wow i feel a little bit of sorrow for them, and hddvd adopters.    well now that sony has the ball lets hope they dont get careless.

It's their stup!d loss.........for prolonging the format war so, they need to go Blu (>.<)

UMD is a failure? What did it lose to? That's the only portable movie format I see in the stores...?

It was inevitable.  Thank goodness consumers can buy blu-ray in confidence.  Time to celebrate and drink yourself into a stupor.

All I have to say is about time. Like others have mentioned, I feel bad for the early adopters of HDDVD. Crashbox3fixme fans should take notice tough. They are next on Sonys hit list.

I wouldn't really count UMD as a "failure" per se, but you could definitely add MiniDisc to the "Sony failures" list. But, history does not always repeat itself, so hooray for Sony on this one.

Well this has been coming for some time. Wonder how long it will be before we see a blu ray add on for the 360.....microsofts  response will be quite interesting....

FINALLY!! now enough with the nails. The coffins closed. no more bad HDVD news. it gets tiring lol.

Glad to see bluray dominating :) Hopefully now I can get transformers on bluray x_x;;

PS, amen, Xdeth

does anyone know if sony owns bluray because if sony does, then 360 will never be able to have bluray

Thank goodness, I just hope they start producing Blu-Rays soon, because there are some movies I want in HD out there.

Well I suppose UMD isn't it a total failure, but it just didn't take off at all when Sony was expecting it to.

Microsoft could have Blu-Ray in there console, they would have to pay Sony though. So that is good on Sonys part. I do feel horrible for the HD-DVD owners and just a little bit sowrro for the pleasefixme xbots... Ok myby just for the HD-DVD owners, not the Pleasefixme xbots.

This is somewhat old news.  And it's been hinted for  a while now that Toshiba has plans to release a Blu-Ray player as early as summer.

LOL wow finally its over with as blu is the true way to go.  Sry 360 fans its gone and its a huge win for sony. YEAH!! PS that crash box 3fixme LOL HILARIOUS PROPS FOR WHOEVER MADE THAT UP.

UMD could not have failed. It had one purpose. To work in PSP's. UMD's take off? What?

There are no settop UMD players, UMD burners or UMD drives for PC. The UMD's are not a viable source as a storage medium because it does not store as much information as a mini-dvd or a regular dvd for that matter.

UMD was a format but not out to replace a standard. The only standards sony went after, normally was done in partnership with other companies and normally could play on devices that they did not own. Floppy's, CD's, their hand in DVD's. They have had their hand in a lot of winning formats that are licensed for everyones use yet people look at proprietary media to guage format failures. Brilliant!

psn id: gingo... this is what everyone has been expecting for the past 6 months now and finally toshiba have saw sense and havestopped making hd dvds and hd dvd players

wow...this is great...i just wonder was microsoft is gonna do when the gaming world gets pushed further and their games no longer fit on dvds...cause sony can get a nice amount of space outta blu ray...especially if they go double layer...lets hope ps3 takes over the serious gaming market from now on...

The sad thing is that Video games aside.  HD-DVD was the better of the two.  I know you loyalist will have a fit at my post but the truth is unless you own a PS3 your screwed as a Blu-Ray player owner.  Different Profiles and they even admited that thats the price of being an early adopter.  I own both formats but refuse to Support Blu-Ray other than Games for my PS3.  I have both and have messed with both and Sorry HD-DVD wins hands down.  I will but SD versions of movies and upscale them or just get them off the internet but Every movie Studio lost my money on this fiasco.

Owned.  I stated after the Warner announcement that Toshiba would concede defeat by the end of March.  I don't mind being wrong in this case!

lololololololololololol

the war is over. bring on paramount and universal! Iron man on Blu!

Now when the h3ll can i get Transformers and Heroes on Blu-ray. and why the Fk is h e l l a banned word

I second that  Kh40n1c finally Optimus Prime can be seen in all his glory

OH NOOOO How sad!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

Now all that's left is to destroy the 360, it's just a matter of time. M$ played for fools all of those fanboys, and now just look at their faces thanks to the red ring of death thing. That just goes to show you that it's better to spend more on something of quality than to buy something because of its bargain price.

@Staticneuron

I'm talking about UMD's failure to gain momentum in the film industry. You rarely see ads today that reference a film coming out on UMD in addition to DVD and Blu-ray/HD DVD. The hilarious part about the downfall of the UMD movie is that it had no competitor. It was for Sony's PSP system, and there was no competing format, yet it failed to gain any traction whatsoever. It wasn't a failure so much as it simply wasn't a success.

UMD's could have been successful if the price was $9.99 since it has no extras!  HD-DVD losing wont have too much of an affect on MS because they only sell the add on and it is not in the core of their system.  They will just come out with a Blu Ray add on and have to pay Sony but they have talked about this before...

Take that Tosh@#t! Now forward PS3 into the realms of tru nextgen.

Ahh and to celebrate, I just bought all the SAW movies on Blu-ray, now when is transformers, Casino, The Alien series, and most of Universals Library coming????

Perhaps it will end all of the stupid HD-DVD vs Blu-ray news we have to keep reading because this is getting old fast. >_> And yes UMD was a failure in the fact that it couldn't be lifted on the ground where no competition was really present ie standard.

I knew this was going to happen a long time ago.

Damn, Finally! I DIDNT KNOW TILL NOW, SO MY DRINKING YESTERDAY DID HAVE SOME MEANING, but not the headache. CONGRATULATIONS SONY START CASHING IN AND DEVELOP PS4!

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA, thats all folks :)

IDK hisame posted an article saying this to be unproven on the forums. I am so confused now.

This is so fantastik! :D FINALY IT'S OFFICIAL! Transformers on Blu-Ray oh yeah

lol,   I told my father not to buy a HD DVD player because I said it wasn't going to take. Playstation 3 had blu built right in to it for that it was going to win on because playstation in better then xbox.  Now I'm going to have to tell him to take a slege hammer to his player because it's outdated.   lol

I want to see an official note before I begin partying.

But 'ELL YEAH if it's true!!! :D

Speek for yourself,
I do live in Zion (atleast I was born in Jerusalem) and I'm very happy !!!

About time losers

Now, let's all wait until Toshiba gives an official announcement before we jump to conclusions.  If this is indeed true, then it will be the one thing that Sony forced on the people(According to Microsoft) that will give them a boost. Microsoft decided to rush their system out to get the early sales and thus, they have the early lead in console sales(We are not counting the wii for this argument right now). They decided not to include built-in wifi and built in HD-DVD player. They made alot of money off of accessories and the wifi adaptor is 100 by itself in the states. However, it did not seem like they fully supported the HD-DVD format. And yes, as someone mentioned earlier(if this is indeed true), Microsoft's response will be interesting.

Yeah, it's over.  Finally.  Check this report from Yahoo News.  This is from a source within Toshiba, not some radio station.

"Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080217/tc_nm/toshiba_hd_dvd_dc;_ylt=Aik2UcM8ujjQcng.auDxirQjtBAF

dj person dude thing... idc im not patiant and i suck at spelling... but at least i get the message across... but yes you are correct i'm a bad speller and always have been... but i have an extemly vast vocabulary... and i dont enoy typing for hhrs on my ps3 so i make short cuts, so just deal its not going to end your life if i type fast and dont edit my sh**y spelling... internet language ur supostu understand and if u understand it, it is in turn correctly used in ur brain

enjoy life and stop nite picking

=]

To bad for the early HD DVD adopters....but someone had to lose

Deldwen, we're waiting for official confirmation from Toshiba or Sony before we truly pronounce the format war over. Regarding the Wardevil screens, those are exclusive to PSU, which is why we want users to notice them.

finally now i can get much more in blu, like season of tv shows like prison break in bd!!!

This is only a rumor until Toshiba says otherwise...........

wow, not surprise at all, so all those people that bought the hd dvd add on lol.lol. thank god i didn't bought that stupid thing when i had my 360

alot of haters should feel stupid right about now...lol

Okay technically the UMD hasnt failed since the PSP still uses it for games. and there are still movies being produced for it. Not to mention there's no competeing format for it to actually loose to. If you want to talk about a failed format try their Mindisc. The PSP is more popular not than it's ever been the problem with the UMD is the fact that you couldnt watch it on a TV (no longer an issue on the PSP Slim) and the fact that they were as expensive if not more so than a DVD, which is something most retailers have rectified with price cuts.

rip

Wow, this war is ending so quickly. It's only a matter of time til the next xbox has blu-ray in it. I feel proud of my purchase of Spiderman 3 on blu now.

Wow, good for Blu-Ray and Sony. It's funny that Toshiba gave up now because not too long ago, I saw a TV commercial selling an HD-DVD player for $199.99 

UMD's was never a format to set the standard or to replace an existing format. It was simply there to store data for our PSP's. Many millions games are sold on UMD so at that point it’s a success but for movies it wasn't. And why would anyone think that people would watch movies on a screen that size on a PSP. Good for games, not so good for movies. If the price for a UMD movie was half the price as on DVD maybe people would still be buying them?

 Tough luck to all those who bought the HD-DVD add-on for the 360. All its good for now is being dumped in a skip. I also think Sony has put themselves in a strong position now. Everything to do with blu-ray, movies, games, players, burners, Sony wil gets royalties for. It’s like imagine if they owned DVD, blu0ray will become like that for Sony. Would Sony allow Microsoft have blu-ray? Why should they, it will put the PS3 in a good position in the market as the only console to have a HD player and any future xbox's, Sony could not allow for Microsoft to use blu-ray further still so the new xbox will have the old DVD drive, a format that’s on its way out by that time. I do think however that Sony will allow Microsoft to use blu-ray but at a high cost?

 @ESolisPlease tell use in what way HD-DVD was better? I've heard it before from people saying that HD-DVD is better quality even though movies would be encoded in the exact video format on both blu-ray and HD-DVD, so they are full of it. The disc itself doesn't determine the quality, the disc is a storage device and blu-ray has more so meaning its better than HD-DVD. Anyhow nearly all the worlds leading electronic companies thought that blu-ray was the disc to back. All HD-DVD have was Toshiba and I don't even rate their products as top quality. Did Toshiba expect everyone who wanted a next-gen player to only buy a Toshiba? People like a variety of players.

 If we could only reply to all those who doubted blu-ray and said HD-DVD was going to win due to the porn industry. I think they really new blu was going to win they just were Sony haters.

Well, finally the format war has ended. It was only a matter of time before Blu-Ray won with Wal-mart and Netflix going Blu-Ray exclusive in the past week.

To be honest, I never would have even owned a Blu-Ray player if the PS3 didn't already have it built in. Ha Ha! Sony has so smart when the implemented Blu-Ray in the PS3 because all Sony had to do was sell the PS3 and they would be selling Blu-Ray players. Whenever Warner Bros. announced that they were going Blu-Ray exclusive in May, Toshiba should have pulled the plug on HD-DVD then because they only were fighting a loosing battle.

PS3 owners we can all rejoice and Sony proved the whole world wrong with Blu-Ray

who knows what makes blu ray better than HD DVD??? except from the disc space

look i just want toshiba to say tht thy hav stpped making  HD-DVD then it will truly be finshed..yes i knw thyve bn nailed in their own grave about 100times but its better if u get the confirmation from the people themselves but i love my ps3 h8 360 but im worried tht thy will end up using hd dvd in their future xbox cause thy dont want 2 use blu ray and dvd is too small sooo we hav 2 also think about wat thy gonna doo thy wont want a SONY format it goes against everything thy believe.....which is crap...lol

It's over? That's it? Toshiba, aren't you going to make a last stand? HAHAHAHA. The future is now, and that future is BLU!!!

Umd isn't a failure at all they even have plans on makeing umb blu ray in the future psp system. anyways though glad blu ray is finally in the clear and hopeing that sony teabags toshiba in victory lane.

Sony is having a very good start to 2008. In January PS3, PS2 and PSP outsells the 360. All 3 playstation systems combined outsells both the nintendo wii and ds combined. In February Bluray wins. Patapon for psp recieves a 9.2 from IGN. In March God of War for PSP is released. New Sony ericcson phones come out and the new OLED and 120gb camcorder gets released. What a great start.

OWNED. . . .that's all I have to say.

yeah they may be giving up soon, but whats the point in investing millions more on a format that no-one will be selling. smart move to cut their losses now and start afresh.

toshiba to be making Blu-ray players soon enough, congrants Sony you like always win.

finally!, maybe now we can get all our favourite films on bd, especially transformers, but i feel prettt bad for all those which invested in hd-dvd players and films, they should all go to toshiba and get a refund, lol!

Deldwen go and ask your mummy if you can go out to play on the swings and slides and leave the forum to people with something constructive to say.

Ok Toshiba, watch your stocks plummet while you pick at the bones of your dying format.  pull the plug and you will lose 15-20 mil at the most, prolong until midyear, double your losses.

OK so Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD, it's still gonna take years to displace DVD.  DVD took about two years to replace video, the superiority was obviose, now Blu Ray has to first convince HD-TV (<10%?) owners of it's superiority (vs upscale) AND then convince the rest of the planet to fork out the investment for HD, before it even makes a kink in DVD sales.  Lets face it, by the time the majority of people start upgrading their standard CRTs there'll be a better standard out (3D HD?) and most likely a better format to boot.  Cost to benefit ratio of this small battle is nowhere close to that when DVD launched.

Regarding the update: Shame on you, Toshiba, for prolonging a battle you know you cannot win. To keep prolonging this issue is damaging primarily to your own image, but also to the industry and consumer confidence.

Why not do what you know is right, and concede defeat gracefully. You'll get a lot more respect from it.

I just hope I can get some of the movies I wanted on blu-ray now (Transformer). Now we should see an increase of PS3 sales, which is already showing in the market.  Sony should take full advantage of this and not sit back and get lazy. Price of Blu-Ray Movies should go down also.

lol  they really really must like the saw movies... a slow and painful death

leeman... actually im not a clown and im not ignorant... i find it stupid when ppl biiitch about stuff that only like 5 people knew about! "this is old new wahh wahh wahhh" shut up =]

people are dim and only think for them selfs, just cuz some guy finds somthin old doesnt mean the world has to... as uu can see 96 precent of the ppl here didnt no a god dam thing about tobisha offically pulling out... witch is now found isnt true.. is that old new 2? ...freakin cry babies

and to every one else that flips on me for defending myself  "i love you too" =]

Awsome...just like MOST stories on here, they're all false.  Why do I constantly see "Updated" on here, and a recanted story?

I agree with mcwups1, these"journalists" really need to get there facts straight before posting such articles. Mostly what is posted here is gossip or rumors, are you a bunch of women or what?

@ MrAce & Deldwen

I agree. And please stop posting rumors. Give us some good articles not this bullsh't!

You know if studios would of printed on DVD, HDDVD and BD I would have no issue in this "format war".  However, I knew it was going to suck when I had set my sights on making my first BD Movie purchase be "Transformers" and then like a month after the films release universal announced that they are HDDVD only. In the same regards I feel for the people that have went HD-DVD and can't get MANY of the movies I have privy to . SO yeah, I wish someone would just fold or the 2 camps come up with players that can do both because.....I want HD content dammit.

Also, on the topic of umd. What really killed that off quick was the inabilty to put it on TV!

Had the PSP been able to do tv out from the get and had UMDS not cost the same or more thand DVD. I think it would of found niche among parents and guys like myself that have movies that the special features are crap so, remove them and give me the movie on umd!

At last they put an end to this. It was cruel seeing them losing, suffering.

Umm Toshiba hasn't announced their official withdrawal from the HD-DVD market as of yet. So hold your horses everyone. >_>

100th comment!!

So long HD DVD.

Gee, I hope the update to this article is not a surprise to anyone, LOL.

I hope the give up the ghost soon.  There are a lot of movies on HD DVD that I want.  I just hope they go ahead and upscale them before putting them on Blu-rays.

This has to be the most comments I've ever seen on one article. I'm  just hoping that in a few years we're not going through all of this format war BS again. For those who don't know, what happens when 1440P TVs are made? Will there be an update to BluRay so those TVs will be compatible? Or will we have another format war on our hands? Hopefully an update is all it will take.

Its Finally Over!!!!!!!Viva la PS3!!!!!

Ha i love it, i post this this morning in the forum and the staff remove the post and move it to the Trash Can!!! And now here it is... on the main page... PSU staff taking all the glory haha!  Good news though for Sony

Wowsers! Seems like a massive multi-member online partayyy going on here! Let me just crash it and join this mass-org!

I brought the chippy's....who brought the drinks!?! Drink up! It's a celebration!!!

YAYYYYYYYY........BLU-RAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now lets hope that Paramount release his exclusive HD-DVD titles to Blue-Ray, like Transformers.

Lets take some time and ALL HAIL BLU-RAY THE ALMIGHTY :)

There you go,plenty of nails in this coffin already,let's just burry it and then pee on it.lol

Nice to know Toshiba finally quit,and to think this is mostly-if not all-due to the inclusion of Blu-Ray in the ps3.

VICTORY IS OURS!!!

Our goal is met! Blu-ray is the victor! Screw all the companies who supported HD-DVD you got to change now! Hahaha! Microsoft bribery? That was a waste of money! :D Hahahaha! The best day of this year for now!!! ;D

Good!!!...NOW GIVE US TRANSFORMERS ON BLU-RAY!!!!.....GRRRRR!!!!!

its about time

If the ps3 MOD chip comes out he playsation 3 sales will sky rocket becouse some people cant afford original formats.

Finaly its over I was waiting for this day, I have a ps3 but I was hesitating to get a bluray player for my room.

i think the only reason I and many other PSP owners didnt adopt UMD (for films) was because it was limited to the PSP were as now with the ability to hook your PSP upto a TV buying UMD's doesnt seem such a waste. Great for taking on holiday. Oh and im glad this format war is over, this has now made the PS3 and SOny very strong. Oh and 360 boys might want to try and send their after thought noisy external HD-DVD players back, its never a good idea to back microsoft and thats coming from someone who makes a living out of their products

Oh look...Bluray won! (...didn't see that coming)... NOW CAN I GET MY BLURAY COPY OF TRANSFORMERS?  Also Michael Bay...you can start on the sequel..thanks.

Victory is ours!

Now lets have a moment of silence for all those who bought HD-DVD players and movies.

---

Now lets have a moment of full-out laughter and shameful pointing towards Microsoft and their HD-DVD add-on!!!

"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."

What bastards !! Even in defeat they can't admit Blu-rays superiority !!

Now we just need Paramount to come to the good side.

Yes, I read the official thing on Yahoo so now Blu-Ray has officialy won

Blu-Ray being the lone High definition disc format will aid the PS3 in a few ways.

1. It will be the only video game console with a built in Blu-Ray player(Well it already is). Once more, developers will find more benefit in the space of the Blu-Ray disc. The Wii and 360 could possibly find themselves dated at a faster rate.

2. The amount of folks who will purchase High Definition televisions and look to get a Blu-Ray player with it. They will not have to concern themselves with choice anymore, because the choice is already made. Sales may see a larger increase than realized as the prices of HDTVs' decreases.

3. With the potential for more PS3s out to consumers comes the potential for more developers to not shy away from Exclusivity to Sony's Playstation 3. We have seen a case of a game being delayed due to install base and we have seen many games go from exclusive to multi platform due to install base. As the install base increases, more developers may find it unnecessary to go multiplatform to gain more profit.

ha ha ha

we need transformers, and definently Iron Man when it gets released. oh and don't forget Braveheart, one of my all time favs.

Hehe dont have much to say anymore but I wanna be a part of this frenzy!

Anyone notice Paramount signed with MS to supply High Def movie download via XBL?  This sort of service is the future, and PS3 will do this too.  I suspect BluRay HD movies will soon be displaced by this sort of service before it even dents DVD sales.  It could be a short lived victory for Sony, time will tell. 

hahahaha my sides hurt from laughing... wow... there dumb for waiting soo long... or mabye im just shallow and fanboyish idk =D

BUT ANYWAY PSU THERES NO REASON NOW THAT THIS SHOULDNT BE ON THE TOP O_O...

sony just wont the format war..........

Deldwen your spelling is so bad even my fingers are bleeding from typing this lol. And now I can actually not give a hoot about something that no one should actually lose sleep over and I know many people here probably did for the celebration. XD

oh well clear the way for sony

Yah, no more speculation, it's over.................

I knew this time would come.  Good for Bluray!!!  Sure am glad I never bought a HDdvd player.  I'd probably be pretty pissed off right about now. 

great news!!!

you know why m$ is so "genius"....

it's because they is waiting who is the winner in this battle of HD standard... they dont want to make a built-in HD media in their console ( maybe after this statement... they will make their console to adopt a built-in blu-ray and "push away" toshiba.... hahahaha.... just my opinion )

but for sure.... right now M$ will have more and more job that must be done very quickly.... hahaha

Its funny because I haven't seen any xbots commenting cr@p on this subject lol.  Go Blu

It's about d4mn time.

As far as digital downloads go, nothing will ever replace physical media. Movie studios can provide every film they have to xbox live and it will never come close to making a dent on the physical media market. Besides, I'd rather have a disc in my hand/player than worry about space left on my HDD in which to store the same DL'd version.

As great news as this is, I HAVE to comment!! :P

GO BLU-RAY!!! May you entertain the world for the next 7-10 years!

AWW what a shame.Guess ill have to wait for the Super Ultimate Elite Aplha Beta Neon Noredlightsofdeath xbox to arrive with blu-ray.LoL