War is never pretty. Just look at the infighting among Hollywood studios over the next generation of entertainment media. It has been a long, drawn-out battle with a few surprises, but Gizmodo thinks they have the real story about HD DVD versus Blu-ray.

Cast your memory back to the shocker of Warner Bros. changing horses midstream. It threw CES in a flurry of confusion, even leaving a press conference cancelled. Well, word has it this last-minute move could have gone either way. Fox was supposed to stick with HD DVD exclusively. The package deal would also include Warner tagging along.

But when Fox made the jump, so did Warner Bros. Allegedly, there was a combined payout of over $600 million (which Matt Buchanan over at Giz thinks is just loose change in a billion dollar game). This came as a total surprise, because HD DVD executives were on a plane to Vegas. Imagine the look on their faces after touchdown. The point is that this 11th Hour move could have shifted either way, throwing off some major momentum.

However, there’s conflict in the truth of where the format war really is, and where it thinks it is. Officially, Toshiba and a few power studios are the only ones left standing for HD DVD. Until they make a decision, the war will limp on.

Unofficially, Blu-ray has already taken the cake. Executives at Sony claim a victory, while manufacturers swinging both ways may let the market pan out in favor of their format. Either way, it has become obvious that these last few weeks were pivotal in the next-gen format war. This writer can’t help but ask: How long will it take for HD DVD to fold?

[Img: blog.wired.com]

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