The “Break it Down” Blog

I was hesitating to report on this until more details emerged to make the decision more final. Basically here’s what happened:

• Warner Bros, one of the last studios on the HD-DVD/Blu-ray fence finally agreed to go exclusive to Blu-ray for the life of the studio after May.
  • Rumors abound that they were paid $500 million to make this decision.
• At the last minute, the HD-DVD camp cancels their press conference for CES… the largest consumer electronics show of the year and issues a “we are disappointed with Warner”.

It may take a while for HD-DVD to continue to fall before Paramount/Dreamworks/Universal start pressing movies in dual format again and then eventually Blu-ray, but Blu-ray pretty much has it now.

Anyone else wonder if this is why Sony announced they are no longer going to spend millions securing exclusive game deals? Cause they are spending it all on the studios and Blu-ray adoption

Update #1: It looks like New Line Cinema may consider going Blu-ray exclusive as well.

Update #2: Chris Hunkele sends in a really nice pie chart showing the percentages of pressed movies that each studio is responsible for, and how the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war is looking:

Update #3: New Line has confirmed it will go Blu-ray.

Update #4: Michael Bay says “I told you so” and that Transformers will come out on Blu-ray.