Wal-Mart Deals Blow to HD-DVD
Wal-Mart Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive and Effectively Ends Format War
Over the course of 6 weeks HD-DVD has been dealt a series of blows that are sure to end the format war once and for all. Wal-mart may have dealt the final death blow.
Rest in peace, HD-DVD, the war seems to be all but over and the world is simply waiting for the public statement from Toshiba admitting defeat.
After a slew of setbacks over the course of the last several weeks it can be pretty much assured that the Toshiba camp will concede to Sony in the high-tech format war.
Blu-ray, which was headed by several companies, had a huge jolt in sales after the release of the Sony PS3. The gaming console, which offered a built in Blu-ray player, gave the camp a serious sales push in regards to Blu-ray titles. The battle had barely begun at that point and Toshiba was still optimistic but the beginning of 2008 proved to be all but paralyzing for HD-DVD.
In January Warner Bros. jumped ship and removed their support for HD-DVD. It won’t be official until the early summer or late spring when Warner Bros. completely cuts off HD-DVD but it certainly served as the starting point for what can only be described as the most disturbing of downward spirals.
Shortly after the announcement the NDP group released data that showed a halt to HD-DVD hardware sales with the Blu-ray taking 93% of the market. One could concur that the end was near from that point but Toshiba refused to give in and press releases continued to churn out from the HD-DVD camp attempting to put a light hearted spin on what was the first of several death blows.
In February, Netflix, one of the largest DVD rental services went Blu-ray stating they made the decision based on their own market research and a clear cut consumer bias for Blu-ray. The company again will continue to stock the HD-DVD movies until their life-cycle ends but will not be buying anymore of the new releases and instead will focus their high-def rental business on the consumer preferred Blu-ray format.
Right on the heels of the Netflix announcement Best Buy got in on the pummeling game. While the news was not all bad it certain did not put HD-DVD in a good spot. Best Buy insisted they would continue to stock HD-DVD hardware and software but have decided to push Blu-ray as the preferred format. Best Buy, in a public statement, pointed to Production Company backing and consumer bias for their decision to promote Blu-ray more strongly.
If that wasn’t enough to force HD-DVD into a corner mega-monster Wal-Mart dropped the big bomb on Friday morning stating that they too have made the decision to stock Blu-ray format exclusively by June. Wal-marts announcement came via a public press statement.
Like it or not Wal-Mart pretty much calls the shots and their adoption of one format over the other is the proverbial nail in the coffin. By going Blu-ray only, and stocking only Blu-ray hardware and movie titles the company effectively cuts off HD-DVD products to a good percentage of the movie buying public.
According to Thomas K. Arnold and Erik Gruenwedel at the Hollywood Reporter Well placed sources are beginning to point at HD-DVD finally dropping out of the race but no official statement has yet been released. At this point it seems like it is only a matter of time.
