The format war looks to be officially over as Toshiba has reportedly shut down development of HD DVD, according to Japanese TV station NHK.
The NHK report estimates that Toshiba will take a hit to the tune of "hundreds of millions of US dollars" and will close factories in northern Japan, but added that existing HD DVD products will remain in the market for a while.
The Toshiba-sponsored press bags from CES 2008.
Reuters have quoted an unnamed source as saying: "We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business." He reportedly told Reuters that an official announcement could come as early as this week.
The news comes days after Wal-Mart in the US announced it would be stocking Blu-ray instead of HD DVD.
Local Toshiba representatives said there was "no news at this time" about an impending announcement.
HD DVD suffered a tremendous setback in January as Warner announced it would defect to Blu-ray days before the CES show in Las Vegas. Toshiba cancelled its high profile press conference as a result.
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game freak
18/02/2008 04:10 PM
so wat happends now if u own a hd dvd player
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ozboi
18/02/2008 07:41 PM
The same thing that happened to those with Beta-max players of old! A lot of wasted money.
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bvl
18/02/2008 08:46 PM
well bye-bye hd-dvd. we hardly knew ye. heres hoping microsoft decides to release a blu-ray add-on for xbox 360 now. other wise i need to buy the player and another audio lead.
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Slam
19/02/2008 09:42 AM
It's not the same thing that happened to the Beta-max standard. Sony lost that but WON this time. It's the bloody opposite! sheeesh LOL If you learnt anything from the events in the Beta/VHS format war it was to wait on the sidelines until one was the clear winner. Get a Blueray now before they own the market and jack up prices even more! heheh
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