Toshiba said Tuesday it no longer would develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.

The company said in a statement that the decision followed a thorough review of its overall strategy.

The move makes Blu-ray – backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios – the winner in the battle over high-definition DVD formatting that began several years ago.

“We concluded that a swift decision would be best,” Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at the company’s offices in Tokyo.

The two formats are incompatible. Toshiba has estimated that as many as 1 million people worldwide already had bought its HD DVD players.