I’ve been waiting to read some definitive article in a mainstream publication that repeats what I’m hearing from the guys at West L.A.’s Laser Blazer, and which has been reported on various industry and gamer sites, which is that Blu-ray has surged ahead of HD-DVD and that the aroma of absolute victory is in the air, like the scent of burning leaves on a late-fall afternoon.

Has there been a clear-cut game-is-over, Blu-ray-has-won story in any major publication (Variety, N.Y. Times, Wired, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) over the last couple of months that I’ve missed? New York Post critic Lou Lumenick has passed along a 3.8.07 story (exactly two weeks ago) that addresses this trend

The thing that did it, apparently, was the selling of two-in-one Blu Ray and Playstation 3 players starting sometime in the middle of last year. As an ign.com story observed last April, “Sony is using the PlayStation 3 to act as something of a Trojan Horse to get players into people’s homes.”

“Spurred in part by the sale of 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles, Sony officials have claimed that, according to research data, cumulative sales of Blu-ray discs have surpassed those for HD-DVD for the first time,” according to a 2.6.07 posting on Gamasutra.com.

“According to Nielsen VideoScan, the consumer research firm for the VHS and DVD sell-through industry, in addition to an overall lead in sales to date, Blu-ray movies outsold those released for the HD-DVD format by more than a 2-to-1 margin during the first week of January. This equates to 47.14 HD DVD titles sold for every 100 Blu-ray titles.

“The report also found that Blu-ray titles outsold HD-DVD releases by nearly a 3-to-1 margin during January’s second week, with 38.36 HD-DVD titles sold for every 100 Blu-ray releases.

“Sony officials also revealed that, according to an online survey of approximately 100,000 current PlayStation 3 owners conducted by the company, 90 percent have watched a Blu-ray movie on their console.

“This high percentage is likely helped by the bundled Talladega Nights Blu-ray disc with the first 500,000 units of PlayStation 3. But even apart from that, 80 percent of those surveyed plan to purchase further Blu-ray movies, while 72 percent of respondents stated that they plan to rent a Blu-ray movie in the near future.”