Tuesday, January 8, 2008

HD-DVD twists in the wind

So back in August of last year it was announced that Paramount and Dreamworks were going to release their content exclusively on HD-DVD. There was a lot of bitching about this from the Blu-ray camp because the HD-DVD consortium supposedly threw millions at these studios, essentially buying their loyalty. This deal was to last for 18 months and was considered to be a saving grace for the HD-DVD format because it meant that they would have "catalog parity" with Blu-ray. Well it would seem that Paramount was smart enough to negotiate the contract in such a way that they could weasel out under circumstances. It appears that one of those circumstances was met when Warner backed out last week. You can be sure that Dreamworks and Universal will follow suit if Paramount makes an announcement. The best that can be hoped for is that they will produce for both formats but I wouldn't count on it. The old saying is true, you can't buy loyalty.

Dead format walking.

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