Paramount drop Blue-ray, release HD-DVD Exclusively

[Darksaviour69]

Finally some good news for the HD-DVD format, Paramount (Dreamworks) announced (http://www.viacom.com/NEWS/NewsText.aspx?RID=1042073) that its dropping Blue-ray and will be releasing on HD-DVD exclusively, beginning with the releases of Blades of Glory, Shrek 3 and Transformers. Paramount and Dreamworks are the 2007 box office leaders with major franchises including Star Trek and Indiana Jones, their exclusivity really bolsters HD-DVD.

Today's announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format.

Paramount join Universal Studios for releasing exclusively on HD-DVD but companies like Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM (both owned by Sony) as well as Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate are releasing on Blue-ray only. The rest are sitting on the fence support both formats.

Looks like the format war is not over yet!

[mcdougall57]

good 2 hear seen as though hd dvd players are generally £200 cheaper and when people say the ps3 is a cheap blue ray player 80% of the people who buy them are oblivious to this fact lol

[goity]

Oh great. More reason for the format war to continue. I wonder how much Paramount was paid for this to happen?

[ish420ism]

this is bs. why can't someone develope a player with the capabilities of reading both formats or maybe a talented homebrewer can develope a patch for reading hddvd on the ps3. just some thoughts

[Darksaviour69]

they are going to be blue-ray/hd-dvd players, but they will cost a lot more, because they have to licence both technologies.

[Video_freak]

There are some already. You can get a nice one for under $1000 I think.

[royvedas]

Ah just get that format war over with, so we know what to buy. I hope HD-DVD will win though, not because of Xbox360/PS3-fanboyism, but because I believe it to be region free. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

[rmedtx]

Oh great. More reason for the format war to continue. I wonder how much Paramount was paid for this to happen?

Same question I've been asking myself since I heard about this.

I can live without Transformers in HD. Too bad for them that are going to miss the chance to sell millions of copies more...

...I guess they got quite a lot of money for that deal...

I don't care how good a movie is. Nothing will make me change to HD-DVD.

[Darksaviour69]

since in the last 3 months only 1.5 million copies of blu-ray discs and 0.7 hd-dvds were sold in total (all the moives together) they will not be missing "the chance to sell millions of copies more"

;)

[Elven6]

Same question I've been asking myself since I heard about this.

I can live without Transformers in HD. Too bad for them that are going to miss the chance to sell millions of copies more...

...I guess they got quite a lot of money for that deal...

I don't care how good a movie is. Nothing will make me change to HD-DVD.

They still will, if they make the HD DVD look great then they will get good sales.