Friday, January 7, 2005

Blu-ray Opens New Front In DVD Format Wars

The Blu-ray Disc Association has opened a new front in the war over next generation DVD standards, adding two video game publishers to its roster. Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) have joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, as the DVD format gears up for battle with the competing HD-DVD standard. The move adds two game publishers to the Blu-ray roster, in addition to Sony's existing support for Blu-ray based gaming platforms. The battle until now has mainly pitted electronics equipment makers and movie studios against each other. Sun Microsystems also joined the association. Blu-ray has Sony, Dell, HP, and Walt Disney as backers; HD DVD counts Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema, and Warner Bros as proponents.