Toshiba pulled out of the Format war Tuesday ending weeks worth of rumors and speculation. The announcement comes on the heels of public setbacks. Blu-ray is victorious.

It was only a matter of time after weeks of setbacks left HD-DVD teetering helplessly on the edge of collapse.

After Friday’s announcement by Wal-mart that they would go Blu-ray, exclusive numerous tech-related blogs and websites were predicting the fall of HD-DVD to be hours away.

It was true, the format clung to its deathbed through the weekend but by the break of business on Tuesday, Toshiba made a public announcement that they were personally withdrawing from the format war.

According to Yuri Kageyama who reported for Reuters “Toshiba said Tuesday that it would no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to the competing Blu-ray disc technology from Sony in the format battle for next-generation video.”

Toshiba’s president made a statement claiming that “we concluded that a swift decision would be best” from his Tokyo Office.

Rumor had plagued the technology since early January when Warner Bros. went exclusively with Blu-ray and picked up steadily with a slew of announcements from retailers and rental services.

Toshiba and the HD-DVD camp hung tight to hope for a short period of time ensuring consumers that they were dedicated to the format via the format's website however press releases had become less then upbeat over the last week culminating in today’s public announcement.

Toshiba expects shipments of their HD-DVD equipment to end sometime in March according to Reuters but they ensure they will continue to provide service for those technologies.

Little information was released regarding the library of titles and “upcoming” releases on HD-DVD but one can assume that the title releases will surely end shortly after shipment of hardware is over.

No one can be certain which decision was the last straw but some business experts are suggesting that a culmination of decisions in such rapid succession signaled to Toshiba that the end was near.

Warner Bros. decision in January could be considered the fuel that began the downfall along with steady increase in sales of Sony’s Playstation 3 which provides gamers with a Blu-ray player already installed in the device.

Netflix, Blockbuster, Target and Wal-mart had all made the decision to go Blu-ray exclusive in recent months and Best Buy publicly announced their preference for the Blu-ray format.

What the loss means for Toshiba is still unknown but Martyn Williams reported for PC World that the loss would likely cost the company tens of billions of dollars.

The news is bad for Toshiba and HD-DVD adopters however the news could not be better for Sony and other companies that got in on Blu-ray early. Experts are expecting Sony and other companies to see a substantial rise in Blu-ray hardware and software sales now that a single format is available.

Those who held off buying a next generation movie player until a final decision was made are likely to head off to electronic stores over the next month to pick up their next generation equipment and Sony’s PS3 may benefit well from a sales boost.