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News
Michael Bay: Microsoft Wants Blu-ray & HD DVD to Fail
The Transformers director says it's a big conspiracy.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (December 5, 2007) -- Transformers director Michael Bay says Microsoft wants both Blu-ray and HD DVD high-def disc formats to fail.

Microsoft is actively supporting HD DVD over Blu-ray, but Bay says that's just a front.

"What you don't understand is corporate politics," the director wrote yesterday at his personal web site. "Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads."

Bay charges the software titan with propping up HD DVD so both formats will cancel each other out. For instance, he accuses Microsoft of paying $100 million to Paramount to get the studio to endorse HD DVD exclusively.

"That is the dirty secret no one is talking about," he wrote. "That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios to just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth."

For several months, rumors have persisted that Microsoft's has an ulterior motive in supporting HD DVD, namely to boost digital downloads. The company is now offering high-def downloads via its XBox 360 video game system.

Bay says that if the disc format war leads to a stalemate, fewer people will buy high-def DVD players and more will download high-def content from companies like Microsoft.

However, Microsoft has consistently denied the charge, saying it believes that HD DVD is the better format because of its interactive capability and other features.

Of course, Bay has been a loose cannon on the Blu-ray/HD DVD war. Earlier this year, he blasted Paramount for supporting HD DVD exclusively, saying Transformers should be available in both formats. The next day, he retracted his statement, saying that HD DVD "rocks."

However, shortly after that, he again criticized Paramount's decision, saying that Blu-ray is the better format.