By Stevie Smith Feb 19, 2008, 13:22 GMT
Following weeks of mounting speculation gathering on the back of studio and retailer defections, Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has finally admitted defeat in the protracted HD format battle.
Sony's Blu-ray gallops into the distance as HD DVD is left lame. Credit: Blu-ray.
The official discontinuation of Toshiba’s HD DVD business has been announced today (Tuesday, Feb 19), reports GamesIndustry, with the final decision to pull the plug on the ailing HD format being taken at a board meeting held earlier in the day.
“We made a quick decision, judging that there is no way of winning the competition,” outlined Toshiba president and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida. “It was an agonising decision for me, but I thought if we kept running this business it would have grave ramifications for the management of our company.”
In its official announcement, Toshiba also indicated that “major market changes” had directly influenced the decision, which points the recent body blow HD DVD suffered when Warner Bros. shifted its HD format allegiance to Sony’s Blu-ray.
January’s move by Warner Bros. subsequently sparked somewhat of an avalanche of similar defections, with leading American retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy and online movie rental service Netflix also announcing their exclusive backing of Blu-ray.
“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.” added the Toshiba boss.
HD DVD players and recorders will continue to be shipped to retailers for the next six weeks, with supply set to officially cease at the end of March.
While a concrete date has not been applied to technical support, Toshiba has stated it will remain committed to providing support to the estimated one million customers that have adopted the HD DVD format during its two years of existence.
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