Yesterday, as reported on TheGameReviews.com, Toshiba gave up the fight against Sony’s Blu-Ray format as Toshiba’s own high tech weapon, its HD-DVD format, had become blunted and had suffered numerous setbacks. With Sony’s Blu-Ray now largely unopposed in the field of next gen media entertainment there is some uncertainty as to what Toshiba’s future plans are. Certainly the company will not blink out of existence due to this setback, but where exactly does Sony’s success leave Toshiba? Well, we at the GameReviews.com are here to tell you just that after

According to a press release available from Toshiba the company as entered into a reanalysis of where it will be taking it’s now bested HD-DVD format in the future according to a press release the company released today. The most critical result of Toshiba’s cessation of activities in the digital media field is that the company has decided not to build, advertise, or sell any more HD-DVD players or recorders. The company did assure that those who do own or have recently purchased such hardware from Toshiba won’t be left out in the cold: Toshiba will still continue to provide customer and hardware support for all its HD-DVD products.

In addition, Toshiba will start lowering the total amount of HD-DVD players and recorders that it sends to retail stores with the end goal of termination all such shipments by the end of March of this year. This phasing out of the HD-DVD format will also include the termination of the construction of HD-DVD disks drives that would have otherwise been used in PCs, while at the same time working to cater to the needs of its customer base. Notebook PCs that Toshiba markets, however, will still offer integrated HD-DVD drives depending on their popularity in the future.

The conventional DVD format arm that Toshiba maintains will not be joining its younger brother the HD-DVD, as Toshiba will continue to create and sell standard DVD players to all its customers. Toshiba will also continue to fulfill the commitment it has been holding up as a member of the DVD Forum, in league with roughly 200 member companies, as it assists in maintaining the current state of and expanding the DVD industry. Toshiba’s plans for the future also include firmly maintaining the links it has forged with companies such as Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and a wide number of media and IT firms in Japan, America, and Europe such as Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard. Toshiba is currently developing plans to make agreements with these firms in order that future business arrangements may come to pass.

The President and CEO of Toshiba, Atsutoshi Nishida, offered the statement that Toshiba had “carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ’next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop.” Mr. Nishida also went on to add that “while we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."