Tens of BILLIONS in licensing fees is at stake.
The Paramount thing bought them some time and that's all. In reality, it was not worth the $$ for them, but I don't think they counted on Warner and Walmart shooting them down. Truthfully, I think they thought they would be able to buy all three, no problem. When they only got Viacom signed it greatly diminished their plan as I see it. In fact, it seems the plan has backfired pretty hard at this point.
Toshiba is now widely accepted as a company that has to buy support because it's format, HDDVD, isn't good enough to stand on it's own now.
Walmart seems to have completely been offended by this 'offer' going so far as to say they won't be carrying the supacheapo Venturer player. I have a feeling we will be seeing a _very_ Blu Walmart this holiday.
The only caveat to all of this is: Can Blu-ray keep up with demand? BS about yields aside, there are still very few Blu-ray replication plants, comparatively and manufacturers would have to significantly increase production _now_ if the holidays is going to blow up. Will be interesting to watch.
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