"Zion! The war is over!"
Well, we may not be residents of Zion, but one war has ended today: the format war. According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Toshiba Corp is planning to end production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format, giving Blu-ray camp the official victory.
Sony is surely pleased with the victory of its Blu-ray format, after enduring the failures of such formats as Betamax and UMD over the past two decades.
Toshiba will sell their remaining stock of HD DVD products, but will not continue to produce new HD DVD players and discs, said NHK earlier today.
After such massive retailers as Wal-Mart and Best Buy going Blu, it seemed only a matter of time until Toshiba gave in. The only question that remains is how and when will Toshiba adopt the Blu-ray format into their line of products. Toshiba is expected to lose amounts of up to tens of billions of yen by ending production of HD DVD products.
Toshiba couldn’t be reached for comment at the present time.
UPDATE:
Toshiba has issued an official statement on the matter, declaring that the company has made no such decision in regards to dropping HD DVD.
"The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business. Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment." (Source)
UPDATE #2:
It is now official; Toshiba Corp has discontinued support of HD DVD.
"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," commented Toshiba Corp boss, Atsutoshi Nishida.
"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." (Source)