Toshiba Finally Kills HD DVD

Toshiba Corp., the main developer and supported of the HD DVD disc format said today that they will cease production of HD DVD players. This move ends the format war over the next-generation video disc and hands the victory to Sony’s Blu-ray.

In a news conference today the CEO of Toshiba, Atsutoshi Nishida, said “It was a heartbreaking decision.” But the company realized that they had no chance of success after Warner Bros decided to go with Blu-ray and retail giants Best Buy and Wal-Mart also said they would only sell Blu-ray in the future.

According to Toshiba, they had sold about one million HD DVD players world wide including add-on players for the Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame console. In contrast, over six million devices that play Blu-ray Discs have been sold according to the Blu-ray Disc Association. That figure includes Sony Playstation 3 consoles which include a Blu-ray drive.

I just called 1-800-405-7520 about the 5 Free HD DVDs offer from Toshiba that I submitted in November but have not recieved. They claim there is a backlog and “call back in four weeks if they haven’t arrived.

Shall I hold my breath?