During a press event, the Blu-ray backer Pioneer alleged that Universal Home Entertainment has cancelled its exclusive contract with the HD DVD camp, according to this Heise Online report (German). The contracts are said to have been cancelled already, but this has yet to be validated. However, if this turns out to be confirmed, it will be bad news for HD DVD, as Universal which has been backing HD DVD only up until now could potentially start releasing movies on Blu-ray. HD DVD has already lost their HD DVD only backers Paramount and Warner, which started supporting Blu-ray.
Heise online tried contacting Universal Pictures Germany, but they did not provide any comment. Apparently, Toshiba does not even know anything about Universal leaving its HD DVD partnership. Back in January, despite Universal not making any HD DVD announcement at CES, they announced the release of 100 new movies on HD DVD a few weeks alter and that they had no intention of supporting the Blu-ray format.
Should Universal release any Blu-ray titles later on, this would just leave the Weinstem Company backing HD DVD only. With five studios backing the Blu-ray format only and an adult studio also just announcing the Blu-ray adult movie release, this is certainly bad news for HD DVD.
Thanks to our system admin Liggy for letting us know about this news and for translating the source to help write this article.
