The above photograph shows the confidence that the BDA is placing in its high definition optical disc format. The statement proves that Sony and Co. belief that HD DVD’s efforts are futile and that the format is doomed to fail in the end. Even though the high definition format war has just begun, the Blu-ray Consortium cut straight to the chase during its press conference and decided to declare that they had already won the war. The statement was met with astonishment, mingled with some amusement, from the crowd.

So what did the Blu-ray Disc Association base their claim that it had already won on? The answer is simple: the PS3. The console, which was released by Sony around two months ago, has sold nearly 1 million units. Each of these consoles are counted as Blu-ray players, so the one million PS3 units sold easily dwarfs HD DVD’s much more modest 125,000 players. HD DVD, however, already had a plausible rebuttal prepared. Their rebuttal directly targeted consumer intentions. The HD DVD group believes that consumers are buying their products solely for the purpose of playing high definition movies. On the other hand, PS3 units are not being bought with the sole intent of playing Blu-ray movies, but instead for playing video games.

Sony currently has seven major studios exclusively supporting the Blu-ray disc format. HD DVD has three, two of which also support Blu-ray, meaning only Universal Studios exclusively supports HD DVD. Currently, however, Blu-ray only has 170 movie titles compared to the 300 for HD DVD.

The diagram, which was presented by Sony, shows that Blu-ray will be neck to neck with HD DVD until 2010. From there Sony claims they will gain complete supremacy of the market. The graph only makes it all the more clearer that Sony is singing about their “victory” a little too early.