The final nail in the coffin for HD-DVD? Probably. Despite a large spike of HD-DVD demand after the holidays, Hollywood’s biggest seller of DVDs announced today that starting this June, they’re 100% Blu-ray exclusive. Warner Bros studios accounts for roughly 20% of DVD sales in the US, and was one of the few studios still backing both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers," Warner Bros Chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.
Warner will continue releasing titles in all three formats (DVD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD) until the end of May. Now that Warner Bros has sided with the Blu-ray camp, it will be interesting to see how HD-DVD responds–if it even can at this point.
For those keeping track, this move puts Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, MGM, Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate in the blu-ray exclusive camp; Universal (including Rogue and Focus Features), Paramount Pictures (including Nickelodeon, MTV Films, and DreamWorks), and The Weinstein Company are the studios currently HD-DVD exclusive.
[source Reuters]
