Borkachev on 05 January 2008
Of course there was a payoff! Do you really believe Warner would hold the promise of tipping the format war and give it away for free? Do you really believe that the HD-DVD consortium wouldn't offer Warner hundreds of millions to make their format the next HD format? Warner kept itself in an awesome position by staying platform agnostic, and because it was the final studio and the only way to end the format war within the next couple of years, it had a very valuable position.
WB had plenty to gain from this without a payoff. It's in the best interest of the studios to have one standard format, because they know that most consumers are holding off on buying in until that happens. WB's decision moves up the timetable on that immensely, and their profits along with it. Keep in mind that plenty of studios were exclusive to one format or another before this. They weren't all paid off -- they just saw advantages to the format of their choice.
And to reiterate, it would not only be unnecessary for them to cover up this payoff (who really gives a crap, other than message board fanboys?), it would be illegal. Remember when Paramount switched to HD-DVD exclusivity? The news came out immediately. The executives spoke to the press about it, because they were obligated to. Same thing with the Microsoft-Rockstar GTA4 content deal. These things aren't secrets.
And again, if there was a payoff, it sure as hell wasn't 500 million dollars. That's a ridiculous, unrecoverable sum, and the BluRay association had no reason to pay it when their victory was already pretty much secured.
This is a made-up story from some teenage HD-DVD fanbloggers. That's all.
