We’re going to miss bringing you word from the Format War frontline here at the Screengrab. But all things must pass and so it is with the high definition format war. In a statement released yesterday, Toshiba announced that they will no longer be developing or manufacturing HD-DVD players. Toshiba president and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida said, “We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop. While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality." As for Toshiba’s HD-DVD partner Microsoft, who have aggressively backed the format with an HD-DVD player add-on for their Xbox 360 games console, defection might be in the cards. While the big MS hasn’t committed yet, they have hinted that a Blu-ray player add-on for the Xbox 360 might be happening quite soon.
That’s your cue to head to Best Buy and start buying Blu-ray copies of all your favorite pictures, ‘Grabbers.