The current state of the format war: no end in sight
Despite what Blu-ray would have you believe the next generation home movie format war is far from over, in fact it is just getting started. Four months ago we laid out a list of tasks that each side would have to do to win. Blu-ray has arguably achieved 6 out of 8 of the tasks, while HD DVD has achieved 6 out of 9. What this means is that we still have a tie with no end in sight. Blu-ray's biggest blunder is still the lack of interactive content on their discs, the studios blame the authoring tools, Warner is rumored to be delaying certain titles on Blu-ray that are already available on HD DVD till the authoring tools are "mature". HD DVD's biggest challenge is still lack of content support and player support. The big wash are the consoles, while HD DVD sold an impressive number of Xbox360 add-on drives, Sony sold 4 times as many potential Blu-ray players. Whether you believe PS3 owners will buy Blu-ray movies or not, recently Blu-ray started to out sell HD DVD according to every indicator we have. But does this really matter? How many more movies would Blu-ray have to sell than HD DVD to win the war? A contact close to HD DVD tells us that studios selling both formats are turning a profit on both and as long as they continue to turn a profit they will continue to support both sides. This makes us wonder what Universal, Fox and Disney are thinking. Why would they choose to only support one side when they are losing money by leaving out the other side? We have tried to ask them, they haven't responded. If studios can make money on both sides and they all start to support both sides this war could go on forever, in fact the only chance of a end is if Universal starts making Blu-ray movies or Fox and Disney start to make HD DVDs (but not both). Until then most consumers will stay on the sidelines worried about missing their favorite movies and we will continue to watch the debate rage on.
