Category Archives: HD-DVD

Videogamer reckons it’s heard that developers are already working on a “new Nintendo platform” ahead of a possible announcement by Nintendo at GDC.

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The EU PS Blog has updated the UK video store, and it’s full of action-packed goodies in HD.

There’s also a few in there for the ladies too, like King Arthur and horsey-flick Hidalgo.

Read below to see what else is on offer.

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James McQuivey, Forrester Research analyst and VP, has weighed in on all the 3D tech and news floating about, and has labeled it nothing more than “hype”, citing that not even one million US homes in 2010 will own a 3D capable television.

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The Halo Legends DVD has a date with North America and Europe on February 16, and will come in a standard edition, a two-disc special edition, and Blu-ray.

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Sony’s Peter Dille has said that the company is repositioning PS3 as the “total entertainment solution”.

The massive ad campaigns rolling out in September will focus more on the Blu-ray, movie download capabilities, “mums and families,” and less on games.

“We have been a game company for years and we would never walk away from that, but research confirmed there is a larger proposition under our nose,” the VP of marketing told the LA Times. “We wanted to reposition as a total entertainment solution.

“We felt like we can really own entertainment.”

Marketing campaigns when PS3 was launched toted it as a entertainment hub as well, and according to SCE bossman Kaz Hirai, this cause the console “a bit of an identity problem”.

Via Edge.

Despite the fact the US PC movie store clearly states in its terms and conditions that downloaded content stays deleted if you deleted it, Arstechnica’s reporting the SCEA is, in fact, a little more lenient than advertised with its DRM policy.

“If a consumer deletes a purchased movie from their PS3, they will not be able to redownload the movie without assistance from SCEA’s consumer services,” said PSN PR Lincoln Davis.

“Consumer service can issue a redownload as a one-time courtesy, as provided by our guidelines, for the title to allow the consumer to go back and download the movie from their PSN download list.”

Don’t get frisky if you’re allowed to download stuff again, however: you won’t be allowed to get content a third time.

Plenty more through there.

According to this Engadget piece, Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives are now selling for €9.99 at some Irish retailers. The drive comes with the 360′s Media Remote bundled, so this isn’t as stupid a buy as it may seem. Click through for all the details.

US retailer Best Buy is to give away $50 credit notes to anyone who bought into HD-DVD, according to this, an initiative likely to cost up to $10 million. Anyone that can provide a receipt saying they bought a now defunct HD-DVD player from the firm will be eligible for the gift.

Circuit City is also saying it’ll look after those stiffed by Toshiba on the whole HD-DVD “thing”, and will accept returns of HD-DVD players up to 90 days after purchase. We bet the UK retailers are clammering to offer similar deals. Or not.

Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis reckons “shiny discs” are going to be cast aside in the media race far faster than people suspect, and that Microsoft and Xbox 360 are in the perfect place to take advantage of the trend.

“Going forwards, digital downloads is really where it’s at,” Lewis said. “More and more people’s ongoing and ever-increasing downloading of music and movies is becoming the de facto. I think that’s going to happen in very short order; people want to consume that way. Before very long we will look back wistfully at shiny discs as something that was somewhat a historic phenomenon in a way that we kind of think about vinyl or VCRs today.”

Lewis continued to talk down Blu-ray’s next-gen movie disc victory, saying that the death of HD-DVD wouldn’t affect Xbox 360′s fortunes.

“That’s the future direction, and I think that’s going to be the case in the next 12-18 months,” he predicted. “I think we’re going to be talking much more about that than anything else. Do I think that this Christmas will somehow be defined by DVD playback? I genuinely don’t think that will be the case. I do not think that [the demise of HD DVD] will have any material impact on our console velocity. And I think other factors, specifically our architecture around downloads, is far more advantageous and important for the future.”

Read the rest through the link.

The Nikkei’s reporting the Toshiba is likely to write down just under $1 billion in its failed war on Blu-ray. The company has refused to comment on the report, which has hit the firm’s share price to the tune of 2.3 percent. Toshiba is still expected to post a 250 billion yen operating profit for the year, despite the decision to ditch HD-DVD.

Here. Apparently Microsoft will still support and repair your player based on the standard warranty, but seeing as the only reason you’re going to be buying one or keeping the one you have is to show your grandchildren how l33t hardcore you are, there’s probably not a great deal of point.

As predicted, Toshiba’s confirmed a “discontinuation” of its HD-DVD businesses.

In a statement, the company said:

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, president and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Full statement here.

According to this, Toshiba is about to hold a press conference detailing the fate of HD-DVD, as reported by Nikkei. Don’t blame us if we’ve got the time wrong. It’s 6.30am and there’s no coffee in the house.

As reported yesterday, Toshiba is expected to announce a complete withdrawal from the next gen disc business. Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida is to hold the conference.

Please, let it end. According to this, the Nikkei is now reporting that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March. Like, within two weeks.

According to that Engadget report, Toshiba is planning to just pull all HD-DVD-related stock off store shelves and make no compensation to adopters. The announcement is expected to be made alongside another piece of news about semi-conductors, designed to overshadow the fact that Toshiba just binned hundreds of millions of dollars in the disc war against Blu-ray.

Can we talk about games again? Please?

According to this, sales of the 40Gb PS3 SKU have risen 60 percent in Amazon.com since news emerged over the weekend that Toshiba is about to pull out of the next gen disc race.

The rise left the machine “ranked in the No. 10 position in the videogames division,” said the report.

In other HD-DVD comedy news, even the BBC’s in on the act, reporting that, “It looks as though Toshiba has lost this format war.” See the video below.

Microsoft has issued a statement on the impending announcement on the fate of HD-DVD from Toshiba, saying that the company’s withdrawal from the next gen disc space won’t have “any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace” adding that “it is games that sell consoles.”

“We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player,” said the statement.

Microsoft’s comment follow a turbulent few days for HD-DVD, with an announcement expected to confirm on Tuesday that Toshiba is to drop the format altogether.

Toshiba has issued a statement saying that the fat lady hasn’t sung quite yet on HD-DVD, despite reports from both NHK and Reuters to the contrary.

“The media reported that Toshiba will discontinue its HD-DVD business,” said a spokesperson. “Toshiba has not made any announcement concerning this. Although Toshiba is currently assessing its business strategies, no decision has been made at this moment.”

Toshiba’s shares are up 6 percent in Japanese trading today, pushed by the news that Toshiba is making a sensible exit from a potentially damaging contest with Blu-ray in the next gen disc space. A final announcement from Toshiba is expected on Tuesday.

While Toshiba is yet to make a formal announcement on the state of its beleaguered HD-DVD format – following weekend reports that the company is to cancel the disc brand completely – US retailers are already slashing Blu-ray disc prices and some have dropped HD-DVD from their President’s Day advertising.

According to this, Circuit City has dropped up to $10 off Blu-ray discs, and is carrying “Step into Hi-Def with Blu-ray” ads with no mention of HD-DVD at all.

Best Buy has now dropped some Blu-ray titles as low as $14.99.

“We still sell HD-DVD’s but we are telling customers that Blu-ray won,” a New York Best Buy sales assistant told Reuters.

According to this, a final decision on the fate of HD-DVD may come from Toshiba as soon as Tuesday.

“A company official, speaking on condition of anonymity as she is not authorized to speak on the matter, said a board meeting could be held as soon as Tuesday, where a decision is likely,” said the AP report.

The news comes after NHK first published a piece saying Toshiba was the drop the ailing format, which was that backed up by a Reuters piece on Saturday. Engadget then posted this this morning, saying a final announcement is expected from Toshiba in the coming days.

Hindsight’s a beautiful thing. We all said CES was terrible for gaming this year, and we were right in part. Microsoft decided to stay away, not even showing Xbox 360 on its stand, and PS3 was virtually non-existent. One of the big stories of the show, however is likely to have a huge impact on how this console generation plays out, even if most of us didn’t realise it at the time: just before the Las Vegas expo, Warner Bros. dropped HD-DVD.

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