Microsoft Fueling HD Wars For Own Benefit?

DaveyJJ writes "According to Transformers' director Michael Bay, in a story over on Electronista, Microsoft is deliberately feeding into the HD disc format wars to ensure that its own downloads succeed where physical copies fail, he says in a response to a question posed through his official forums. The producer contends that Microsoft is writing "$100 million dollar checks" to movie studios to ensure HD DVD exclusives that hurt the overall market regardless of the format's actual merit or its popularity, preventing any one format from gaining a clear upper hand."

Comments

Nothing to see here...

[Recovering Hater]

Does anyone think that this is something Microsoft wouldn't do? This is not the first time they have thrown money to the detriment of an industry for their own benefit and it won't be the last.

Re:M$ BS

[Ravengbc]

Crap, I'm gonna correct my own post. The love of money is the root of all evil. But still, M$ has so much of it, that I'm pretty sure they love it. And, they are hoping that other's love of money will get them there way. Just goes to prove that M$ is PURE EVIL.

Remove the question mark from the headline

[invisik]

There is no doubt that Microsoft is bribing and making deals behind the screens to make HD DVD come out on top.

I did buy a BluRay player anyway, but we'll see how it goes. Consumers can still vote with their wallets, and I hope they do.

-m

Re:Doesn't sound like Microsoft.

[aplusjimages]

What if they were though, but not so consumers had more choices, but so companies can offer their own format and have more control over it? What if they are trying to mold the video market into the video game market? Where some movies will be exclusive to certain formats, but in general some movies come out on both formats. The video game console market is successful in doing this why can't the video market?

I can see both formats making lots of money and even a third joining the "war". I also see the mass market not fighting back on this. The only thing stopping this market from really taking off is the price of entry for the HDTVs and the HD movies themselves.