HD-DVD's Death...

As soon as I found out that the first, live action Transformers movie was gonna be released on HD-DVD and not Blu-ray, I loathed HD-DVD. I would have given it a chance, but I didn't see a need to get another disc player that eventually would have died out.

So why did it die? How did Blu-ray surpass HD-DVD?

Simple answer: Gaming.

Sony, the main backer of Blu-ray, implemented the use of BR discs in their games. Seeing that it'll hold more than a DVD9 would (8.5GB, to be exact, on a DVD9 as opposed to 30GB on Double sided HD-DVD and 50GB on double sided BR), more data could be placed on one disc, including uncompressed audio and video. So no need for multiple discs which would call for annoying disc changes during a cliffhanger in a story.

How would this matter for HD-DVD? The max capacity of a HD-DVD disc is 30GB (double sided). Even with compressed audio and video, games that would take 3 or 4 discs could be simply placed on one or two of them. Case in point; Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. The game shipped with 4 discs, each which popped out of their disc holder and caused major scratching of discs, making them unplayable. Even with standard one disc games like Halo: Reach, a lot more data could have been placed on the disc; uncompressed audio and video, more levels for campaign and maps for multiplayer.

And before I go on, yes, I am blaming Microsoft for the death of HD-DVD.

If you're familiar with the movie "Dogma", the story mentions the Angel/Archangel, Azrael, who stood on the sidelines during a war in heaven between heaven and hell, and would join the winning side (it's been a while, but I remember that the movie mentioned something like that). Anyway, Microsoft did the same thing. They offered an HD-DVD attachment to the 360, but never made it built in to the 360 itself. They basically waited until the format war was done with to decide what to do with HD-DVD.

Why is that important? Integrated HD-DVD means more capabilities for the 360 which could lead to even more sales. Even with the add-on, they should have capitalized on the opportunity to release some games on HD-DVD, or at least offered games on different formats. HD-DVD would have made the Lost Odyssey scratched disc debacle never come to life.

Many movie studios backed HD-DVD. At a point, Microsoft could have been a deciding factor if the format should have stayed alive. Since they stayed on the sidelines during the format war, they never really stood behind the format. They just went with the opposite of their competition, Sony.

Would it be any different if Blu-ray died instead of HD-DVD? Nope. Sony, with the PS3, would have still utilized the disc to release their games out. Movies would also still have a place, giving anyone on either disc camp to choose. The PS3 remains the sole factor in the triumph of the Blu-ray format.

I'm sure the file format would have been the same if creating a game on HD-DVD as opposed to DVD, which makes no sense that Microsoft or any of the gaming companies took advantage of it.

This, of course, it just my opinion on the matter. It is never brought up, at least to my knowledge, anywhere. So maybe this might start a thought train going.