Originally posted by: zombie84
Big, big news today.

Warner is dumping HD-DVD and going Blu-Ray exclusive.

The format war is over. I don't think HD-DVD will live to see 2009.

Actually, Paramounts agreement was to be exclusively HD-DVD for 18 months. That means that if they're going to release any HD titles at all, they'll have to be HD-DVD. Assuming Universal doesn't cave and switch to Blu-ray, they'll be the only two studios left still releasing on HD-DVD. I don't see that happening though.

I think you're right. What I see happening is Universal switching to Blu-ray and then Paramount doing one of the following 1) find someway out of the deal, 2) don't release any hi-def movies until mid 2009 since they're just going to have to re-release them all at that point anyway, or 3) release HD-DVD titles until mid 2009 and then re-release everything as Blu-ray (this would be stupid).

I would think that the agreement would be broken if the HD-DVD group ceases to exist. And I would assume that would happen if no one was releasing titles on HD-DVD anymore. So if Universal switches to Blu-ray and Paramount stops releasing HD titles for a few months, that could be all that's necessary to completely kill it. Of course, since Microsoft is part of the HD-DVD group and they've got money to burn, they could easily prop the group up for months or years if necessary.

As much as I did not support Blu-ray, this format war needs to end if hardware prices are ever going to come down. I only hope that the price of BD burners gets incredibly cheap in the next year.