Is Hitman's Next Target Assassin's Creed? 
Why Kotaku Australia Should Never Work With Children... Or Robots 
Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better Woolworths may be dead in the states, but the retail establishment lives on across the pond, though without the famous soda fountains, crappy American discount items, and – come March – without HD-DVD. The High Street retailer has announced that come March they will no longer be stocking HD-DVD titles at their retail locations, selling off their remaining stock and any new titles that might pop up via their website. They cite the large number of Brits now Blu-ray ready as the reasoning behind the move, and it’s largely due to Sony’s latest console. “The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-ray discs, there are over three quarters of a million homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format.”
Another nail in HD-DVD’s coffin as the first major UK retailer drops them like a bad habit. Sad to see it go, but glad to see a clear winner finally emerging.
Woolworths backs Blu-Ray format over HD DVD [RetailBulletin via GamesIndustry]
Are we having fun living in the HD Era yet? Sony isn’t, as it considers the war with HD-DVD a “stalemate” now that Paramount and Dreamworks have left the Blu-ray camp. Despite a decent penetration of PlayStation 3s capable of playing the hi-def format, the Microsoft endorsed HD-DVD format is holding its own. And although Sir Howard Stringer wishes he could magically turn back time and fight for a unified high-def disc, he doesn’t consider winning the format war “all that.” Oh, yes, he did.
According to the Associated Press’ report on Stringer’s speech, sales of the PlayStation 3 have doubled in the U.S. following the recent price cut and that it has taken the number one spot on the European charts.
We have no idea exactly how Sir Stringer is quantifying that. Probably with some crazy equation that involves an intricate pounds to dollars to yen to volume. There’s probably a 1 carried in there. Unfortunately, since the NPD group has decided to deny publication of hardware sales going forward, we’ll have a less clear idea on how it’s actually faring in North America.
Sony CEO sees ‘stalemate’ in disc fight [AP/Yahoo]
By John Gaudiosi
Sony learned the hard way with its Betamax tape format that consumers ultimately want only one choice when it comes to new movie formats. The DVD format continues on a record pace because it was a unified disc with all of the movie studios and hardware manufacturers on board. The home entertainment industry is in turmoil with two competing formats, one backed by Sony (and others), the other by Microsoft (and others).
This war between Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD is extremely nasty, as members from each camp throw barbs at each other. Unlike the console wars, which has Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo actually expanding the overall videogame market, this next gen DVD battle is not helping consumers, retailers or anyone not affiliated with one of the two sides.
