His initial (and also very blunt) statement described the Microsoft-backed format only as the means to crush the competition and impose a new business model:

What you don’t understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.”

One day later, Bay seems to have had a sudden change of heart and declared that the hi-def format war is no longer part of his concerns. Still, Blu-ray remains his format of choice:

Does anyone out here want to challenge what I feel suits my films better in terms of look. I see every frame of my films over a hundred times before it is ever released. I know the lighting conditions I shot it and the result on the DI. I know the range. I know what the final product should look like – Blu Ray suits my films better. But that said – I don’t a care about this format war because I have both formats in my screening room – I’m just filling you in on what people deep in the film industry feel ultimately is going on -”

Michael Bay’s career also includes blockbusters such as The Rock, Armageddon or Pearl Harbor.