Sony CEO comments on HD DVDs goodbye

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Wall Street Journal talked with a no doubt optimistic Sony CEO after Toshiba announced that they would discontinue HD DVD.

Howard Stinger, CEO of Sony - the main backer of Blu-ray, said "The so-called format war had created confusion in the marketplace, and people have been unclear which way to go," and continued "Our goal now is to educate the consumer about the advantages of high-definition... Then we've got to show them that this is a great experience,"

Howard also said the Playstation 3 had played a big role in the adoption of the Blu-ray format. "The early adopters [of the PS3] were obviously the games enthusiasts, but before Christmas, we began to move past the early adopters into the mainstream audience... and that clearly drove content sales exponentially forward,"

He was also asked what he felt about many analysts saying that the successor to DVD is more likely to be downloads rather than a new packaged media. "Nothing is as ever as fast as anyone thinks, and even if you look around now, VHS sales have only just ground to a halt. I think there's a long life of packaged goods, particularly if we do a good job of making it attractive in high-definition," he said.

Source: Wall Street Journal.

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