It didn't come as much of a surprise when Paramount announced last week, with gritted teeth, that it would be signing on with Blu-ray. After all, Toshiba itself had already announced that it would no longer be supporting the format. What Paramount didn't tell us, however, was when and how it would make the transition between the two next-gen formats.
That news came out this morning, and it turns out that matters won't be especially pretty for the movie studio. Paramount will release two more titles on its preferred format, HD DVD. Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild will both drop next week, giving users two final reasons to pick up one of those super-cheap Xbox 360 drives.
After that, customers won't be seeing hi-def discs from the studio until summer, when Paramount will begin to roll out its first Blu-ray titles. In the meantime, anyone looking to pick up new Paramount titles will have to settle for standard definition discs.
Dreamworks, meanwhile, is stuck in something of an impasse, having signed an exclusive deal with Toshiba.
"We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through," DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Tuesday. "As you know, we have been well compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We're poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so."
With Toshiba having backed out, you'd think this whole thing would have already been, you know, seen through. In the meantime, you're going to have to wait a while to see Bee Movie in all its hi-def glory.
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