Did Fox Flip Warner? By Mark Fleischmann January 22, 2008 — Warner's decision to drop HD DVD and concentrate on Blu-ray releases may have been the climax of an epic bout of flipflopping. Or so says the rumor mill.

Here's what people are saying: Warner wanted a conclusion to the format war because it was "not only slowing the adoption of high-definition discs, but also hurting their regular DVD sales," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Gizmodo takes up the tale: "Warner actually wanted to go HD DVD. They gave Toshiba the chance to bring another studio into the HD DVD camp before they turned Blu. Fox was lined up, and told the HD DVD camp it was going to switch to HD DVD, which would've also turned Warner exclusively HD DVD. At the last possible minute, it nixed the deal."

Ouch.

It's also been reported in various places that Fox got $120 million in promo cash from Sony, and Warner somewhere between $400-500 million.

That might suggest that deeper pockets always win. But if that's the case, why didn't Blu-ray win from the outset? The truth is probably that money and timing both turned the tide. For the moment, though, HD DVD still exists.