While we may never know the complete story about how the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) eventually won the high definition format war, parts of the story are starting the leak out. Forbes.com has published a story detailing how Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Corp., united the company by focusing efforts on ensuring Blu-ray victory.
After Paramount had announced that they would exclusively support the HD DVD format, Stringer went right to work ensuring that Blu-ray would not fall. From the article:
In Tokyo the night the Paramount news broke, Stringer set up a global conference call to brainstorm ideas for stopping Toshiba. He called on every division to play a part, seizing on the crisis to force the company to work together.
Despite calling on all parts of Sony to pull their weight, Stringer also reached out to retailers and studios to help guaranty that Blu-ray would be the high definition optical format to survive the war. This included helping Sony's own competitors as the article points out:
Peter Dille, a marketing official at Sony's U.S. games unit, suggested wooing rival Hollywood studios--[Michael] Lynton's [Sony Pictures Entertainment] competitors--by including snippets of their movies in PlayStation 3 ads. The free advertising would get the industry's attention.
Click on the link below to read the entire article.