Looks like Warner Brothers has dropped their neutral stance on the format war. They have now chose to head completely to the Blu-Ray ship after their contract runs dry at the end of 2008. Could this be the final nail in the HD-DVD coffin?

January 4, 2008 - After nearly a year of intense speculation, Warner Bros. this afternoon officially announced their complete support for the Blu-ray format.

"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger," stated Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO of Warner Bros. "We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers."

The company will continue to release its titles in both standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008. Following that date, it is believed that all high-def titles will be released in Blu-ray format exclusively.

"Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices," said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. "Today's decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner."

With Paramount, DreamWorks and Universal still firmly in the HD DVD camp, this announcement doesn't yet represent a definitive deathblow, but it does hold significant ramifications for the HD DVD format.
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Most recently commented on by on Jan 9, 2008
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  • 2
    Bale Fire* Jan 5, 08
    Oh my god Joystiq was right!

    I am genuinely shocked
    • -3
      iLLmatic Jan 5, 08
      Do you mean genuinely?
    • 0
      teodortenchev Jan 5, 08
      Yeah, I remember their predictions about it. Looks like they were right.
  • -3
    Play ISDF Jan 5, 08
    Warner Bros, you guys used to be cool.

    Now consumers have to shell out enough cash to get a blu-ray player. $1,000 aprox give or take a few $100 is not appealing to those who do not possess beds made out of cash. At the very least couldn't they wait till like August or September as to give some more time for people to jump ship? Well...least they have no movies or anything coming out that'll interest me this year...at least as far as I know.
    • 1
      Guticb Jan 5, 08
      What are you talking about?

      Blu-ray players are $400.
      • 0
        Play ISDF Jan 5, 08
        Not U.S, freakin Australian dollars.
        • 0
          SS4Gogeta Jan 5, 08
          Eh? How much is a HD-DVD player? They are still releasing in standard DVD. What's the gripe?
  • 0
    StarJet Jan 5, 08
    What? No more DVDs from WB? That means the next Harry Potter's gonna be on Blu-Ray! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
    • 2
      Gogetenks Jan 5, 08
      Don't worry, no studio is stupid enough to stop DVD support. This just means that they will support Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD.
      • 0
        StarJet Jan 9, 08
        Oh, well. Glad it turned out that way.
  • 0
    Dance Floor Killah Jan 5, 08
    Now this... wow. Joystiq was right on the spot. Damn.
  • 0
    Smoke Jan 5, 08
    I'm 99% sure they're not dropping DVD, just HD-DVD support. It costs money to program everything right and use the right codes for three different formats.

    It's like thinking why would you put good money into porting a game to a different console when you know it will hardly sell?
    • 0
      Shadow of Death Jan 5, 08
      They already said (maybe not in this article) that they're also continuing with DVD >_> All they're doing is dropping HD-DVD.....

      It would be utterly MORONIC of them to stop DVD copies of the movies....way more people to buy DVDs than Blu Ray copies >_>

      So WB will keep making HD-DVDs until March 08, after that, it is Blu-ray all the way >_>
  • 0
    Tock Jan 5, 08
    of course they're not dropping dvd's.....the article is about the high def format
  • 0
    Bale Fire* Jan 5, 08
    quote
    Do you mean genuinely?
    What do you mean? I said genuinely, just look up there it says genuinely, you obviouly didn't look very hard. Defensive I'm not getting defensive, get off my back!
  • 1
    Existenz Jan 5, 08
    There is no way back for HD-DVD, you just have to see it... On a movie front Blu-Ray has all the major studios backing them, in gaming they have full support by EA and Vivendi, in computing there are 64 companies backing Blu-Ray including Alienware, ASUS, ATi, Adobe and Apple.inc... HD-DVD is a dying format already, since the format war isn't just battled over movies, if a format becomes standard in PC's thats it its over and its already happening... Most PC's and Laptops over a certain price range by ASUS, Samsung, Sony, NEC, Fujitsu and Acer will have Blu-Ray drives in them, this means that not only do Sony have Blu-Ray in the homes of every PS3 owner, they also have it in the homes of everyone that bought a decent computer in the last 4 months, and they also have software coming out on Blu-Ray be it PS3 games, or PC software like Adobe Photoshop Elements 5, Blu-Ray has it in the bag.
  • 0
    Sayyed Jan 5, 08
    I really hope its not true that microsoft wants both blu ray and HD-DVD to fail.

    Anyways, another blow to HD-DVD, before time, paramount will see the errors in there ways.

    If I was a HD-DVD owner, I would start selling that thing fast while they still have a chance to get money for it.
  • 0
    DragoniteBallZ Jan 5, 08
    Well even thought BluRay beat HDDVD over the holiday, DVD still beat both of them combined. It doesn't look like we will be seeing a winner anytime soon. Neither format will win unless they beat DVD. Or if at this point, HDDVD chooses to step down.

    I am on of those people who refuse to buy one of these HD players until one of them wins.
  • -1
    kik36 Jan 6, 08
    The deathblow will be when the porn studios start releasing on Blu-Ray. As of right now they are releasing HD-DVD. As soon as they switch the rest of the studios will crumble!!! LMFAO
    • 0
      Jeterocks Jan 6, 08
      thats not true. Porn does release on Blu-Ray and actually the sales of blu-ray porn are higher than HD-DVD.

      quote
      According to reports, Blu-ray owners are apparently extremely happy with the porn releases on the Blu-ray format as PS3 owners and standalone Blu-ray player owners have pushed Blu-ray porn sales "through the roof."

      The CEO of a major porn producing company has come out and stated that the Blu-ray version of their porn movies are selling extremely well.

      The huge sales are for their Blu-ray release of the porn film Pirates from Digital Playground.

      CEO Samantha Lewis stated "We didn�t know what to expect, and we can�t keep them here. We�re just a little crazy, because we weren�t expecting it. We thought it�d be a little bit slower paced, and then when I went to the Berlin show, I�m like, �OK, something�s going on here.� And then when I got back, the U.S. was just bam-bam-bam-bam-bam."

      She stated "I�m selling them like gangbusters."

      It was not long ago that porn was not even allowed to be released on the Blu-ray format, now it is apparently selling like crazy!
      • 0
        kik36 Jan 6, 08
        Hmmmm I haven't seen any porn released on Blu-Ray yet. I own Pirates and the version I have is HD-DVD only. I will have to research and find the blu-ray version.....according to wikki it's available, but haven't seen it yet.
  • -3
    Final Blade Jan 6, 08
    To bad this article is just a rumor. Think about it we get stuff like on one week stating This movie studio jumped to this format, then next week back to what they were, then to the other.

    Sad to say this means nothing. I bet you we will see another article in the next days stating its just a rumor and never was official or happening. Its just wishful thinking.
    • -1
      Existenz Jan 6, 08
      Its official, The HD-DVD Association have even counter commented with their dissapointment with Time Warner who also took their sister company New Line Cinema with them to Blu-Ray, the HDA are now contemplating what their future will be, they cancelled their press conference at CES 2008 because of Time Warners move.
    • -2
      Jeterocks Jan 6, 08
      Everything you just said there finalblade is 100% wrong. It is not a rumor, they are not going to flip flop between formats, it is not wishful thinking. It is 100% official.
  • 0
    xegaldis Jan 6, 08
    Good thing they're not stopping DVD's I guess, but Blu-Ray will be so expensive
    • 0
      Existenz Jan 6, 08
      Blu-Ray is not expensive for what it is, it is actually rather cheap and prices are only set to come down as its popularity increases... Fact of the matter is, buy more Blu-Ray movies and you will be rewarded with lower costs in the future.
  • -4
    slugbug Jan 7, 08
    Sony must be bribing the right execs.
  • 0
    redneonfish Jan 7, 08
    Hopefully, PS3 sales will go up! Nah im not bothered either way, its not as though any body cares that much...
  • 0
    The Power Jan 7, 08
    to me it is HD FTW, I though Warner Bros are the only thing that was supporting both??? Or am I wrong on this?

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