to turn gthings around despite their situation. Sony are well known for keeping their prices high, so while PS3 is still priced for princes, Toshiba still have a chance to bring a cheaper and possibly (recordable or triple format player to the market), using Blu Ray as a trojan horse.
In the real world, many normal folk are still happy with DVD, because the prices of recordable DVD players (some with built in hard drives) are now more reasonable, that its at last safe to replace the VCR. That's what people really want, to ditch the old VCR tech.
Recordable media is the last line of defence, where this format war will really be won, IMO. PS3 won't count in this recordable round, something Toshiba may seek to exploit.
As for me, I'd happily enjoy a cheap HD DVD player for my 360. This format war doesn't matter to me as much, because I'm a big anime fan and collector, something that's niche and doesn't need incredible detail. DVD will do just fine for me for now, as its cheap and much better and easier to find a multirregion player.
Enjoy your PS3 victory, Sony. You still suck balls and fuck gamers over, so I'm not gonna wave your flag.