Hi-Def News: Toshiba officially quits HD-DVD, Universal officially goes Blu

So the war's over.

Toshiba made it official this morning, and the story's been all over the web all day long, so I won't belabor it here. I'd reported on the rumors last Friday, and so I'm glad they didn't drag it out. Their official exit apparently releases all the studios previously committed to HD-DVD from their contractual agreements immediately.

Now this NEXT bit of news is apparently just breaking, and this is the part of today's news that's surprising, at least it is to me: Universal Studios Home Entertainment announced they will begin releasing titles in Blu-Ray in the near future, issuing this statement just hours after Toshiba's:

"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for hi-def’s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate. While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray." -Universal Studios Home Entertainment President Craig Kornblau

I had honestly expected Paramount Home Media and Dreamworks to pledge their support for Blu-Ray LONG before Universal would be prepared to do so, simply because Paramount and Dreamworks were ALREADY releasing Blu-Ray discs into the market while they were format neutral, until last summer's highly-publicized move to HD-DVD exclusivity. In comparison, Universal has been HD-DVD exclusive from the beginning, and was widely thought to be FAR behind the curve as far as Blu-Ray development and retooling.

The fact that they could issue this statement so quickly can mean two different things: 1) that they just want to get it out there and in the public domain that they're committed to Blu-Ray and will get titles out whenever they can in the near future, OR 2) they had seen the writing on the wall about the way the format war was going to go a LONG time ago, since at least the New Year but maybe even earlier, and had prepared contingency plans. It's important to remember that their media statements regarding continuing HD-DVD support in the wake of Warner's move to Blu-Ray exclusivity never ruled out Blu-Ray adoption at some future date.

Well, hot damn. And here I was, just happy to look forward to the release of Top Gun, Star Trek, Gladiator, and Transformers on Blu-Ray. Now I can officially look forward to Heroes and Battlestar Galactica going Blu, as well. Woo Hoo!!