Fare Thee Well, HD DVD

Faced with almost unanimous abandonment, Toshiba has finally decided to throw in the towel, and call it quits in the race for dominance over the future of physical High Definition media. They have already begun reducing shipments of HD DVD players, and are aiming for March of 2008 to be the end point for the format. This movement will cause Toshiba to suffer losses in the hundreds of millions, as they cease production and refocus their business. But, what does this mean for the consumers in the long run?

The obvious winner in the format war is Sony, with its Blu Ray technology. However, will the lack of direct competition slow down innovation and neutralize price reductions? Blu Ray was always the more expensive format of the two, and if it had not been for aggressive price cuts from both camps, we would still be paying a much larger premium to indulge in the new technology. With HD DVD gone, Sony may no longer feel that it needs to lower its prices, as there is no where else for consumers to go. On the other side of the fence, one could argue that Sony does have a reputation to maintain, and if the sales of Blu Ray begin to slump, there is no longer a format war to blame it on. Thus if Blu Ray fails to further penetrate the mainstream, only Sony will be held responsible.

Now that there exists only Blu Ray, how will that affect the gaming scene? With the format war over, consumers will not be so hesitant to commit to Blu Ray. Starting with January, the PS3 has already begun to outsell the XBOX 360. Expect that trend to continue, as bigger and better games will also be released for the system. Microsoft has admitted that it is looking into the possibility of releasing a Blu Ray addon for it's gaming console, however, the Playstation 3 remains to be the more appealing solution. One can only imagine that Microsoft will focus more of its efforts on developing the next successor in its XBOX line.

Is Blu Ray officially declared the winner and sole format to lead us into the future? The concept known as digital downloads may not be so quick to agree with that statement. With the ability to almost instantaneously watch whatever we want, whenever we want, becoming easier and more impressive, is it only a matter of time that this method is embraced by the masses. It is almost a given that physical media will one day cease to exist, and with recent innovations in cloud computing, this eventuality may come sooner than we think. However, the concept of digital downloads in terms of media is concerned, is in its infancy and it will still be a matter of time before we, as a whole, are ready to embrace such a medium. While the tech savvy generation may be looking forward to the day that we are surrounded by nothing but 1's and 0's, the old school mentality of owning a physical media collection still exists. And, with the plaguing problem of broadband limitations and digital rights management, who can blame them? In my personal opinion, we are not quite ready to crown digital media our messiah to lead us into the next generation. Perhaps it will be a different story, once the next iteration of physical media, be it Blu Ray or not, has run its course.