Who doesn't love a good format war? Well, everyone. From the heated battle between phonograph cylinders and gramophone records, to VHS's head-to-head match with Betamax, it's never anything less than obnoxious and inconvenient for the average consumer. The current fracas between Toshiba's Microsoft-backed HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray high-definition movie formats is particularly noisome, given the ubiquity of standard DVD players and the low install base of HD televisions. Worse still are the exclusivity agreements between format holders and movie studios. Got an HD-DVD player but want a Disney movie? Too bad. We lowly movie watchers at home aren't the only ones getting annoyed. The esteemed purveyor of big-budget trash, Michael Bay, whose Transformers is only available on HD-DVD thanks to Paramount's exclusivity contract, is not only calling out the studio on his official forums but claiming that the format war itself is a sham. Bay posted, "What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100-million-dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD-DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu-Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth." What say you about the format war, Screengrabbers? Thanks to Joystiq for the spot. — John Constantine
