It’s been less than 24 hours since Toshiba announced their intention to stop producing HD DVD players, essentially ending the already one-sided high definition format wars. That’s how long its taken for one of the remaining HD DVD camp members to announce their joy that the war is over and their intention to embrace Blu-ray as the format of the future.
Universal Home Entertainment, one of the remaining two major players supporting HD DVD until yesterday, issued a statement pledging an aggressive support of Blu-ray and announcing that the emergence of a single format in the high definition battle was ”cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate.” Of course, that celebration would probably be easier for Universal’s people if they weren’t doing from atop a pile of now-obsolete HD DVDs, but it’s nice to see them embracing the change, even if they were on the losing side of the war.
It’s expected that Paramount will issue a similar statement, or, at the very least, start announcing titles in Blu-ray format soon, if only out of necessity, reports Variety.
It’s good that the remaining HD DVD members are quickly announcing their intention to embrace Blu-ray. That will certainly help consumers embrace the format all the quicker, especially if Universal drops some fan-favorites onto Blu-ray, like Firefly, which would definitely draw some attention. I guess the only question at this point is how quickly the existing HD DVD titles will drop to clearance prices, freeing up shelf space and allowing those formerly on the HD DVD side to enjoy a few spoils despite being on the losing side.
