Toshiba denies it. Look at their press release when the dropped HD-DVD. The part about why the did it is, "This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market."

Recent. The PS3 would be stretching it to say it was recent. 

That's the thing. I have not seen proof of the substantial part, just insitance.

This is something from Engadget

Analyst says consumers didn't end format war

As we poked and prodded through the ups and downs of the format war, we noticed a recurring theme -- HD DVD seemed to have things going in its favor on more than one occasion. Consumers adored the low priced hardware, studios were coming on board and Sony's PlayStation 3 (along with all the other Blu-ray players) was priced extraordinarily high. Not to mention Sony's absolutely awful track record with formats. In a recent interview with ABI Principal Analyst Steve Wilson, BetaNews found that he believed that the outcome of the format war wouldn't necessarily benefit the consumer. Besides being more expensive and less developed, some Blu-ray players have had quite the time performing as advertised. According to ABI, "it wasn't customers' likes or dislikes that powered the fatal blow in the format war, it was Warner Bros.' decision to switch allegiance to Blu-ray, along with subsequent moves to dump HD DVD by major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Netflix and Blockbuster." Frankly, we can't argue with that one iota.

Now I am not citing this as proof I am right, but as proof I am NOT the only one thinking this.

Because press releases never stretch the truth, and always are careful to give a complete and accurate breakdown of the causes of events, right?

Listen, if you're resorting to the lack of HISTORICAL DETAIL in a press release, just give up. And even granting that Toshiba's press releases are infallible and leave nothing out, EVEN THEN your argument holds no water.

"This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market."

That means that the final straw, the one that broke the camel's back, happened recently. I.e. the Netflix thing or Wal-mart or whatever. Does that mean that the constant grinding pressure of millions upon millions of PS3 Blu-ray players was unimportant? No. That's like saying that the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the SOLE CAUSE of the Japanese surrender in WWII, and the fact that all their major cities were flaming rubble and the fact that their navy was smashed and the fact that there were a million Marines sitting on Okinawa had nothing to do with it.

And that's not even mentioning the tiny possibility that the "recent major changes in the market" were thanks to earlier shifts in the market CAUSED [edit: in part] BY THE PS3.

If this press release is all you have to base your argument on, you have nothing to base your argument on.

According to ABI, "it wasn't customers' likes or dislikes that powered the fatal blow in the format war, it was Warner Bros.' decision to switch allegiance to Blu-ray, along with subsequent moves to dump HD DVD by major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Netflix and Blockbuster."

THE FATAL BLOW.
THE FATAL BLOW.

Not the whole victory, but the final surge that carried Blu-ray into the winner's circle.

"Keeping a racer behind IS NOT THE SAME AS CAUSING THEM TO DROP OUT."

And the all-caps were delibarate, as you cut off that part to make it look as though I am agreeing with you, when I was not. 

Unless you can prove that the custumers was almost completely due to the PS3, you are also twisting words. Warner themselves said that it was customer buying blu-Ray players other than the PS3.

Let me repeat that. Players OTHER than the PS3. You don't seem to have even acknowledged that, let alone conceded it.  

It's already benefited every PS3 owner who has Uncharted, since the game won't fit on a DVD, so at least we've benefited by not having to swap discs. I would think the majority of PS3 owners have at least watched one BR by now.

I have been saying since 2005 that Blu-ray was the best thing Sony ever did for the PS3. It is sheading more light now, and everyone will eventually see in the end. Blu-ray is not only about movies either. It can be a huge help for all of the developers. Thier is not enough room on DVD for the true next gen HD experiance. As we move on in this gen it will be the biggest factor in how badly the 360 ages. With devs now leading production on the PS3 they will be having a lot of room to put in more to the PS3 and then scale back down to DVD size for the 360. It will happen and it will start this year.

Now as far as movies go. I am so sick and tired of hearing that well Blu-ray still needs to beat out downloads, so this will not help Sony. Who here actually thinks that Sony is not readying a download service? Howard Stringer has mentioned time, and time again that PSN will be the future of Sony. They will roll out a doiwnload service starting on the Playstations, that will expand to their mobile devices, and home entertainment centers. Have any of you heard of Blu-ray spec 2.0? It requires at least 1GB of memory. Do not think that it will stop their. We will be seeing Blu-ray p[layers with 250GB hard drives before we know it. Once this happens expect Blu-ray players to become a gateway to digital downloads.