@MasterOfPastures: Sony won last generation. This isn't the first time they've one a war and I'm sure they won with the PS1 as well.

Well, third times the charm right? I mean Sony did a VHS thing, a UMD, now Blu-ray. Hope the hot air doesn't go to their head and they think people will start buying UMD's again.

Shaoko

Blue Ray is a better technology than HD DVD. I think Toshiba fail in trying to convince the people with 1080P TV's that their format was the better value. Of the 100% of HD TV owners 80% have a TV with a 720P or 1080i resolution(there is your audience Toshiba). I own a 1080i plasma for which I paid $1,300. Can Any one justify me buying a Blue Ray at $400 and a 1080P HD TV at $1,400 (total investment $1,800) or simply buy an HD DVD player for $275 before the drastic price cut. Come on Toshiba you really killed yourself by trying to convince everyone that HD DVD was the best technology out there. As for me and I think I speak for the people with 720P & 1080i HD TV, the logic is simply upscale current DVD's and wait until I can upgrade my tv and player maybe by then the format will be different. BY the way Blue Ray display was not always sharper than HD DVD.

cuatronueces

@psycoking: I'm In Europe, so the region problems are something I have to think of every time I import blu-rays. Hopefulle some studios will continue without region encoding on the discs.

Fisketryne

@Strangelove: Wrong.
Despite how fast internet is, people still want tangible copies of their media. Why do you think so many people bought the Blu-Ray version of Warhawk over the downloadable version?

Even then, the media format will exist for a while. People need discs to burn their media on, and Blu-Ray is the media of the near future to do so.

The evolution of internet and streaming will not destroy the existence of tangible discs.

Polygon

@Mongoosekun: I guess this brings new meaning to blue movie...

Nick

Glad I didn't buy the 360 add-on. Now release the Bourne series on Blu-Ray already!

phalanges

Wow I thought I was at N4G for a second. Seems like Kotaku is overrun by fanboys.

Oh well this just means people will dump their HD DVDS cheap and I can add them to my media collection on my HTPC. So the news ain't all that bad.

FtGF

i hate this news, but i love that picture.

squirrel_enix

I just never could see how HD-DVD stood a chance in this "war". It seemed pretty obvious to me it was going to take a miracle to over come Blu-Ray as the format of choice just given the fact that it was in every PS3.

Phenom88

@ps3Dominance: I will check it out for sure since youre the 2nd person here to say that model looks better than any LCD.
@RuneX: I havent done any extensive comparison but in my eyes a high quality display is one where its easy to see the difference between a 1080p disc and an upscaled DVD. Ive seen many LCDs and plasmas where the difference is next to nothing but Ive also seen several where its night and day (notably in the compression artifacts around edges where dark and light meet as well as fine detail)

slackjawed

I'm just glad it's over. I didn't really care who won because, like many who kept their head and money, we waited.

PsycheDiver

@bboboo: Saw it coming for miles.

NKato

I'm not crying a river over Hd-DVD, but I hope the BDA gets it in gear with new profiles with better picture-in-picture support, online connectivity and the interactive menus that HD-DVD had from day one.

The menus on many of the Blu-Ray discs I have watched on PS3 have been sluggish and sparse compared to HD-DVD titles on the 360. Caveats: Not the same films watched on each format. I've watched a couple dozen HD movies total, of which only 4 were HD-DVD.

aka Bitter

@sevenfeetunder: Don't fool yourself. DD isn't true HD, and it won't be for decades until the telecomm industry pulls their heads out of their asses and get to work on our network infrastructure.
[blogs.zdnet.com]

Dorphat the Insomniac

Maybe now I can finally buy a Blu-Ray player. Or maybe I should wait for digital distribution. Crap I can't decided.

sevenfeetunder

@MrSatan:
Jesus, tell me about it. Remember all of those scratched Halo 3 discs? Give me a fucking break, all that hype for an average game and the discs are scratched!? I couldn't even play the damn thing. Whatever, I'm starting to hope that my 4th RROD'd 360 doesn't even ship back at all, I'll be playing Ratchet

Huxle

This will give me an excuse to stop hating the ps3 and get one!!!!

I will still like my 360 more because I love the games on it and live, I will admit they pretty much screwed HD-DVD but I can't afford an HDTV and I don't have an HD-DVD player so I was really never affected by it. Sucks for the saps that bought the add-on = P

I wish console bashing would stop because all the systems are great and if you dislike one of them just keep it to yourself. you don't have to troll forums and act like a doushe. The only reason some-hate a console in my mind is because they don't have it. I know when a console works good and has great games it is awesome, which all system have.

LONG LIVE 360, PS3, WII!!!! and PC/PSP/GBA/NES/SNES/GENSIS/VIRTUA BOY!!!

Cheezburgerz

I did not see this coming. At least everyone got what they wanted: one side to step down and end it quickly.

Aflack: Likes slushies

love the picture!

Sony's biggest gamble with the PS3, paid off, rut-roh shaggie!

DrunkRaba

Ironically, the store I work at just got HD DVD players today.

Jonn

Finally, thank god Blu-Ray won. Now I don't have to worry about discs getting scratched anymore.

MrSatan

Hail Blu-Ray! Finally a superior format that Sony succeeded on! Betamax was much better than VHS but it unfortunately lost.

DigitalHero

that was fast.

Tacobake

@ConstantCupcake:

Have you lived under a rock for the past year?

Blu Ray has outsold HDDVD and more studios, plus the biggest one threw exclusive support behind it as well.

Sollus

Long live the better format!

krunkjuice

What the hell decided this? I know *I* didn't decide this.
Was it a sales thing? Or did the company execs fight to the death gladiator style on some deserted island?

ConstantCupcake

@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier: Not 2 people in the world can agree with everything :)

If anyone here would agree with everything I said then I know I would not be true to myself. I agree with you sometimes too.

Irenicus-the one and only

@LeLoi: I agree. After watching movies in Blu-ray, everything became lo-def; DVDs, TV, and even the stupid theatre.

ST19AG_WGreymon

@Irenicus-the one and only: Though I frequently find myself at odds with what you say, I must agree with you in this case and respectfully disagree with Strangelove.

@Strangelove: 5 years is an extremely optimistic estimate for a totally direct-download marketplace. See my original post...#100 I believe...I say pretty much everything I felt needed to be said there. (Though disregard some of the more pointed comments as they are obviously not directed at you).

Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier

@Masume:

Um, You do know you can still play DVD's on a Blu-ray player right? Therefor there isn't a need to 're-buy' the collection.

ps3Dominance

Ha ha, I feel bad for you early adopters of the add-on periph. I love my sexbox for its awesome gaming, but wasn't it obvious that HD-DVD was dying out?.

Fyren

I'm glad the war is over! However, I feel like a lazy sunbather.

ThisCharmingMan

@SlackJawed

Try on a 5687S LED BACKLIT DLP and tell me ANY LCD looks better.

ps3Dominance

@Strangelove: You made my point lol Seriously man DD will take longer then 5years to be standard, competition does exist, between every manufacturer there is and against dvd. Just like dvd has it, buy Sony dvd's or TDK or whatever. Same with the players, so there is competition, infact having 2 formats such as hd-dvd and BR hurt the consumers more then anything in this case. Also it is a consortium.

There are many reasons to buy a BR player, this year, previous year or next year. I'm satisfied with dvd myself but Blu Ray is good and we will all eventually get it. Unless you do have serious hate against them, which you seem to have, you take "solace", hd-dvd fanboys are for real crazy...

Long term there are several reasons to own BR, don't want a PS3 then buy a pilips or something.

Irenicus-the one and only

and in other news, some grass grew today.
now maybe the fanboys on both sides will stfu already, but i doubt it.

firesign

I'm happy Blu-ray won, because I'm looking at burners more than movie players. It's expensive like early DVD now, but as it gets common and older it will get cheaper.

The movie playback I've heard was better on HD-DVD, mostly because of how the discs were authored than the technology available. The tech is unstable though and needs updating and I've heard it's hellish for owners of standalone players. It's like when 802.11g was just a draft spec - it sucks when this stuff is rushed out early and finished later on what hardware it CAN be.

But in the long run, I think it's only going to get easier and the right choice has been made. Smarter manufacturers made it easy to update their players - there's no reason to make it hard when the standard isn't even concrete yet. As we see more net-connected players, hopefully it will get as easy as updating a PS3 and they won't have to cope with the old "firmware update disc" paradigm we used to use on DVD players any more.

fuchikoma

@brandonf:

Let it lie.

@z3ntn3l: @Irenicus-the one and only:

I don't recall anyone on this board extolling the virtues of HD-DVD. We're finding out who the fanboys are, though.

@Masume:

I agree with what you're saying. While I'm happy that there is now one standard, a lack of competition is never good for the consumer. I take solace in the likelihood that Blu-Ray will be just as dead in 5 years when digital distribution and internet speeds are better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting against BR just because of blind hatred for Sony. I'm of the opinion that BR just won't have any sort of staying power, much shorter than VHS or DVD, and to invest in a player outside of a PS3 would just be a waste of money long-term.

Strangelove

@z3ntn3l: +1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1.....+(all the PS3 owners bashed everytime by xbots) Paytime little bas@#rds :P

OT79

@Fantus:

I actually don't own any HD format, players nor discs. Incorrect guess, Sir. I've said this in other posts, I refuse to buy into another media (and rebuy an entire collection) so soon when the current standard is still going strong and capable of producing results which are fine for me. Before you assume, yes, I own a high-def, large LCD.

Irenicus: Honestly, the crowing about Blu-Ray is a hundred times worse, if anything. At least the HD-DVD supporters have a right to whine about a format that they bought into which is obviously on the decline. Crowing about their loss is completely childish, and really doesn't benefit anyone.

Masume

This for all you 360+HD-DVD owners:

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Yesterday you was offending... today you´re howling.

Suckers!

z3ntn3l

@Masume: I hope all "hd-dvd fanboys" cease to exist now, shoo go away, hd-dvd is no more shoo shoo!

Irenicus-the one and only

It's dead Jim. I think I'll still wait till the prices of Blu-Ray players comes down a bit more.

brandonf

Good to see it is official and on paper now. Maybe now people can stop the whole video format war, it was pretty annoying to begin wih. Blu Ray won, don't mention hd-dvd and lets talk games.

Irenicus-the one and only

@Masume:

Sounds like somebody is a lil butt-hurt over the fact that their HD-DVD player is worthless now.

Fantus

Actually, that would include myself. LOL! I didn't side with Blu-Ray until mid 2007.

DigitalHero

Ok, lets start picking out the people who said HD-DVD would win last year. Time for firing squad! =P /sarcasm

DigitalHero

Hey!That's Preston Lacey from Jackass.I assume this is from his new movie where he plays Fatty Arbuckle.Cool.

coktoe

@dalejrfanfreak:
Actually, since they are the only HD solution (apparently now) and the format is essentially a niche market, they might try to milk it for all it's worth? This has happened many a time before. Sony might not own the format entirely, but they are the heavyweight concerning the entire group. They could easily pressure everyone else to pull things their way if they wanted.

Fanboyism breeds retardation in a way, and it's mostly an immature trait. It makes people cite opinions that go against fact, just to promote what they believe to be 'their' team. If you think that sort of thing is really good for the industry, then the corporations thank you, because it's blind faith like that they puts money into their wallets while they bleed you dry on possible bad products. Sony relies on it, and it works, and they've jerked consumers around because of it. MS relies on it to a lesser extent, they're more of a necessary evil. Nintendo used to do it a lot more until they had to fight again, let's hope it doesn't go back to their ego's.

Blind faith to anything doesn't help the industry, it's competition and open mindedness that breeds creativity.

Masume

@rawg: The wit.. it destroys me.

MrBionic

@Sparkamus: Arg, my post got eaten partially somehow:

I never bought the whole "Porn wins the format war argument"

The most private medium favors porn. Thus, Live Sex Show loses to Darkened Porno theater (maybe), Porno Theater loses to VHS Porn, and VHS Porn loses to DVD Porn, and finally DVD porn loses to Streaming Internet Porn.

In many ways I think porn benefits from not being in HD. Do you need to see every blemish on the actress's ass?

Sparkamus

I don't think digital downloads will take off like they did for music. Music is a different beast, where sometimes it can be hard to find a particular album at Wal Mart or Best Buy. Plus, it doesn't take long to download an album and it takes up little space even though it is good quality. This is not true for movies. Digital Movies are lower quality, they take up tons of space if it is High Definition, it is usually not difficult to find the movie you want at most retailers, digital movies are far less portable than any dvd or blu ray movie, and digital movies take hours to download, far more time than it takes to drive to best buy and pick up a blu ray disc. Oh, and best of all, you can actually hold a blu ray disc in your hand, it's a real object and not just data files.

Digital distribution for movies will not take off for a very long time.

Oh, and btw, Blu Ray prices will drop for faster adoption of the format. Sony is not in total control of prices, they are not the only ones who make players or discs for that matter.

Last but not least, there's nothing wrong with being a fanboy. It's not any different than liking Chevy or Ford.

dalejrfanfreak

@slomo788: I never bought the whole "Porn wins the format war argument"

The most private medium favors porn. Thus, Live Sex Show

In many ways I think porn benefits from not being in HD. Do you need to see every blemish on the actress's ass?

Sparkamus

It was about time they announced this, now there shouldn't any more confusion on the HD market. Now we're gonna see if DVD sales are gonna go down or not with a single HD format out.

heero69

@Sollus: HA!!! I just remembered where that was from, the WWE I can't remember who had to go but it just came to me!!

rockmanjoey

@qBIRD:
@quen:

OK guys, I'm willing to listen. I'm just working off what information I've got onhand. What do you know that I don't?

PratzStrike

@kingclip: I want Transformers on Blu Ray, I like the original movie more than the 2007 Movie but I still want a HD Copy of it.

I wanted to get Chronicles of Riddick the most and as seeing HD-DVD is dead, a Blu Ray version looks possible

rockmanjoey

@KaneRobot:

Blu ray might have hurt the PS3 in the beginning, however, now if a gamer wishes to have a console that is also capable of playing high definition movies the PS3 is by far the way to go. Also, there are some gaming companies that are happy they don't have to worry about disc space like they do with the 360. Just give it time and you will see why the blu ray investment will pay off. The PS3 now offers much more than the 360 in terms of price, now all I have to do as a PS3 owner is sit back and watch title after title come out this year so I can keep building my game library.

dalejrfanfreak

I was waiting for this to end for a while now. GG, HD-DVD!

jiSh

@KaneRobot: And you'll see your 50 dollar player sooner than later...the A3 is already around the 80 dollar mark refurbed...I'm going to pick up an XA2 this week because those refurbs are down to 300 bucks.

If you shop around you can get good deals on cassette tapes, analog cell phones and horse buggy whips too.

rawg

@LittleBigPlaneteer: amen.

@Islandkiwi: Blu-Ray will undoubtably make money. The home video market is huge. Even though it was down from the year before, it still made $23.4B in 2007, which is bigger than the movie and game industry combined.

People will argue that digital downloads will win eventually and they're right of course, but it will be a few years before DD become a reality for the mainstream.

Also, for anyone who wants to have a library of their favorite movies on HD physical media, Blu-ray is the only way to go. For example, I'll always own a physical copy of Blade Runner on the highest quality format available. I've had it on VHS, DVD and now BRD.

Maybe that's just me. I also have a library of hard bound editions of my favorite books, including the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

rawg

Sony dominanted this format war and congrats goes out to them

ExtremeOne316

@SnakeCL:
Best comment EVER.

I'm glad that HD-DVD finally has bitten the bullet and gone away.. now my planned purchase of a PS3 seems even more sensible.. that is when I find this magical spare £400 -__-

*Light bulb* Oh yeah, I'm a student, March it is O_O

Makeda

Dammit. The one thing I did NOT want was Transformers on Blu-Ray. What a horrible flick.

kingclip

It's all over before 95% of the people I know bought HDTVs and 99% of the people I know bought HDTV movie players (that one guy who bought an HD-DVD has a PS3 anyway). I spent more time typing this than I've spent watching Blu-Ray and HD-DVD put together.

What I'm trying to say is I'm glad it ended before it started for me.

supercrap

@dalejrfanfreak: Not such a bad idea, except their console is distantly trailing the competition.

The PS3 has been Blu-Ray's bitch since day one...which is why I laugh at PS3 fanboys saying that Sony would never "allow" MS to make a Blu-Ray add-on. First of all, Sony probably wouldn't have much of a say in it as long as MS went through the proper channels. Second of all, Sony's main priority is Blu-Ray, not the PS3.

KaneRobot

@MrBionic: Reading a lot of these comments, I only have to assume that many of you bought Blu-Ray stock or something.

That's what happens when the console 'tard mentality carries over into other realms of geekdom. The only thing sadder than HD DVD fans thinking the sky has fallen are the Blu-Ray fans celebrating it, like they actually won something. "Hooray! We can continue to fork over our money to the BDA, just like we could yesterday!"

What an honor.

And you'll see your 50 dollar player sooner than later...the A3 is already around the 80 dollar mark refurbed...I'm going to pick up an XA2 this week because those refurbs are down to 300 bucks.

KaneRobot

Reading a lot of these comments, I only have to assume that many of you bought Blu-Ray stock or something.

Oh right, I forgot, that whole "I have to feel superior" human nature thing strikes again.

Let's all just be glad that the format war is over so that something can be concentrated on and enjoyed for years to come (hopefully).

Having said that.. if I see an HD-DVD player for $50, I'm *SO* getting one.

MrBionic

I WIN.

artofwar420

@method47:

Because I touted which system exactly?

Last I checked, my points were all valid, as well, or are you arguing either are incorrect?

Masume

The funny thing about this is the words "won the format war".

Won between two small competitors? Yes. But the battle for the actual market has just begun. The fact is that regular DVDs are still king and they're poised to remain that way for a long time to come, especially given the expense of the winner.

Good luck to them, but it's not going to happen.

Zombie_Crunch

@Masume: Sounds like your the fanboy.

method47

i guess blu ray in the ps3 wasn't such a bad idea afterall.

dalejrfanfreak

It's PS3 fanboy season?

Here's hoping for those investing in a costly and early media upgrade don't have your prices jacked without competition on the HD front. You might get lucky though, since most people aren't even investing in them yet, so technically, their major competition is DVD now. Also, pray Sony doesn't put some horribly intrusive or crippling copy-protection on those suckers, since they do love to do that on a regular basis. ;)

Masume

@qBIRD: Too True...you hit the nail on the head...without early adopters NEITHER format would have moved forward. I hope people start replacing DVDs with Blu Ray so we can advance the technology. Does anyone notice that Blu Ray and HDDVD combined never got more than 10% of the total market?

Regular DVDs may kill off Blu Ray and I hope that doesn't happen.

Seiven

Hoorah! Finally, I can watch Blu Ray movies on my PS3 without 360 assholes shouting at me to support HD DVD -.-

Huxle

Well, I for one am glad I stopped buying DVDs about a year and a half ago. It is such a collosal waste of money. I built up a huge collection of over 200 DVDs and never watched any of them. I learned my lesson. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray....whatever. If they think I am gonna spend thousands of dollars building up another movie collection they are sorely mistaken. Netflix and digital distribution FTW! Can we go back to talking about games now? Thank god this stupid format war is over.

Gray665

@Prodigys Flawless: Your comment makes ridiculously little sense. You bought a PS3, not because of the games, but because you didn't have faith in an add-on to play HD movies on the 360 ... then you admit you don't watch many movies because you're playing games? Wha?!! Huh??

So, you passed on the system with the most games because of movies, so that you could play games?

jayntampa

must be a sad day for kotaku...

steliosco

why did consumers allow the studios to determine the winner instead of putting their money where their mouth was and buying one or the other? Instead they rolled over like little bitches and took what the studios fed them.
If all consumers bought one or the other instead of "sitting this one out till a winner is decided" the result may have been different...or we may have had a MUCH shorter format war. This is the way people vote too..."well I don't want to waste my vote, so I am going to see who the media tells me is the best candidate and vote for them."
DAMNIT SHEEPLE THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Seiven

i seen this shit coming,thats why i bought a ps3, i only watch a few movies on it because i'm mostly playing games.

Prodigys Flawless

I'm sure Home Shopping Network will continue selling HD-DVD with their Olevia LCD screens to naive people who never even heard of the format war.

suburbancowboy

@Aglet:

Sadly...it is game related...

PS3 has a blu ray player built in

and Microsoft gave the "choice" of only being able to "choose" to have a HD-DVD external drive.

Vecha

@Treefingers: Blu Ray is now waging a war against DVD and Digital Downloading..prices will not go up..mass adoption is key..therefore prices will fall..you obviously have no idea how it works.

qBIRD

@PratzStrike:

you need to do some research before posting your monster post of disinformation..there is porn on Blu Ray.

Blu Ray Disc Association:"We'll allow it!"

qBIRD

@Father ColdCuts: My parents rented transformers on blu ray. the 1986 film... who releases an animated film from the 80s on blu ray

knails

Well, its time to start loading up on cheap HD-DVD's now that the stores will fire-sale them out. Good thing I've got both formats. As long as my 360 HD-DVD drive holds out, I'll keep using it. Despite the format's death, Heroes on HD-DVD still looks awesome. So long, HD-DVD...we hardly knew you.

Sgt. Bilbo

nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, GOODBYE!

Sollus

It took me a while to search through my old comments but I believe I called it back at around 7:45 PM on Jul 26, 2007.

The reason I gave then, as it is I believe now - Blu Ray just sounds cooler.

Having said that however, I estimate about 3% of the population in my area are currently unsatisfied with the quality of DVD.

floppylobster

@Sugaray: I'll be honest, I'm just glad it's coming to an end one way or another. At the end of the day, HD DVD going up shit creek harms few, where as Blu-Ray going the same way would have impacted the PS3, and to see a relatively new console go that way would have been sad.

DVDs FTW!

TearsandScreams

The ONLY advantage BlueRay had over HD-DVD was capacity.In all actuality HD-DVD was the more complete and finished technology which also made it the better technology.EVERY standalone BlueRay player out now, IS obselete and can't even take advantage of features found on BlueRay movies currently being shipped,nor can they be upgraded via firmware to add the new features.Until profile 2.0 BlueRay players are out, available and affordable to consumers, then it isn't even finished tech.Unfortunately not always does the "better" technology win.

and then life goes on.

Sugaray

This "format war" is silly. Dvd is still relatively new, and only in it's prime. I still can't snuff the feeling this is just some cheap ploy by studios looking to resell you all the movies you already own on DVD.

Smash_Bro

I do not see how HD DVD even lasted this long. Blu Ray was vastly superior. It isn't even like VHS and Beta wars. At least Beta had some pluses to it and was better is some areas.

AzureDrag0n1

1.Let the firesale begin!Tons of cheap HD movies for me!

2.BlueRay,HD-DVD or whatever physical HD format came AFTER DVD was/is doomed to be a niche format at the very best.The real successor to DVD will be DD/VOD.Sure, people will always want a "physical" medium they can own, which we now know is BlueRay.Unless prices on hardware and movies are lowered to become affordable to the average consumer(and profile 2 standalones available) by the 3rd quarter, then "niche" will be the very best BR could hope to become.

3.Anyone lookign to get into HD movies CHEAP should consider buyig into HD-DVD NOW.tHE PRICES ON PLAYERS AND A TON OF excellent HD movies is going to be DIRT CHEAP.The technology is cutting edge that'll be selling for pennies.While you're enjoying your HD-DVD player/movies you got for less than the price of a good dvd player/dvd movie setup, you can save for one of those $399 profile 2 BR players when they become available later this year.

Sugaray

HD-What?

KPhilla

i really didnt care for either format to tell you the truth

bigman88zz

good news for all of us, the consumers. No more debate and money waste.

fatez

I wonder if all the HD DVD's will end up in the landfill right beside the unsold copies of ET

Xolotl

@slackjawed:

I have an sharp aquois TV(Brand new japanese model) as well as a Bravia(1year old japanese model) and I can barely tell the differance, if at all between bluray and an upscaled dvd. Factor in the base cost of bluray disks here at around $50 and you have what I deem a useless format. I havnt really liked much of what I saw of either HD format, but I will say I preferred the HDDVD over bluray.

For those who think digital media downloads are too far off or not viable for hte masses, your probably right. But I couldnt give two shits about the masses. I only care about myself and having had every sony product ive ever owned(10th playstation, 3walkmans, My current 1 year old tv, digicam,PSP, and mp3 player) break on me, im not to thrilled about them winning. Im personally hoping for digital downloads to take precedent as its a lot more convient and takes up far less space for those of us in regions where space is severely limited.

Anyways, congrats are in order for sony this time around and hopefully this format dies soon or drops in price so that its $10 or less for movies. Then ill actually start buying them again after the dismal 16blocks and 300 bluray disks ive bought.

RuneX

@Doshu: Consumers knew what best for them and chose Blu-ray. The sales confirms this.

@tei: God forbid that filmmakers actually want people to buy product instead of pirating them.

Evo

@Soldier G65434-2: wait, how did you deal with the Wii?
Or Dreamcast?
Or basically any console name that wasnt Genesis?

TheIrishNinja

Microsoft need a Blu Ray drive add on for 360, and they need it yesterday. Otherwise the moment will come when Blu Ray hits a spark and PS3 sales rocket.

RobTheBuilder

Congrats to the PS3 guys.

Hope this don't make people publish bigger movies on the P2P networks (is legal here in spain), I hate to download huge files.
Blue-ray has DRM crap?

tei

Finally it's over. I can't wait for Transformers to be on Blu-ray.

zerokoolpsx

now we're in the denial stage.

:(

cooler_dood

I don't like Blue Ray. For the simple fact that it's got a messed up name. Re-name it BR-DVD and you've got a winner.

Soldier G65434-2

That said, if HD-DVD found life in PCs I wouldn't mind getting one.

Shinryoma

@Fisketryne: HD DVD was region free and slightly cheaper while the difference in picture quality was neglible between the formats. If consumers knew what was best for them, would they not choose HD DVD?

I knew what was best for me and chose bluray. Capacity FTW.

Doshu

I have both so it's no biggie for me. I have way more hd dvd's than bd's tho. I guess when it comes time to sell my 360 ill keep the HD DVD drive and connect it to my home theatre pc. People seem to have this attatude than now HD DVD has lost the format war the players & software will suddenly stop working or something.

Looking forward to a shit load of cheap HD DVD movies now!!

Basscadet

Sigh...

RobTheBuilder

I'm so glad I bet on Blu-Ray. I wonder how long it will take for Paramont and Universal to go blue?

silkylove

Excerpt from my personal sources regarding prices of Blu-ray discs... "They will slowly rise, but they can't be raised over night. If consumers are resistant to the price hike, then the prices will stay where they are, but they will not go down any time soon. Since the majority polled believe that Blu Ray is overpriced that isn't very promising for you and your toy [,the PS3]. You would be paying $40-50 a movie right now if HD DVD hadn't existed. HD DVD's low prices have forced [Sony's] hand to lower prices, [Sony] did NOT do it for the customer. [Sony] did it for us to try and preserve long-term sales."

Treefingers

@slackjawed: I believe the model number was Samsung HL-S5687 this could be wrong as i was doing the research over 1.5 years ago. Doesnt matter much as there are sure to be much better Samsung DLPs out there, and i only recommend Samsung DLPs. Make sure its is not LCD back lit. LCDs last longer but you get much better performance and quality out of the typical light bulb.

Treefingers

@Grave of the Fireflies: yeah! if only the mainstream'd just bootleg everything, that'd really stick it to the man!
a lot of us are torrenting, but if you think that's how hte masses are gonna get files upwards of 20GBs, you're kidding yourself. the number of people with an actual TB drive and connection to be doing what youre boasting right now is so low, it makes the number of people running crysis at max settings seem like a large group. Yeah, sony's crying alla way to the bank, good work.

TheIrishNinja

As I understand it, Sony currently subsidise the manufacturing cost of Blu-Ray discs (in order to bring them into line with the manufacturing cost of HD-DVD and thus make it attractive to the studios). If the cost of manufacture hasn't come down sufficiently by the time Sony stops subsidising then that could cause a price rise in the cost of films. Or the studios might absorb the price increase themselves -- but I doubt it.

I'm not going to whine about how the most consumer-friendly format lost because I expect most of Kotaku's readers are Americans who, quite frankly, don't care about Europeans not being able to import films. However, I wonder if being consumer-friendly is ultimately what lost it for HD-DVD; maybe if they'd implemented region-locking then more studios would have got on board. But then again, if it's a choice between one region-locked format and another then I don't really give a tinker's cuss which one wins anyway...

tossrStu

Sony has accomplished what it set out to accomplish with the PS3.

Now, the real question remains: Are they going to re-release those original "Only on HD-DVD" titles to blu-ray any time soon?

Scuba Steve

@Treefingers: Yeah, Im interested because I highly doubt that it'll beat the new Samsung LNT**71 flat panel LCD series. (currently in the market for a new TV that size and wanna compare everything)

slackjawed

It's good that a higher quality format did win out, although both were a marked improvement from old media.
My only qualm about this announcement is that it will bring hundreds of self-righteous format fanboys (for both formats; they're just as bad as each other) crawling out of the woodwork to spit at each other.

Wunderbear

All I can say is that if Blu-rays cost $5 more than now, I'm not buying ANY. I already only buy a couple when their on sale and my fav movies, they'd be losing my business for sure by raising prices.

PSN ID: Kadaj24

@Treefingers:
I think they'll stay the same for about that time, then drop eventually. I think if people see inflated prices they'll be just as hesistant to buy as when HD-DVD was around. I think they see that their next opponent is DVD and to tap into that demographic they'll need to lower software prices. I'm not sure about hardware prices though.

PSN ID: Kadaj24

@PSN ID: Kadaj24: Im not saying it will be permanant by any means but for about a year or less (at least 6 months) prices will be higher than they are now, if only 5$ more.
@slackjawed: I dont recall the model off-hand and its at my other house. I got it Summer 2006 though 56" 1080p Samsung DLP. Will update with info later if you want.

Treefingers

@PratzStrike: So much post, so little knowledge...

Nice to see this finally confirmed - hopefully this will give the industry a bit of a boost so they can actually release something I want to buy.

quen

@Treefingers: There is no denying that without competition Sony will probably raise prices but only when it comes to the actual player itself and on their part it's a smart idea. It will draw more people to purchasing a PS3 rather than just a stand alone Blu-Ray player. And that will lead to less complaints in the future due to the fact that the PS3's Blu-Ray playback is future proof unlike other players. And I honestly can't see Blu-Ray discs going up in price though. With there already being a large price gap between Blu-Ray and DVD discs it just doesn't seem logical. Especially when you take into account that DVD's that are played on a upconverting player have an image quality comparable to Blu-Ray.

Ganglor

@Treefingers:

Yeah that is the common sensical view, but they still need to find a mainstream audience, and try to approach DVD. Did DVD prices go up after DiVx left? No, they declined as well. Prices always go down in these cases.

PSN ID: Kadaj24

@Treefingers: Which model is it? If its that good Ill have to check it out. Cause Ive never seen a consumer-model rear projection tv, 1080p or not, that looks remotely good. Color reproduction on a rear projection? Dont make me laugh. (Oh Im not talking about industrial DLPs--those look awesome, but alas they aren't rear projection)

slackjawed

@ArmyofJuan: You can watch your standard dvd's in your bluray player, you know? Simple as that. And you know what? You can even watch them scaled up at a higher quality that way. As soon as you have a HD-TV with a fitting source at home, you'll be blown away by the difference, believe me.
For me, it compares to the difference between mono audio and full blown dolby audio.
You cant really trust the images you get in most of the stores. The problem there is, that they take one source and show that on many, many screens with a device, that splits the signal up and empowers it a little, but the quality loss in doing so is tremendous. You have to see an actual image only displayed on one screen. Eyecandy.

tylerstyle

the sheer lack of players even with a earlier start is just something surprising to me.

[www.engadget.com]
"600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide."

over a 2yr period i knew HD player sales were slow but not that much since most were waiting on price drop (HD-DVD did that) and the end of the format war (which HD-DVD did by quiting) now that all that happens blu-ray players need/will drop and everything will be cake until Cable rolls out DOCSIS 3.0 and not screw ppl over on bandwith

Bleentastic

Looks like those Blu Rays I bought myself for xmas put HD DVD out of Business. I believe I'm due for a medal or something Sony?

Have your people call my people and we'll make this happen.

Grocerspride

@slackjawed: WOW more ignorance. Rear-projection is not your problem. I have a 1080p Samsung DLP Rear Projection TV and im sure it looks better than any LCD you could ever show me.

Treefingers

@PSN ID: Kadaj24: Honestly, some people just cant tell the difference between upconverted DVDs and Blu-ray 1080p material. I think part of that is because there are still so many crap TVs out there claiming to show "HD quality" (im looking at you, rear projection) that really dont look much different when comparing the two. Compare the two on one of the new Sammy or Sharp LCDs and then one can really see the difference.

slackjawed

@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier: Ummm, what? OK, HD DVD was the only reason Blu-ray prices were so low to begin with. Now that HD DVD will be gone from retail in a few months BDA is free to raise their prices a few dollars. Consumers will whine too much for them to raise it too much thats why i said 30-45$ not 40-50$ most BDs are already in that range. And Sony did raise the price of their player 100$ after said announcement. I understand that Blu-ray prices will come down in the coming years but for right now they will only be going up (a small amount) to make up for the subsidized price cuts of their players. Besides one of the reasons BD was created was to re-tap the high margin Home Movie market.

Treefingers

@Grave of the Fireflies: You forgot to add the cost of buying ad blasters and reformatting your computer from all the viruses you've got from torrent sites.

All those saying that digital downloads will make blu ray obselete seems to forget that digital downloads are here already, in the form of the Apple TV service, Mircrosoft have missed the boat. Also the 15 - 20Gb file size you'll need to download to get anything near Blu Ray quality will tend to put people off, I'm all up for digital downloads, but they're a short way off from anything convenient, I'll have my blu-ray for now thanks

Shin-Kaiser

It's unfortunate since HD-DVD was the easy-to-use and develop format.

While HD-DVD was already a completed system, Blu-ray is still developing its format to allow for interactivity.

This continued development means people who bought earlier Bluray players won't be able to access the extra content on newer Bluray discs.

Somehow this format war reminds me of the tape format war several decades ago..

g8or8de

@Tuor: oooh, this grape is sour and contains FUD just like HD-FUD.

Evo

3 out of 4 Blu-Ray owners enjoyed this post. The fourth guy does not read Kotaku.

jackal888

drats........ stuck with the interwebz still for HD porn =(

xBETAx

@Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier: Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Actually I completely agree with you about the whole idea of digital distribution. It's great in theory but at the moment it just doesn't seem logical. And it does seem kind of strange how a lot of the supporters of Digital Distribution are either disgruntled HD-DVD owners or people who at the moment don't own an HDTV. Strange indeed...

Ganglor

@Treefingers: That's funny...because in all those years CDs and DVDs were the only format their prices went consistently down.

You also seem to be forgetting how expensive DVD players were when they first hit the scene. $400-$600 ring a bell? (And remember this is $400-$600 nearly a decade ago...)

Hell, remember when a Discman topped $100?

Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier

Virgin Broadband 10Mb unlimited downloads £11.50/month
Western Digital external 1TB HDD £159.99
Newsgroups and Torrents £0

The look on Sony's face.

Priceless

Grave of the Fireflies

@PSN ID: Kadaj24: WOW, if you think BDA will lower prices on BD product you have no idea how a free market system works. Nor the actions previously taken by one of its members, Sony. Sony raised the price of one of their players IIRC 100$ directly after the Warner Bros. announcement to go Blu. If anything BD prices will slowly go up, 30-45$ per BD.

Treefingers

RIP HD DVD. I think the 360 is not far behind...

pupaboy2

Thank GOD, FINALLY!

Now I think more people will adopt, the BDA will continue lowering prices on hardware and software and it'll be a pretty solid format. (Once they also finish BD-Java)

Now all we need is for Paramount and Universal to hurry up and start making Blu-Rays quick to catch up.

@madman83:
a little disappointed? DD is WAY too far away. And I dont care how much you and others say upconverted DVDs look good, they still look nothing close to HD. I upconvert my DVDs all the time in 1080p and they look nothing like my Blu-Rays.

PSN ID: Kadaj24

@LeLoi: So damn true.

Samicham85

@maiky-nisute:

My response is taken from a different thread, but it all applies to you and those who share your attitude on digital distribution:

"...What I find really laughable are those who've quickly done the about face from "HD-DVD is the more consumer friendly format" to "Digital distribution is poised to topple physical media".

In five to ten years time that second statement may very well be true. But anyone who seriously believes that the market, either consumers or distributors, are actually ready for such a major leap are either talking out of spite for Blu-Ray or morons...or both.

There may be something of a direct-to-consumer infrastructure already in place...though even there you're still talking about hundreds of thousands of people who still don't have convenient (or any) high speed internet access. But there is absolutely no retail infrastructure in place. Christ, Nintendo can't even manage to get its shit together with something as bush-league as DS download stations and PC addled morons are seriously expecting a nation-wide retail distribution system to set itself up over night? Get serious.

Even if the dynasty of Blu-Ray is half that of DVD, it's still here to stay for the foreseeable future. Because it's going to be a good long while before vendor agreements have been made, copy protection has been settled, players have been produced and marketed...etc, etc...

Good lord, even if digital distribution did take hold I'd give it a minimum two years before major retailers finally agree that individual studios catalogs needn't be carved up among them due to some draconian arrangement made when studios and retailers alike were still settling on copy-protection and distribution rights.

But before that happens don't be surprised if you're going to Wal-Mart to download a Disney film and then hoofing it to Target to pick up something from Warner Bros.

Does anyone seriously expect a market where any corner store can sell DVDs (and eventually Blu-Ray) without a contractual agreement is suddenly going to do a 180º to a set-up where only Wal-Mart, Target, and a handful of other national retailers are even allowed to sell digitally distributed media?

Nightshift Nurse: Nursier and Shiftier

For the people saying that DVD's are still great and the only thing they will buy, let me ask you this: Have you ever seen how nice a movie looks in 1080p? Once you go high-def you will NEVER go back.

LeLoi

Great news! F@ck the divide, bring on the universal format. MS should have bit the bullet earlier and supported Blu-Ray from the start, that way we wouldn't have had to stifle the HD-movie industry so long, and we would have had HD players in the 360 from the start.

Now how long before the movie prices start to drop to reasonable?

theALLseeingEYE

@rockmanjoey: That warrior who was fighting Guile was Warner Bros. lol

rockmanjoey

Kind of a pyrrhic victory for Sony as they beat out HD-DVD but in the process went from 1st in the console market to last thanks to the Blu-ray in the PS3 pricing it out of most people's minds for a year or so after it released (lack of good games didn't help).

sleeptastic

My reaction to the news as an early PLAYSTATION 3 adopter.

+ Watch video

Blu Ray = Bison and Balrog
HD DVD = Guile

rockmanjoey

@gamadaya: Ahh... I see. Although I think this is kind of the new Halo Helmet story thing [kotaku.com] . Been nagging about it a while now.
I just hope that everyone (incl Kotaku) can make as the headline and move on.

@Captain Impulse: I'm so sorry if I hurt anyone. Was none of my intentions (see above).

Aglet

@madman83: Yeah there's a reason why HD players were so expensive. 1 is because they use a remastered source. Most source files for Blu-ray/HD DVD are 4k, then transfered to 1080p. And thats way better than anything on DVD. Too bad you've never seen anyone with a nice enough TV and surround sound and components to accurately judge High Def Media. Hope you have fun with your Apple TVs and your Microsoft downloads with a piddly ~15MB maximum bitrate while im enjoying 40MB.

Treefingers

Good. Enough about this damned format war.

Side Note: The FBI should send Castro some cigars as a farewell gift.

Draconis

@madman83: Seems more like they're shooting at digital rentals, not ownership.

EvoAnubis

I still don't seem to care about HD. If I ever do decide to get an HD tv I still plan on buying DVD's considering I can get an upconverting DVD player far cheaper than any Blu-ray player on the market. It isn't like DVD are going to go anywhere for atleast the next 3 years. Until they start making movies in Blu-ray only I don't see the point in getting a Blu-ray player. If I do get a PS3 it sure won't be to watch movies on it.

And as many are pointing out the digital download of movies and TV programs is aproaching faster than the adoption of HDTV's and HD movies. Apple,Netflix,Amazon, and Microsoft are all gearing up for the digital download age of movies and tv.

madman83

So, HD-DVD has officially lost the HD format war. Now the question that remains to be answered is if Blu-Ray has _won_ the war. For now, DVD reigns supreme.

Purple Dave

@LittleBigPlaneteer: That's the thing: it *was* because there was a blu-ray player inside a PS3 that it did as well as it did. If you took away the PS3 sales, and HD-DVD took away their XBOX 360 add-on sales, HD-DVD would've blown them away. Price is part of it because price is, in part, a reflection of production costs: one was, apparently, easier to make than the other.

If MS had put an HD-DVD player in their XBOX the way Sony did with Blu-ray, would it have made any difference? No. In that respect, I completely agree with you.

Honestly, I think we should all just put this thing behind us now and look ahead to (hopefully) cheaper prices and greater availability. But, if manufacturing costs keep Blu-ray player prices high, then I'm pretty sure most people are going to stay with DVD, especially if the economy continues to sink.

Tuor

With Blu-Ray having Disney exclusives such as "Underdog" and "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" it was only a matter of time before they were victorious. Well played Sony...well played...

Ganglor

It's over. It's really over.

Yay.

Woot.

ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!

CitizenInsane27

Time to party like it's 1999!

PRAISE BE THE BABY JESUS!

Sailorcancer

Finally this war is over. I been a Blu-Ray supporter so I am happy that Blu-Ray won. To bad for the HD-DVD adopters, but not so bad. Since HD-DVD is going to go the the hd-dvd movies/players etc are going to be fairly cheap. So you can go out and buy an HD movie at some what dvd price.

spikeyello

Good riddance, will not be missed one bit. Yay that it's finally over, thank you Toshiba for throwing in the towel, you will suffer less now.

Samicham85

@Tuor:

I think Blu-ray would have won anyway. Imagine if they all had the same exact studio support. HD-DVD has the advantage in standalone players because of their pricing, but Blu-ray has the PS3. The PS3 sales alone would would push Blu-ray media sales well ahead of HD-DVD sales simply because of the install base.

Having Blu-ray insde the PS3 may seem unfair, but at least such an advantage wouldn't be borned out of bribery, and other facets you mentioned, but rather a trojan strategy that everyone bashed at first, but in retrospect actually worked out for Sony. Perhaps Toshiba could have done the same with the 360, even if it meant losing a lot of money initially. Perhaps they tried and MS didn't agree

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Cagalli: what do you do if its not out on blu ray. Like say...some random anime show like Fullmetal Alchemist. Thats really the primary reason i'm kind of sticking with DVD for now.

ArmyofJuan

@Aex: see, maybe im biased because all i have right now is SG but in that link you provided that "SD" photo looks far too blurry. Like for a second i thought i needed glasses.

Maybe i just need to get high and watch Planet Earth in HD like i'v always dreamed of doing to fully understand

ArmyofJuan

Well, not to gloat....well, fuck it, I'll go ahead and gloat.....I told you so. I've said this would happen since early last year, and have had to endure all the BS arguments (such as 'HD-DVD has more players on the market, just as long as you don't count blu-rays most popular player').

I will accept you apologies and mea culpas now. :)

Kanti_V2

@Aex: I don't buy DVDs anymore for this reason. If it's out on blu-ray too, I'll opt for that version.

Cagalli

@Tuor: Yes, and Japan and America are in the same region this time, so anime imports ahoy!

Cagalli

DING DONG!
HD DVD IS DEAD AND GONE!

Oh and if anyone cares.... FIDEL CASTRO stepped down today. BUT WHO CARES about the dictator?! We are so emotionally involved with a media format that will eventually bleed tens of thousands of dollars from our pockets as we r-epurchase the same DVDs we had which once, which were VHS tapes (and in some cases LDs) in another time.

OmiCom

@ArmyofJuan: That amazes me... The difference between an HD source and a SD source is massive for me now, it makes it really hard to watch SD sources :(

I think this picture below demonstrates the difference between a SD source and a HD source.

[www.francetelevisions.fr]

Aex

@LittleBigPlaneteer: Sure they did. But my point is that this wasn't decided by the consumer, but rather by which company did a better job of bribing the various studios, media outlets, and mega-chains.

Tuor

Cagalli... Really? I didn't realize it was optional. Well, that's good. Then really, my only issue is one of price. I'll probably keep with regular DVD until things come down a bit.

Tuor

@Tuor:

Oh an HD-DVD didn't try to bribe their way to victory? That whole 150 million to Paramount thing was all rumors, eh? Apparently Sony didn't even have to pay Warner off to go blu-exclusive. But Warner's CEO must be lying too huh?

LittleBigPlaneteer

Im sad, I always prefered Hd-dvd over Blu-Ray. But the good thing is that hope fully BD prices will lower and more people will adopt HD content.

Bring on LOTR on BD this Christmas Plz New Line.

Bumbuliuz

@Tuor: A lot of BDs are region free, more specifically Warner's.

Cagalli

haha "If consumers knew what was best for them..."

*We* didn't choose a winner, the studios did. The side with the most content (and most money to be made) will win. What's good for consumers now is there's only one format and we may be able to get something besides crap catalog titles before the end of the year.

Dorphat the Insomniac

So, how long till Toshiba feels it's not too disgraceful to start making Blu-Ray players of their own? What's the mourning period on home video/data storage formats?

And after this our exile

Can we now have Star Wars and LOTR in 1080p?

PLEASE?! PRETTY PLEASE?!

Dear Michael Bay, Please for the love of all that is holy and pure, SHUT THE HELL UP, and go work on the Blu-ray Disc version of Transformers.

OmiCom