HD DVD, we hardly knew ye. After a rather short and intense battle with Blu-ray, it is sad to see that you have finally conceded and raised the white flag. With Toshiba, the main proponent of HD DVD closing down its operational plants and manufacturing outlets for HD DVD products, the entire entertainment industry is all set to pick up Blu-ray as the high definition standard for today, and perhaps even tomorrow, assuming high definition digital downloads do not catch up in popularity and standard DVDs die a quick death. Microsoft has just announced that they will end production of the external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console, although Microsoft will continue to honor the peripheral’s warranty support.

According to Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft’s media and entertainment group, “HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.” That’s pretty weak, man, but then again the HD DVD drive retails for approximately $130, making it a rather expensive DVD player with HD DVD playback (kinda ironic with the main function being touted as the sub-function).

Will we see a firesale involving Xbox 360 HD DVD drives? At what price will you pick that drive up? There are still many questions left unanswered, including the biggie – if Microsoft had included a HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360 just like how Sony integrated Blu-ray into its PS3, do you think HD DVD would have won out in the end?

Source: News.com

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