Toshiba have all but officially given up in the DVD format wars. Over the past few months momentum has been building for Sony's proprietary DVD format; Blu-ray, beginning first with film industry giant Warner exclusively backing it which then prompted a number of major businesses across the US (such as Best Buy and most recently, Wal-Mart) to also push Blu-ray as the format winner.

From reuters:

On Saturday, a Toshiba source told Reuters the Japanese company is planning to give up on its HD DVD format, conceding defeat to Blu-ray.

Microsoft have also said in light of this they don't expect sales of the Xbox 360 to slow down which comes not too long off an earlier statement they wouldn't rule out utilising Blu-ray in future Xbox 360 plans.

"We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace," the company said. "We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player."

It's been looking good in Sony's corner for a while now, but it's becoming more and more obvious Sony are the clear winner in this - whether this has an adverse affect on PS3 sales moving forward will remain to be seen.

Updated:
This was pointed out in the comments of this article, but in the wake of a number of set back from late last year, right up until today, Toshiba Corp has said they will no longer push or support the HD DVD format, conceding to massive shifts in the market.

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

Pitched as a more affordable option to the aggressively campaigned Blu-ray format supported and initially manufactured by Sony, Toshiba had high hopes for their player which have come crumbling down in the past few months, beginning with the exclusive backing of the Blu-ray format from one of the world's largest film companies, Warner Bros.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Stern words. This suggests the company will maintain working in the field (obviously), but for now have had to raise the white flag. You can find the full press release regarding their resignation from the "so-called 'next-generation format war'" by clicking here.

Anyone else wondering if Sony would actually allow Microsoft to utilize Blu-ray tech?

Anyone else wondering if Sony would actually allow Microsoft to utilize Blu-ray tech?

That's not Sony's decision to make, The Blu-Ray disc Association's board of directors includes like 18 major corporations. People also don't seem to be aware that there's actually Microsoft developed technology used in the codecs of most Blu-ray movies that MS earn royalties on.

So many people criticised MS for not making an in-built HD drive, hope they're feeling pretty stupid right about now.

Anyone else wondering if Sony would actually allow Microsoft to utilize Blu-ray tech?

Uh...considering that the Blu-ray directors are from the following companies...

Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsus***a Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

Why would 17 or the 18 companies heading up the BDA decide that their sales should be limited to only the PS3 in the console market for the sake of 1 of the 18?

fair enough.

If there are 18 directors from different companies, why is Bluray so synonymous with Sony? Did Sony put more money into it or something?

Sony's the only visible one because they've made a massive gamble and put their PS3 on BD. No other companies on the board had really done anything to the extend that Sony had i.e. put the money where their mouth is. This is why Sony gets the cops most of the flack for being a bully by simply taking the lead and try to spear head the BD format. I'm sure they'll fell vindicated and relived for their efforts.

As a consumer I'm happy that finally this stupid format war is done, so I can look to upgrade my players etc in the near future without having to worry too much.

wonder how long it will take for MS to bring out a blu-ray add on for the xbox360.

If there are 18 directors from different companies, why is Bluray so synonymous with Sony? Did Sony put more money into it or something?

Sony did all the initial development and pushed for the standards to be set as they requested. They basically had all the initial development control before the spec was ratified (and even then some).

There's already rumours flying around that Microsoft will have a Blu-Ray addon out by as early as May.

Link.

I don't know how reliable this site is, so make of it what you will.

Just buy a PS3 then :P

Hopefully this will mean we will see more BR burners available for cheaper prices. It's cheaper to get a PS3 from the stats then to buy a BR burner from Umart at the moment.

Just buy a PS3 then :P

blu-ray player for xbox = 200-300$

playstation3 having games = priceless

heh, ps3.

http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/temp/7bfa.jpg

nicely done demon
cue pic
grand theft auto: now with castrated graphics for PS

How the hell did i end up with real friends.

I must be an edge case.

The one caveat to that would be to include a massive pay out of WOW players somewhere around the PC tab.

yawn, another demon pic with no pirates

Yawn, a demon pic with no space and only one frame.

tuff crowd! i didn't make the friggn pic!!@#! :P


http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/mgifz/chase.gif


the chicken could be a pirate.

:D

So I like video games and I don't. Also I have friends but only internet ones :(

grand theft auto: now with castrated graphics for PS

Thankfully this is the first 3D GTA game that doesn't apply to.

demon your second work of art was much more animated than your previous works in this thread.

Same here. I don't want a PS3 for games...I don't want to fork out $700 for a new console...so I would get a Blu-ray addon. Though....hopefully an internal one is available rather than an external one.

As for May release...BOOOOO!

as far as selling the Blue ray design to other comapanys etc microsoft, even though they could im not sure they would considering, how quickly other companies are dieing out of that model, but maybe later on they might sell it for a s*** load.

yawn, another demon pic with no pirates

Also no animated quake symbols to be seen... shame.

*Sigh* More claims that it's impossible to like both PC and Console games.

Now officially dead.

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

Toshiba Press Release