Blu-ray emerges as winner in format battle, Toshiba declares HD DVD officially dead

This just in from /Film:

Great news! The War is over.

Not that we weren’t expecting this to happen, but Toshiba has finally bowed out of HD DVD. This makes Blu Ray Disc the undisputed winner of the next generation dvd format war. Toshiba formally conceded defeat Tuesday morning, confirming that Toshiba will cease making and shipping players in the HD DVD format by March 31st.

Read the full /Film story here. Variety says in its story on the news:

Although neither side would disclose figures, the battle has been costly for both: Sony and Toshiba took a loss on the sale of lower-priced players, and Nikko Citigroup analyst Hiroyuki Masuko projected that Toshiba will see a ¥50 billion ($462 million) loss from the HD DVD biz in its fiscal year ending in March. Masuko said Monday that Toshiba’s exit from the format could boost its operating profit by 20% in the next fiscal year.