Today, Toshiba announced it was quitting the hd-dvd business, meaning that Blu Ray has won the format war. So what does this mean? Well, first off, the Playstation 3 (as of right now) is the only console on the market that can play high definition blu ray movies. So, if someone is wanting a gaming device that can also let you watch high def movies, the PS3 is the only way to go. Xbox Live offers hd downloads, but they are only in 720p and they can not be used on other players. Obviously, this capability might not be important to gamers but with the rapid adoption of high definition televisions being able to play high def movies could be a large deciding factor on what console to buy. Especially since most games are now on all platforms. Also, blu ray winning means that future consoles, such as the next iteration of the xbox, will probably have blu ray drives in them. This will probably mean that most future games will also use blu ray discs for gaming instead of just the PS3.

Secondly, Blu Ray will not be overtaken by digital downloads. First off, Blu Ray is in countless retail locations and the prices for Blu Ray will only continue to drop. The reason prices will drop is because it will continue to be cheaper and cheaper to make players and movies and companies will have to drop prices in order for consumers to adopt blu ray discs over regular dvd's. Also, there will be competition between Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, etc. for players so don't expect prices to go up, especially prices for the PS3 which will only go down to compete with the 360. Secondly, digital downloads have a lot of problems right off the bat. The internet is not fast enough, hard drives aren't big enough, the bit rate is so low the quality is nothing close to a blu ray disc, and the movies are anything but portable. It would be very difficult to transfer 20-50gb of information onto a jump drive to take the movie to a friends house to watch. Plus, movies are much different than music, in which most major movies are easy to find at retailers whereas there is a ton of music that is hard to find at most stores. Digitally downloaded music is only successful because there is no loss in quality, it is usually cheaper than buying the cd, and because you can find music you can't find at wal mart or best buy.

In conclusion, today is a great day for Playstation 3 owners and consumers. Playstation 3 owners were the deciding factor in this format war, we are the ones that killed hd-dvd. We bought the movies that Toshiba said we weren't buying, and we are the ones that made Blu Ray the format of the future. It was a huge risk for Sony to put Blu Ray in their console, but now that Blu Ray has won, look for sales to increase by a large margin. Consumers will no longer be sitting on the fence about which format to choose, and the Playstation 3 is not only a great Blu Ray player (and currently the only future proof one) but it also plays awesome games, can hold tons of music and photos, and can even upscale those ugly dvd's.

I guess putting Blu Ray in the PS3 was the smart thing to do after all.