A war to end all wars
Or just more corporate hijinkery from our pals HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
Paramount (as well as Viacom and Dreamworks by extension) announced their decision today to back HD-DVD as the format of choice for upcoming high definition releases. This decision occurs in the face of recent news citing Blu-Ray outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1 for the first half of '07. Interestingly, the New York Times is reporting a $150 million financial incentive for Paramount's decision, as reported by two as yet unidentified Viacom employees. How does Paramount plan to entice you to the side of HD-DVD? With such masterpieces of modern cinema as Shrek the Third and Transformers. This, I'm sure, will go swimmingly.
Rivals were forced by the announcement to pipe up pledging their support of Blu-Ray, with MGM and 20th Century Fox promising "Six new films from Fox, including Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Live Free or Die Hard, that will be released day and date with the DVD version" and "Four day and date (for U.S. only) Blu-ray and DVD new releases from MGM".
Transformers, Shrek the Third, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Live Free or Die Hard. I'd make an Aliens vs Predator joke here but that would just be sad.
Fanboys and celebrities alike are pitching their respective hissy fits, with Michael Bay once again showing what a loudmouthed clown he is with this gem "Paramount pisses me off!" further stating, I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"
Say it ain't so Michael. No Transformers 2? Please...don't stop selling my childhood back to me in brutally raped pieces!!!
But why is this is all relevant? Why should you really care who wins the format wars?
Because if Blu-Ray ends up succeeding in it's bid to become the format-de-rigeur (which seems likely given it's success with widespread retailers such as WalMart) it may be the tipping point that many need to go pick up that oh-so-pricey PS3. Being fortunate enough to experience the glory that is high definition in my van down by the river, I can say without hesitation that if Blu-Ray becomes the standard (and we see an increase in releases on Blu-Ray) my player of choice is going to be a PS3.
