As consumers start their shopping for another holiday season one of the big questions raised last year at this time still doesn’t have a satisfactory answer: Blu-ray versus HD-DVD? While prices for both players dropped throughout 2007 there still wasn’t any clear indication which new DVD format was reigning supreme with the common man. Sony’s much-hoped for plans that their new Blu-ray PlayStation 3 would lead the charge failed to materialize while Microsoft’s HD-DVD add-on wasn’t exactly flying off of store shelves either. Sales of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs started off with the latter edging out the former but lately both groups have been selling roughly the same amount of units. So now that we’re well into the next gen DVD war, which side is winning? The answer according to one of Blu-ray’s biggest supporters is no one.

At a speaking event in Manhattan Howard Stringer, Sony Corporation of America’s CEO told the crowd that the war between Blu-ray, which is backed by Sony, and HD-DVD was at a “stalemate.” Stringer then told people that his side started off winning the battle but when Paramount decided to “change sides” and support HD-DVD, the fight became a bloody and prolonged war. Now Stringer says that victory for either side won’t result in the winner emerging in financial victory, instead it’s just a matter of “prestige.”

Stringer then told the crowd that the PlayStation 3 was on a comeback, citing recent sales figures in Europe that followed a price drop. Doesn’t this sound more like a CEO trying to save face for poor Blu-ray sales rather than someone who has the interests of shoppers at heart?

via Forbes