Microsoft to discontinue Xbox HD DVD player
Last Updated: Monday, February 25, 2008 | 9:12 AM ET
The Associated Press
Microsoft Corp. said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 video game system after Toshiba Corp. ceded the high-definition video format battle to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray.
Microsoft said Saturday it would continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players. Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida last week estimated about 300,000 people own the Microsoft video player, sold as a separate $130 US add-on for the Xbox 360.
"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," Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft's media and entertainment group, said in a written statement.
Microsoft was one of HD DVD's main backers, along with Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp., and its support was seen as a big win for Toshiba's format.
But enthusiasm for HD DVD waned as major movie studios — including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment — picked Blu-ray to distribute high-def DVDs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. struck what seemed to be the final blow for the Toshiba format just over a week ago when it said it would only sell Blu-ray players and discs.
Microsoft said it is looking at how the HD DVD technology it has developed, such as HDi, which adds interactive features to DVDs, and its VC-1 video encoding technology, can be applied to other platforms.
The software maker, based in Redmond, Wash., said the decision to stop selling HD DVD players won't have a material impact on its video game business.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Drummond report on Ontario calls for cutbacks
- The Ontario government must curtail its spending with the kind of cuts not seen since the Mike Harris years, according to a report by former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond. more »
- Children of immigrants challenged at school, home
- By 2016, foreign-born youth and Canadian-born youth from immigrant families will make up a quarter of the country's population, according to predictions by the Canadian Council on Social Development. As their numbers grow, more attention is being paid to their successes and failures. more »
- B.C. house party trial hears from tearful teens
- Two teenagers cried as they testified at the trial of a B.C. woman who was charged after a teen died while her son was hosting a party at her house in 2008. more »
- Whitney Houston funeral to be livestreamed
- Whitney Houston's funeral will be livestreamed, to satisfy the desire of fans to grieve alongside family members at the Saturday memorial. more »
- Drummond report on Ontario calls for cutbacks
- Barefoot girl's icy trek not blamed on babysitter
- 2 NDP MPs back final Commons vote to kill gun registry
- Immigrants the proudest Canadians, poll suggests
- Honduras prison fire kills hundreds
- Bodyguard hired for bully victim in Fredericton
- Canadian housing market cools in January
- Legalize pot, say former B.C. attorneys general
- Russians' abusive plane tirade to cost them $19K
