Will Blu-Ray Win The Format War?

Everywhere you look, it seems that HD-DVD is in the lead when it comes to the next-gen DVD players. The players are much cheaper (half the price of Blu-Ray). They were practically giving them away in the sales after Thanksgiving. If you bought a player, you sometimes got 6 free HD-DVDs with it.

But, if you look at the numbers, Blu-Ray discs are outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1.

I find this hard to believe. Reading film blogs, I rarely hear anyone talk about Blu-Ray. People must have them though, mainly through the Play Station 3.

In this Variety article, it states how the studios are trying to end the format war, and that by the Consumer Electronics Show in January, a Fox Exec states "it will be pretty clear there will be one format". They speculate that Warner (and New Line) who support both formats may drop HD to focus on Blu-Ray.

The article also mentions that Wall Street has downgraded the entertainment industry because of uncertainty of the formats and the effect it has in driving down DVD sales. Maybe if they had done that a year ago, they would have settled this before either player was released.

So, will Blu-Ray win out? Can all this nonsense end so that I can just get a next gen player?