HD DVD

Cause of death

Killed by a successor

Made by

Toshiba

Warner Bros. defected to Blu-ray in January 2008 and Toshiba abandoned the format within six weeks.

HD DVD was the loser of the last great format war, and it lost fast. Toshiba shipped the first player in March 2006 and announced the format's discontinuation twenty-three months later, after Warner Bros. went Blu-ray exclusive and Walmart followed. Toshiba's CEO framed the surrender as a service to the market: a swift decision would let high-definition video actually develop rather than stall in a standoff.