It seems like the fight is finally over. After years of bitter battles, the HD DVD format seems to be the big looser of the next gen DVD format war, as Warner Bros Entertainment has chosen its side. Starting with May this year, the media company will release its movies only in Blu Ray format.

By supporting one format over the other, Warner Bros Entertainment is seeking to end customer confusions, which was considered on the major roadblock in the mainstream adoption of high definition format.

All through last year, the Blu Ray movies have dominated the sales, according to the latest data released by the research companies.  In November 2007, a study released by Home Media Research said that Blu-Ray titles outsold competing HD DVD titles by nearly two-to-one in the United States during the first nine months of 2007.

During December, the Blu-Ray Disc Association said that, according to industry sales data, Blu-Ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units in Europe.

As Blu-Ray Disc Association noted 1 million units represent 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold, which means that the HD-DVD format is lagging far behind with only 27 percent.

In addition, the Blu-Ray Disc Association said that when counting Blu-Ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

The sales data were provided by an European research company, Media Control Gfk International. Blu-Ray revealed the best-selling titles: 300, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Also, during 2007, Blu Ray won another major ally as in June, the movie rental company, Blockbuster, has chosen its winner in BluRay versus HD-DVD battle. The company has introduced both formats in 250 stores in November 2006, but since then the BluRay rentals significantly outpaced HD DVD rentals.

Indeed, HD DVD alliance has sold more stand-alone players than Blu Ray camp during 2007, but it seems like PlayStation 3 has done its job as the main promoter of the new high definition format.

From the very moment it announced PS 3’s technical specifications, Sony was especially adamant about including the Blu Ray unit. It was only normal that the most advanced console of the moment also benefit from the most revolutionary optical support to be had.

In addition, as Sony slashed the price of PlayStation to counter the competition from Microsoft and Nintendo, they now have not only a gaming platform, but also a cheap Blu Ray player. Overall, maybe Sony has lost the gaming war to Nintendo and Microsoft, but PlayStation 3 has won a greater battle for Sony.

Also, during 2007, in an effort to gain the customers support for Blu Ray, Sony has reduced the price of its Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray DVD Player from $599 to $499.

It remains to be seen how Toshiba will react, but it’s hard to believe that they will be able to come up with something to counter Warner’s announcement.