Quote:
Originally Posted by AnemicOak
Okay I buy them killing Blockbuster, or at least having a big part in it with help from other streaming services, on-demand and RedBox, but how did it kill HD-DVD? HD-DVD died in early 2008 when Netflix streaming was in its infancy (until January of 2008 streaming wasn't unlimited).
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Late 2007 saw Netflix's streaming business growing (also Apple and Hulu), Blu-ray struggling, and HD-DVD stagnating. It was obvious that streaming was going to win the high-def war. Toshiba threw in the towel rather than continuing to fight an expensive format war they knew they could not win. This did nothing to improve Blu-ray sales; in fact, Blu-ray sales plummeted in early 2008:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...-been-delayed/
Netflix was synonymous with streaming for the majority at that point in time. I'm sure that Apple and Hulu contributed to the end of the HD format war but they were still relatively small names in the field compared to Netflix. That was the big name.
So yeah. Netflix killed HD-DVD. The only reason Blu-ray didn't get wiped out, too, is because Sony is frickin' huge.