Toshiba has finally bowed to speculation and revealed today that it is set to withdraw support for the ailing HD-DVD format, shares in the Japanese electronics giant rising yesterday on speculation of an imminent halt.

The final decision was apparently taken by Toshiba's board early this morning in Japan, with the decision by a number of large American studios to side with Sony's rival Blu-ray format likely the catalyst for the white flag-waving.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," explained Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba's chief.

"While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

HD-DVD player shipments will stop by the end of March, while Toshiba will now focus on hard disks, CPUs, visual technologies and the like.

Toshiba hint they may find new ways to work with hardware partners like Microsoft in the future, while experts back the PS3 to soar, the console being one of the cheapest ways to own a Blu-ray drive.

This news is taken from tech.tm.

And did u think that PlayStation 3 will win the war between X360 and Wii ?