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Chicago (IL) – The end of the HD DVD format may have come faster than many of us would have expected. And despite the outcome of the format war has long been unclear, there have been several reports that correctly predicted the winner as early as July 2005. Join us as we are looking back in time to recap how the defeat of HD DVD developed.
Following the announcement of Toshiba to pull the plug on HD DVD, we felt that it was time to have a closer look at our reports since the beginning of the format war to provide an overview of the events that led up to Sony’s success and Toshiba’s loss. On the following pages, we are listing all important HD format war articles, ranging from the very beginnings in November 2003 to the shutdown of HD DVD today.
The list allows you to recall the role of publishers, hardware companies, the Playstation 3 as well as Microsoft, which may have played a significant role in the downfall of HD DVD, due to its decision not to offer an HD DVD drive integrated in its Xbox 360. Even if we here have dealt with HD DVD and Blu-ray almost on a daily basis for some time, we were surprised to find some instances that predicted Blu-ray as the winner of the format war early on:
In July 2005, a survey claimed that consumers preferred Blu-ray over HD DVD. Following the launch of high-def players, some speculated that enthusiast users gave HD DVD the edge and sales numbers for 2006 appeared to be in a stalemate. In March of 2007, a European Sony executive told journalists that HD DVD would be “dead within one year”. Walking through high-def sales data in 2007 provides an impression how the lead of Blu-ray began to build up and hurt HD DVD.
Another surprising outcome of this format war is that the adult film industry had very little to do with the fall of HD DVD. The format still had the support from most studios that were releasing movies in high-def. The critical component of Blu-ray’s success appears to have been the Playstation 3, which not only put millions of Blu-ray players into the market, but also convinced gamers to purchase lots of Blu-ray movies.
However, the end of HD DVD came very quick and its fate was decided by a few serious blows. In early 2008, Warner Bros. said it would abandon HD DVD. Soon, several retailers, most importantly Best Buy, began focusing on HD DVD and online rental company Netflix said it would be dropping HD DVD as well. Toshiba’s only reaction was the reduction of HD DVD player prices, which, from today’s view, only accelerated the format’s departure.
Following the announcement of Toshiba to pull the plug on HD DVD, we felt that it was time to have a closer look at our reports since the beginning of the format war to provide an overview of the events that led up to Sony’s success and Toshiba’s loss. On the following pages, we are listing all important HD format war articles, ranging from the very beginnings in November 2003 to the shutdown of HD DVD today.
The list allows you to recall the role of publishers, hardware companies, the Playstation 3 as well as Microsoft, which may have played a significant role in the downfall of HD DVD, due to its decision not to offer an HD DVD drive integrated in its Xbox 360. Even if we here have dealt with HD DVD and Blu-ray almost on a daily basis for some time, we were surprised to find some instances that predicted Blu-ray as the winner of the format war early on:
In July 2005, a survey claimed that consumers preferred Blu-ray over HD DVD. Following the launch of high-def players, some speculated that enthusiast users gave HD DVD the edge and sales numbers for 2006 appeared to be in a stalemate. In March of 2007, a European Sony executive told journalists that HD DVD would be “dead within one year”. Walking through high-def sales data in 2007 provides an impression how the lead of Blu-ray began to build up and hurt HD DVD.
Another surprising outcome of this format war is that the adult film industry had very little to do with the fall of HD DVD. The format still had the support from most studios that were releasing movies in high-def. The critical component of Blu-ray’s success appears to have been the Playstation 3, which not only put millions of Blu-ray players into the market, but also convinced gamers to purchase lots of Blu-ray movies.
However, the end of HD DVD came very quick and its fate was decided by a few serious blows. In early 2008, Warner Bros. said it would abandon HD DVD. Soon, several retailers, most importantly Best Buy, began focusing on HD DVD and online rental company Netflix said it would be dropping HD DVD as well. Toshiba’s only reaction was the reduction of HD DVD player prices, which, from today’s view, only accelerated the format’s departure.
2003 and 2004: Supporter groups are formed, first specifications and the name "Playstation 3" surfaces
Read on the next page: 2005 - Bondage talks between HD DVD and Blu-ray and a surprising survey that correctly predicted the outcome of the format war