That’s right, friends across the pond: Woolworths is officially supporting Blu-Ray. Why? Because of the PS3, which is actually one of the better reasons I’ve heard in a long time.

“Sales figures clearly show that the market is moving towards one format of high definition DVD,” says Woolworths DVD buyer Steven McGunigel. “The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-Ray discs, there are over ¾ million homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format. There is no where near that number of HD-DVD players around.” “Switching to Blu-Ray only will provide one clear offer to customers in the format they want to watch high definition movies in.”

For those not in the know, Woolworth’s used to be popular here and abroad until they closed all the US shops — they basically turned them into Foot Lockers — and left quite a few over in Merry Olde Howsyeruncle. There are also Woolworths in Germany, Austria, Mexico and South Africa, so potentially those branches are also going Blu-Ray.

Woolworth Backs Blu-Ray format over HD DVD [TheRetailBulletin]