After Warner Bros. decision to go Blu-Ray exclusive, there have been stories aplently speculating why they did so, and here's another story to add to the pile.

According to a column from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, both Fox and Warner Bros. took substantial monetary funds to stick with the Blu-Ray format. Here's the relative excerpt from the story.

"Given their long partnership, Warner gave Toshiba an opportunity to lure a Blu-ray studio to HD DVD, in which case they would go HD DVD exclusive and give HD DVD a clear studio advantage. A deal was nearly secured with Fox, which had been having trouble with Blu-ray disc production due to the lack of manufacturing infrastructure. At the 11th hour, Fox went to Sony with its concerns and received a reported $120 million payout to stay with Blu-ray.

"With no studio joining them on the HD DVD side, Warner's hand was forced and it went with Blu-ray, receiving a reported $500 million for doing so."

Mind you, none of this is confirmed, and this was said to come from "inside information about a week before it happened." It should also be noted that the story starts out with the following sentence:

"In the past I have strongly recommended the HD DVD format as the best choice for consumers."

An interesting development, to be sure...