Toshiba, the major hardware backer of the HD DVD format, has announced that they “will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders”. The announcement signals an end to the high-definition optical disc war that has raged between HD DVD and rival Blu-ray for the past couple of years. Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba, said, “We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop”. Universal Studios, one of only two major Hollywood studios that backed the format, quickly announced they will move their releases to the Blu-ray disc format — Paramount (nor DreamWorks) has not yet made any announcement. High-Def Digest has the stories and the press release.