“We’ve listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference towards Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases,” said Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President Gary Severson.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided to exclusively sell Sony’s Blu-ray, crippling rival Toshiba’s HD DVD chance for a possible comeback. Currently there are 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores in the United States. They also have online stores for international buyers.

According to their website, Wal-Mart said that over the following months it will phase out sales of HD DVD systems and discs. By June everything will only be Blu-ray.

The move by the world’s largest retailer came after Best Buy Co. Inc. and Netflix Inc. did the same for their businesses.

The “Format War” between HD DVD and Blu-ray is reminiscent of the Betamax versus VHS battle in the 1980’s. Having two “standards” has been a problem for retailers who are made to choose between products that may eventually be obsolete.

The struggle soon favored Sony when in January Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. announced that it would only release high-definition DVD’s in Blu-ray format. Blu-ray also has support from News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

As for gaming, only the Sony PlayStation 3 supports the Blu-ray format. Although in January, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 said it could consider supporting Blu-ray technology depending on consumer clamor.

To be sure, Toshiba has managed to secure the same agreement with other big name studios such as NBC Universal’s Universal Pictures, Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. But I wouldn’t be surprised if these giants back out from said agreement.