My brother told me that HD DVD died a few months ago because I hadn’t heard or read anything about the format war, but Blu-ray still ain’t doing so hot. And by “doing so hot,” I mean selling any better than it did when it was still entrenched in the utterly pointless war.
From January to February, Blu-ray sales plummeted some 40 percent, only to get a slight bump from February to March to the tune of 2 percent. Hardly the type of news Sony wanted to hear, especially if those rumors that it paid Warner $500 million were true.
The Blu-ray folks blame their inability to meet demand following the spectacular, dare I say “epic,” failure of Toshiba to convince anyone that HD DVD was worth buying. Cynics, myself included, think that, generally, consumers still aren’t too keen on Blu-ray when, you know, regular DVD (which is cheaper; the economy’s not so hot right now) looks “good enough.”