The format war will be over by the end of the year according to research firm Gartner, the Blu-ray Disc Association is proclaiming.

According to Gartner's principal research analyst for Japan, Hiroyuki Shimizu, by the end of 2008 the Blu-ray disc format will have won and the high-def format war will be over, and HD DVD's attempts to appeal to consumers are merely "useless resistance".

"Gartner believes that Toshiba's price-cutting may prolong HD DVD’s life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format", Shimizu wrote in Gartner's Semiconductor DQ Monday Report.

"Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over."

Toshiba's HD DVD format has had a rough time in the news since Warner Bros announced that it was ditching the format in January.

We are awaiting comment from the HD DVD promotion group.