The LA Times declares the format war over: Blu-ray wins. The tipping point for them was Warner Bros.' announcement that it would stop issuing hi-def movies in both formats and instead go with Blu-ray exclusively.
I predicted the same outcome almost a year ago. A big reason for Blu-ray's edge has been Sony's strength in compliments. Sony, with their cross-promotions on the gaming, movie, and PC fronts, had the clout to get others onside.
Warner's announcement on the eve of CES couldn't have been worse timing for Toshiba, Microsoft, and the rest of the HD DVD camp. First of all, it's CES. They can't hide. Second, they've had no time to figure out a positive spin for this -- and the very last thing they want is this year's CES narrative including "the year HD DVD died".
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