The Hollywood Reporter is stirring rumors that Toshiba will drop support for HD DVD in the coming weeks. If so, this will finally bring to an end the long format war which many feared could get longer. It will also be more good news for Sony.

Ever since the format war began between HD DVD and Blu-Ray it was clear that one side needed to die off in order for the other to succeed. A protracted format war would only confuse most consumers and cause many more to sit out the battle until a clear winner could be picked. Toshiba dropping HD DVD support achieves this.

What does this mean for Microsoft? They will likely continue to try to sell off the rest of their HD DVD add-ons, possibly in a fire sale environment. It also means they are likely to ramp up advertising for their on-demand high definition downloads through the Xbox 360. For Sony, on the other hand, this is simply more good news. As the clear high definition format winner, Blu-Ray being packed into every PS3 makes it seem more like a bargain ever at $400. Expect Sony’s movie division to start pushing that angle, even if the games division sticks solely advertising games (a good idea).

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