if true i don't really care that i have the 200 dollar hd-dvd player... i'll sell it on ebay and get a combo player (don't want to sell my hd-dvds)

but can we stop with the bluray/hd-dvd posts? they don't have to do with gaming.

"Most would agree that this move would effectively end the war, and no matter what side you support, a single HD format is the best long term solution."

HD-DVD, i hardly knew ye

If true, this will have proved alot of people wrong. The ps3's bluray drive seems to be looking very useful indeed, and sony looks to be making alot of money. Smart move sony

------------------------

SAVE FLAREIS
give a bro a bubble

------------------------

sony goin to make big money off blue ray..if this is true..and in the end it will lead to a price drop for ps3 too..and that will lead to more sales

I always saw this happening.... Universal ultimately will make this move even if this article isn't correct "right" now... it's only a matter of time...

OUCH...OUCH AGAIN....OUCH EVEN MORE...

HD-DVD...FAIL..

if true, then it truely is the end for hd dvd, but now, what is there to motivate price drops for blu-ray players, it would seem to me they would just drop the ps3 price and end it there, so we will have to see if blu-ray players drop price or not. i mean, with no competitors blu-ray would rule the high def video area wich doesent always result in good news for consumers, at least in hd dvds little push they had it was almost forcing a blu-ray price drop.

again, this is only a notibale comment if this is true

How fast before Ebay is flooded with cheap HD DVD players and 360 add on players? You better hurry up and post yours quick!

I feel sorry for anyone who bought the hd-dvd add on for xbox. You better hurry up and trade it in at ebgames before it is worthless if you did.

universal is the one significant thing keeping hd-dvd alive.. signicantly, if universal folds then this might help the large retailers to support blu-ray since there is little economic sense in doubling the amount of retail space just to sell the same library.

I don't think Fanboys will stop with the blu-ray vs xbox 360. Sony made it that way. I hold them personally responsible for making the PS3 = Blu-ray. Microsoft does not own HD DVD unlike Sony owning blu-ray. Microsoft simply created an addon for the xbox 360 (only for movies) just like other manufacturers like Toshiba made their own HD DVD drives and blu-ray drives. Sony fanboys like to make a flamewar out of everything. HD DVD is not microsoft. Blu-ray is Sony. Microsoft wins regarless. If blu-ray wins, microsoft makes an addon and like veryone else has to pay royalties to Sony for doing so. Microsoft picked it because it was the best for the consumer in terms of prices and cheaper to the movie industry since they didn't have to slave themselves to Sony paying royalties everytimes a movie comes out.
It was obvious why Microsoft picked HD DVD it was cheaper to them, it was cheaper to their consumers. Eventually when Blu-ray wins who will get hit? Microsoft? I don't think so. The consumer + all the companies having to pay royalties to Sony. So, it's all good. If the consumer does not mind paying the price for using blu-ray then there is no problems.

@NikV3, microsoft help make many things (including the encoding technology used by hd dvd & blu-ray.. did you know that? Want to talk about that?). Yes, blu-ray using Microsoft's technology... what a surprise.. I am talking about VC-1.
Microsoft is a software company, it's what they do. They are involved in many things. It does not mean they make royalties on everything they work on.
Now on the other hand, Sony does make royalties off Blu-ray. Do you see the difference? Sony would lose a lot more if blu-ray fails (which is not). Sony risked everything to make this work and lucky for them, HD DVD since the companies that helped build it does really care much about it are not pushing it, simply because there arent much money to make of it. Most people that worked on HD DVD are somewhat involved or can easly become involved on blu-ray. Most of these companies win regarless.

Anyone read the article? What's Hp-DVD?

Anyways I have both a HD-DVD player and my PS3 for blu-ray its all good.

if this happens
HD-DVD will fail, & Blu-Ray will win this hd format war at a even faster rate
This is good news because I want an HD player and I am tired of waiting lol.

BYE HD DVD!
However Blu-ray will be on it's way out soon too when digital distribution is implented. Heck it already is, it's just not yet widely available.

and I don't see how this affects anything to do with the 360 vs ps3?
The 360 can adopt the blu-ray just as quickly as it did the HD DVD drive. It just made more sense to adopt the format that was not of their competition and promote that from day one.
If this is true MS will have a blu-ray add on for the 360 within a month or two.
Another reason that the 360 was better planned for than the PS3.
MS can ditch their HD format drive when it fails whereas the PS3 is stuck with it.

I will not sell my HD DVD player. Never know, might be worth something someday.

<EDIT> ... was trying to reply to SuperSaiyan4

Not looking good for Hd dvd right now .Need bubbles !:)

Edit
thanks for the positive feedback guys,favours shall be return

I have to say is wow!

If Sony is smart about this, they could make a ton more money. If they lower the price of the PS3 and the actual blu-ray players are much higher, people should opt for the PS3 being it is a great blu-ray player. They will get the best of both worlds because they can also play next-gen games on it as well, which will in turn lead to more software sales. Plus, I do not know about the blu-ray players out now, but the PS3 plays all rewritable cds, dvds, and blu ray last time I recall, and I know some dvd players do nto play burned discs. So the bargain would be to have the PS3 in the end for all of the capabilities and price tag. Sony still has yet to pinpoint reasons why the PS3 is worth its high prce tag, but if they can bring the price down and justify its purposes, they could sell a lot more. Especially when the good games come out later this summer and fall.

will toshiba ever make a blu-ray player, i mean, if this is true it would seem they would have to in the future

ps. It's THIS news that wins the war. It's all media. (whether viral or not) that wins these kind of things. Just reporting that Universal MIGHT be, is enough for someone not to buy an HD-dvd player.

Only one thing is on my mind.

Jurassic Park!!!!!!!!!

First I got to take issue with those saying this isn't related to gaming. Cause everyone knows the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player. For those saying to stop posting HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray stuff, had HD-DVD been winning, you can almost count on the fact that Xbox enthusiasts would be quick to remind and post and remind and remind.

I was looking at developers of Blu-Ray. Everyone knows of Sony's contribution. I'm sure some people are aware but not mentioned alot but Apple Computers is one of those companies(sworn enemies/competitors to M$). Interesting.

Thoughts?

If Microsoft release one I aint touching it because the 360 doesnt even support TrueHD sound via the existing HD-DVD player!!
I put the money in and got a PS3 and even though I prefer HD-DVD I feel shafted that even the Elite which is a rip off still has no TrueHD sound support because it uses HDMI 1.2!! Microsoft are always cutting the consumer short but ripping them off by making it seem like a good deal.

OVER!

I think this will encourage Sony to lower the price of the PS3 (if its true). The reason I believe the price will come down is because Sony has been fighting two battles. They have the PS3 vs 360 and the Bluray vs HDDVD.

The PS2 was a large source of profit to the company and they would like the PS3 to duplicate the PS2's earning power or exceed it. If they don't have to worry about the Bluray battle and start seeing a large cash flow come in then they can lower the price of the PS3 to be more competitve with the 360. I think Sony would love to make people have to take a serious look and say "Hey, they are the same price, which do I choose?"

MS can currently argue that their system is the better deal because its less expensive but the war has a new face if they have the same price.

Just a theory...

"hahaha better planned.. thats funny.. just tack on another 200 hundred dollars to the purchase price of your console. That and the fact that it shafted all previous owners of the add on for hd-dvd. Oh yeah, and the loss of manufacturing cost and sales of the hd-dvd add ons that are sitting on shelves.. yeah.. thats a real good strategy they had there. I swear some of you guys are blinded by hatred."

Do you have any idea how the business works? The ones not sold will demanufactured and the parts used in other products.
They planned better because they weren't stupid enough to implement an unproved format as the key format for a system and the sole reason the system is so expensive; hence why it is not selling.
and talk about being blind by hatred, you don't even accept what I'm saying, how did people who bought the HD DVD players get shafted? kind of like the people who bought minidisc players, and betamax players?
I own a PS3 - fanboy, so eat your crow and enjoy it.

People talk about MS ripping off the customers but Sony is the mother of all corporations that rip off their customers, but so many people on here are too uneducated or old enough to know anything about that.

uh oh!

I was wondering when this would happen. Universal movies and SW coming out on Blu ray sounds like this could be the end for HD DVD.

It's happening alot quicker than some expected, but you allways need to look in the long run...

Blu-Ray has always had a larger capacity and more movie studio backing going for it... Universal is kinda like a final nail for HD DVD...

if they support Blu-ray, as well as HD-DVD, so really this is just the inevitable finally happening. They'll go neutral at first, but expect to see HD-DVD support start to dwindle even more. Studio support means everything, and there are actually a LOT of HD-DVD titles from Universal that I would want to see on Blu-ray. It wouldn't require much work either since both formats use the same video codecs.

i was trying to figure out where everyone was!!! peter moore said, "360 can also do folding@home" but no one was there to comment!!! q:

oh well.. hope it's not another case of "lost in translation" q:

won't say a word until an actual fact comes out!

sweet news for blu-ray player.
Sux to be HD-DVD supporter.

when Universal break its exclusivity on HD DVD .. ppl know that with a BR player they wont miss any title .. SAFE choice will be BR player.. and game is OVER ..

Have been expecting this. lol

Guess the analysyst forgot to mention Universal re-iterated no plans to support Blu-ray this year. They specifically mentioned 100 "Exclusive" titles. The speculation is just that...speculation. Let is not forget that neither format amounts to more than a micro fraction of numbers compared to DVD. The PS3 is a game console that doesn't have enough games yet and is a capable movie player. Let us get real here. A million PS3 and Standalone BD players plus better current release schedule should equal a BD whitewash and that really isn't happening.

Guess the analysyst forgot to mention Universal re-iterated no plans to support Blu-ray this year. They specifically mentioned 100 "Exclusive" titles. The speculation is just that...speculation. Let is not forget that neither format amounts to more than a micro fraction of numbers compared to DVD. The PS3 is a game console that doesn't have enough games yet and is a capable movie player. Let us get real here. A million PS3 and Standalone BD players plus better current release schedule should equal a BD whitewash and that really isn't happening.

As i am able to read the original post, here are the key points, without the google translator strangeness:

During a press meeting representatives of Pioneer claimed that Universal left the exclusivity contract with Toshiba regarding HD-DVD releases. Only that the quit is not yet in power...

... some general blabla regarding the format war, and what results this could have if proven true ... and then in the last paragraph

Universal Germany did not put out a statement when asked by Heise, and Toshiba Germany told them they where not aware of universal quitting the HD-DVD partnership.

Some were in the world sits, Ken Kutaragi with a big smile on his face!
Ken if you read this, I'll buy you a first class ticket to the states so
you can b*tch slap Peter Moore & all the other MS executives in the face!
I guess all the bots forgot about all the crap MS spewed out over the PS3
having blu ray & Sony supporting it!

lol! And all you bots out there that trashed the PS3 & complained
about it having a blu ray player in it! ha ha! you suc!

please come explain to us that this means "nothing." I miss the show. =]

Dear HD-DVD,

I’m writing you to say I’m sorry things did not work out between you, and I. To be honest with you, I always knew you were inferior to Blu-ray, but I was so wrapped in Micro$oft’s lies that I just wanted to believe in you so much that I even wasted $200 hard earned dollars on that silly add-on M$ released. I also had talked so much crap about Blu-ray, and Sony in N4G.com that now it’s hard for me to show my face in any news posted about you HD-DVD. I really don’t know how idiots like Bladestar can still defend you by saying that it’s ok you lost because he got his money’s worth with that piece of sh!t add-on. I think he’s just a freak. In the end HD-DVD, you and M$ really made me look like a TOTAL fool in the eyes of the N4G.com community. I will never forgive M$ for what they did to me. I really feel like they intentionally lied to me by saying you had a chance in winning the format war just so they could milk another $200 dollars from me. Talk about a choice huh HD-DVD. Anyway, I’m sorry, and I’m PISSED. Now I think I’m starting to fall in love with Blu-ray and the PS3. I’m trying to resist, but it’s so hard HD-DVD.

Sinserely,

TheMART
Power of green
Bladestar, and friends.

Because if Blu-Ray had tanked so would the PS3. Now at least there's some hope.

I didnt expeact the war to be so short...

theMART .... where are you now? poor boy!

you know what it is just a rumor!

Yup, IF it's true, then that's pretty much it for HD-DVD. It would be too bad, as I liked the format, but fortunately I only have about 10 movies so far, and I have my PS3 waiting in the wings. It will be interesting to see if that external Blu-ray drive comes out for the 360, though.

Cash Rulz Everything Around Me!

HD-DVD was DOA to begin with. Sony owns Hollywood!

You guys that think this doesn't effect MS are living in denial. Have you guys seen MS sell any external Blu-ray player yet? No? Well they have sold external HD-DVD players so obviously that must mean that they had chosen a side, right? And that side was HD-DVD which is losing, which makes them losers.

When you pick sides and lose it means your the loser, it's the same thing in sporting events, you bet on the losing team you lose out.

This will effect MS

Now I KNOW what to buy, and it's Blu-Ray all the way! I'm so glad it's blu-ray too. Star Wars on Blu-Ray? I'm so there! I'm definitely getting a PS3 this summer. ^__^

the bluray move "children of men" i heard it was good... i dont know what else i would get though...

i was thinking the same thing bro. would they re-release it though? I doubt it. Let's just keep our finger's crossed.

i wonder the impact this rumored lost exclusive will actually have.

Guys it has been confirmed by the president of Universals, they are going Nuetral. The future dont look too bright for hd dvd

Wasn't this rumor SHOT DOWN already...So much hate in here, Die Hd-DVD, Die xbox 360, Die MS, Die Bill Gates.....it's only a format kids. Worst that can happen MS releases a blu-ray player, and sony finally gets royalties. Toshiba is the real looser here. But watch, we will see some new technoplogy involving terabytes of data on optical disk in a couple of years, next time around. Formats are never static..

....