Is Blu-ray Preparing a Death Blow for HD-DVD?

Numerous stories have been written of late noting the apparent success of Blu-ray and, by extension, the imminent demise of HD-DVD. We all know about the big Blockbuster news, but what else is going on behind the scenes?

Well, Digi Times says that Blu-ray is about to severely stack the deck by giving away five free Blu-ray movies to anyone who buys a new Blu-ray player or a PlayStation 3 console. While that means there'll be a whole lot more copies of Stir of Echoes and Invincible on the market (full list of titles at CrunchGear), it also means the Blu-ray camp will get a huge boost when it comes to counting market share by title, as everyone who buys one player will increase the number of those titles owned five-fold, a key market metric.

Such stunts are nothing new. I remember my first DVD player came with five DVDs in those awesome cardboard cases. Gems like U.S. Marshals, Sphere, and Lost in Space remained in my collection until I wised up and tossed them out. HD-DVD ran a similar promotion in the past, as well.

HD-DVD is getting so trampled these days that one commenter has given the technology until September to get its act together or go the way of the dodo. 

Sure, you like all that picture-in-picture stuff in Tokyo Drift, but is that enough to keep people interested in a technology with less storage space and waning industry support? Is this indeed the beginning of the end for technology's latest brutal format war? The jury's obviously still out, but signs point to this battle coming to a head, and soon.

Your thoughts are welcomed, as always.