With the recent announcements that Paramount and Warner Brothers would be backing the next gen Blu-ray format, it looks as though the war for the next DVD standard is over. The majority of big players are now either totally in the Sony camp, or will support both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

This obviously puts pressure now on Microsoft, who along with Intel, have totally put all of their support in the HD DVD format. The Xbox 360 as of now will be released with the older format standard DVD drive, while the PS3 will be released with a next-gen 2X Blue-ray drive. Companies are counting on the PS3 to push this HD technology into homes, much like the PS2 did with the DVD format. This is one of the major reasons why some of this key industry players have made the jump to support Blu-ray. Does 90 million PS2s with a DVD drive make sense? : )

So what can Microsoft do, now that the momentum is in Sony's court? How about downplay the entire DVD format altogether? Here's a classic Bill Gates statement...

“The format that’s under discussion right now, HD versus Blu-ray, that’s simply the last physical format we’ll ever have.

Even videos in the future will either be on a disk in your pocket or over the Internet and therefore far more convenient for you.”

Hmmmmmm... So he first says that the next gen DVD will be the last physical format we will ever see, and yet in his next statement, he says that you will carry a disk in your pocket? Is he talking about an invisible disk? Maybe it will be a virtual disk, and our brains will be running Windows XP: Brain Edition? Make up your mind Bill. ; )

Would Gates be making these statements if HD DVD was gaining the support of the industry the same way Blu-ray was? This interview just after Paramount tilted the DVD wars in Sony's favor.

It's smart to divert attention away from something that clearly threatens your business direction. Microsoft did the same thing right after the TGS when the real time PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 footage was shown. Ignore the real threats, make some noise about something that doesn't address the issue, and move on. Microsoft has done that for years with Windows, and will continue to do that with the Xbox and beyond.

PS3 Power