Simple enough question... If the war does indeed end, when are places like Best Buy and Amazon going to likely discount their stockpiles of HD-DVDs? What has history told us about this kind of stuff?

I think you answered your own question. We will see discounted HD DVD's when the war ends. However, during the last few months, there have been more than enough BOGO sales on both sides.

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Could be a little while. All these stores are scrambling for answers from their buyers and marketing departments. They'll probably hold tight for a little while to see how much "babble" circulates and if HD DVD sales just stop entirely. If this happens, then they will begin to discount HD DVDs heavily.

But, depending on how this goes, it could take a while. Retail sales are rather not good this year, and so retailers might want to milk their purchases for all they can, leading to an extended pricing of HD DVDs. What will change their minds, is more news announcements from other movie studios, making it a virtually complete Blu-ray world, and HD DVD sales in general.

Of course, I have to wonder if Blu-ray sales will end because there will be no competition anymore. Taking only $3-$5 off a Blu-ray title could be a very real possibility in the near future.

This is the only thing that really scares me. No price reduction.

Yeah, I hope I'm wrong. Seriously. I'd really like to embrace Blu-ray like I did HD DVD, as well as giving a few bucks to Toshiba for a Blu-ray player because I think their quality is better.

The retailers may discount them to cut their losses if they can't send them back to the studios.

But something tells me Universal will be stubborn with its prices on HD DVD until the end.

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This is what I think will happen. They'll wait a little while and see if the sales plummet before deciding to clear them out. I could see the B&M retailers doing it sooner, since they would have an interest in clearing up room for other products on the shelves.

They do need more room for batteries!

Depending on the discussions between the Retailers, Studios and HD DVD Promotion Group, I would personally expect HD DVD close outs to start by June at the latest. But until one of these three makes their intentions known, it's one big guessing game.

The more important question might be, when will retailers stop ordering back stock.

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