LAS VEGAS (AP) - It was supposed to be the grand unveiling of a new generation in home entertainment when Kevin Collins of Microsoft Corp. popped an HD DVD disc into a Toshiba production model and hit "play."

Nothing happened.

The failed product demo at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show was hardly an auspicious start for the HD DVD camp in what's promising to be a nasty format war similar to the Betamax/VHS video tape battle.

Nickerson said that while many compare the DVD format wars to the battle a quarter century ago between the Betamax and VHS formats, another analogy might be more useful.

"The (video) games industry since the early 90s has had two or three incompatible formats and it hasn't slowed the adoption of game platforms," he said.