Published on Top Stories | February 19, 2008, 10:22
Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders, the company finally announced. The statament officially marks the end of the format war, with rival Blu-ray having the glove up in the air.
The company added that it plans to continue to supply retailers with machines until the end of March, as well as to provide technical support for all the HD DVD owners worldwide, estimated to be around one million.
Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida summed up the situation:
"We concluded that a swift decision would be best. [..] If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."
The company admitted that the course of the war had gone for the worse when Warner Bros. Decided to adopt the rival format, developed by Sony. With most of the major Hollywood studios backing Blu-ray, it was only a matter of time before major retailers would do the same: Best Buy, Wal-Mart, as well as video rental firms such as Blockbuster and Netflix.
In conclusion, everyone is now free to go home. The war is over. Still, one has to wonder how well will Blu-ray do against the video downloads business, which is starting to soar to new heights.
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s until the end of March, as well as to provide technical support for all the HD DVD owners worldwide, estimated to be around one million. 
