Posted Mar 30, 2006 at 11:30AM by Chad D. Listed in: News, UMD Movies
Ó

More movie disaster for PSP.

Both Universal & Image Entertainment have announced that they have abandoned the UMD format for future Movie Releases.  Although Sony had hoped that this would be one of the major selling points for the handheld.

One Universal executive told the Hollywood Reporter: "It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb - like Blu-ray."

To make matters worse, many other studios such as Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Buena Vista are looking at there approach to the release of UMD's and have recently reduced release schedules.

Paramount spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone said: "We continue to evaluate the PSP platform for each title, and if it makes sense for business reasons and the target audience, we will release them.

"Our focus right now is much more aimed at HD at the moment, though."

With the need for the PSP to able to connect to a TV for a UMD purchase to make sense, I think that the UMD craze is bound to stay stagnant.  Purchasing the Special Edition DVD, and using XVid or PSPVideo 9 to make the movie available on the PSP just makes more sense.

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » .

Should'a went with Mini DVD there sony... O well you deserve it tryen to horde all the money.

If you release the patten for it maybe more places will make players for them and sales will go up. I doubt you are that smart though sony.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » i wonder why sales are bad..

1. DVDs are cheaper
2. DVDs have more features

who wants to buy a UMD movie with no special features for a higher price??? NO ONE.

   by infraBLUEkid - 2006-03-30
 » take that sony

they keep trying to introduce new formats, its stupid, they shouldve started orr by offering video downloads

and bluerays gonna suffer the same fate

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » april's fool...

you bet?

   by masr1979 - 2006-03-30
 » It was only a matter of time

I've always hated the idea that sony dedicated so much effort to releasing movies for the psp, I bought it to play games on it; not to watch movies I got DVD players, computers and a whole bunch of other things to watch movies in. I'm sorry though that it played out like this and I would hope sony learns from their mistakes although it appears they don't, we all remember mini-disk (wich I actually like) and Atrac, now UMD and even though I want a PS3, I suspect Blue-Ray is going down the same alley. Let's hope sony can pull something off with the Blue-Ray format or that they are ready to make a seperate HD-DVD drive that you can attach to the PS3. As far as PSP UMD.... Keep making games we are starting to see some good games wich makes me happy, UMD Movies unless you do something for the UMD's that you can't do on DVD I would never buy a UMD movie, that putting the game and the movie together was a nice idea.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » Totally agree, sony fails at life

"its another sony bomb like blue ray"
ouch harsh, but unfortunately i have to agree. I have been suckered into two sony TV's which lost volume after 3 years. A sony Minidisk player with dreadful software and cumbersome media, and i am now onto my 3rd psp in 3 months because of terrible problems as far as screens are concerned. I have actually decided to put up with the quarter sized black spot in the middle of my screen for fear of getting a 2.1 or higher psp, and destroying all the homebrew which is the only thing i use it for because of the lack of games. Sony needs to get on the ball.

   by DigitalFx - 2006-03-30
 » I never bought a movie umd,... lol

I never even thought about buying a umd movie once. I only watched the spider man one that was included in the value pack once just to see how it would be, but i dont think i could laydown and watch a movie and have to hold it for 2 hours...

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » No point.

No point in buying a UMD when DVD's are cheaper, have more stuff on them such as extras ect and you can watch them on a TV and not a small ass screen. UMD good for the PSP gaming side, bad for the PSP movie side! Are Sony dumb or what? Do they really think somebody is going to buy a UMD movie when you can get something better and for a cheaper price? LOL @ SONY!

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   by DarkLordFett - 2006-03-30
 » The only UMD I have is...

The one that came with my PSP. It's not that I haven't wanted any other movies, I just usually have them on DVD already. I'm just not all that interested in buying it a second time. Plus, all the UDM movie review generally say the same thing. The transfer is good(on occasion great), but there are little to no extras. You've got 1.8GB, c'mon!

Now in Sony's defense, that issue is not their fault. The studios are crapping out on us, the consumer. They only have themselves to blame for sagging UMD sales. Here's a novel concept: Sell a special edition DVD+UMD bundle for about $10-15 more and include extra's that are on the DVD and others that are on the UMD. You know you can do it. And as for Blu-Ray being another bomb? Last I saw, the majority of the movie studios were backing Blu-Ray. But, if the players are as expensive as reports are saying and don't come down in price any time soon, then yeah. But, I wouldn't blame Sony exclusively. I'll blame all the mega-corp's that haven't been able to come to a unified solution.

   by Shamoo - 2006-03-30
 » I'll buy one UMD

And thats the advent children one. Other than I won't purchase any others.

   by CharlieT - 2006-03-30
 » Knew It

I knew this was going to happen... I mean, I watched like 10min of the spider-man movie, took it off and played wipeout..There's no way you can watch a whole movie on the psp....I couldn't..The Blu-Ray might be different though...but UMD movies..Bad Move...I'd stick to making more games for the PSP. Right now there's more movies than games....

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » LOL though it was just me

I never bought a UMD. DVDs just make more sence.

But who noes if blu-ray will fail? PS3 is gunna be like $800. HD DVD and BLU-RAY stand alone players are like $1500.

BLU-RAY also hold more space 25gb/50gb.

If sony get it right who isnt gunna love watching HD films and HD games on my 40inch 1080i HD TV.

   by badonis - 2006-03-30
 » lol

anyone remember betamax? that didn't fly to well...

sony needs to stop trying to innovate with formats, unless they're working with many different companies to make it widespread, they're just adding deficits to their records.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » Blu-Ray a Bomb?

Its not even launched yet.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » ...

Yeah but Blu-Ray is considered next-gen... for games, what's the point of getting BluRay and HD-DVD, Sony are anti-conformist, they want THEIR support to get trough...

Betamx, MiniDisc, UMD : All these formats are useless....

BluRay may get his place with the PS3... but who knows ?

   by ShinFuYux - 2006-03-30
 » I only have AKira UMD

I don't know, I always wanted to buy The Legend of the Drunken Master, Fist of Legend, Tom Yum Goong, Fearless...but those movies never made it into UMD format.

Besides that, Akira UMD really lacks alot of content. I wish they could of added a bit more stuff to it.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » I watch UMD's

I watch UMD's not all the time but when I am on a long trip with my girlfriend I found that playing games on the PSP is a little selfish. I tend to buy one or two UMD's whenever we go someplace so we can both get some enjoyment out of the PSP. Get a heaphone jack splitter so you can both listen comfortably and it's good for two people.

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » got 2 UMD's

I have 2 UMD's Spiderman 2 which I got free with yourpsp.com and Little Britian.

I think it was always going to happen, inevitable really.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » lol

The UMD movie format was doomed to fail the minute they were more expensive than DVDs.. since ever basically. I won't buy them for this reason. Another one to add to the list for Sony... Betamax, Minidisc and now UMD... blu-ray could fail, but it's not just Sony behind it, so there is some hope. I personally want blu ray to win the war because who could want 15-30GBs over 25-50GB? But if HD-DVD wins then i suppose 30GB could be alright...

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » Sony needs its sheep consumers... tsk tsk!

You have no idea how happy I am reading this news. The UMD Movie affair was a failure to begin with and Sony just wanted a selling gimmick (read sony being lazy and greedy). Plus, about time, Sony should pick up the idea of NOT releasing gay little proprietary formats (Encouraging a little bit of piracy amongst the masses is actually better in the long run... seriously lay down on the paranoia). I seriously hope the same happens to Blu-Ray. Moral of the story: Ideas spurned off by unnecessary paranoia and greed end majorly in the negative.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Lurker

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » PSP ROCKS!!!!

i work in an office and do paperwork and work on the computer all day. I watch/listen to movies on it in the docking station all day. I play my games on it at home. I have never had a problem with mine and bought it the day it came out. It is by far one of my favorite toys I have ever bought for myself and am dissapointed that they will slow on the dvd release for it. I could not wait for the ps3 to come out and be able to play them through the TV as well. I have had every handheld there is and it is awesome in comparision to any other. I also have all gaming systems at home and still tend to play with the psp the most. I LOVE MY PSP!!!

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » PSP ROCKS!!!!

i work in an office and do paperwork and work on the computer all day. I watch/listen to movies on it in the docking station all day. I play my games on it at home. I have never had a problem with mine and bought it the day it came out. It is by far one of my favorite toys I have ever bought for myself and am dissapointed that they will slow on the dvd release for it. I could not wait for the ps3 to come out and be able to play them through the TV as well. I have had every handheld there is and it is awesome in comparision to any other. I also have all gaming systems at home and still tend to play with the psp the most. I LOVE MY PSP!!!

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » werd

It's their own fault for making them so damn expensive. Who wants to pay more $$ for a UMD than a full DVD? If the UMD movies were like $10 they would have sold a ton more.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » I like m

I wouldn't watch m at home but on a plaintrip it's excellent!

You can't say converting dvd's makes more sence, converting takes lots of time and is way more inconvinient to play back..., besides taking a few (large) memory sticks with you is a lot more expensive...

save's time to convert, transfertime, I can skip chapters, choose subtitles and last but not least WAY BETTER QUALITY... I think they are very worth the 15 dollars...

DCLXVI





   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » greed

it all comes down to greed.. sony is the greediest of the companies..just like nintendo was before their spectacular fall(it was actually fun to watch) Sony's greed screwed them with the rumble feature and the betamax and the minidis(i love my minidisc) atract3plus is great. if they would have let more companies license minidisc then they would be at the top of portable music and not apple.. ipods are junk and it wouldnt take much to top them but 14 year old girls want the apple name.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » PSP ROCKS

they are awesome for trips to and the kids in the car. I also will watch them if I feel like tuning whatever my kids are watching or just want some alone time. put on the headphones and just relax and watch what i want to watch and still see what the kids are doing.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » Rumble - Bogus

Sony shouldn't have to pay or deal with lawsuits over the rumble feature. What happened is they could beat the 'so called company that had it patented first - supposedly' to the market. End of story - this other company shouldn't be able to sue and cost Sony (who employees loads of people and creates commerce, employement, and so on) for money. Microsoft settled out of court just to make the case against Sony more in favor of the other company - its all bull*****. Now that Sony had to lay off 10K people because of lawsuits and so on - this will only bring more crap on a good company. Say what you want - but who isn't out to make money and if you have a quality product- why shouldn't you? Again the exec that said 'The PSP is a gaming system period' is an idiot and has really pissed me off. These dumbasses lack vision. PERIOD

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » tv hookup? doh!

no one at sony ever thought about hooking this thing up to a tv?

fire them executives! fat from the glory of sony's few successes - they fail to see what users want from their products.

instead of updating the firmware for no reason other than to eliminate piracy - they should actually download some hombrew - they probably don't know it - but the psp rocks!

if you could hook this up to a tv (hell, my digital camera can do it!) you would sell a boatload of umds!

see ya for blueray!


   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » blu ray better win

I mean come on it just rolls of the tongue. come on HD-DVD, its too much to say DVD. bluuuu- rayyyyy....ahhh.

BUT THE MAIN POINT....sony's format is backed by alot more movie companies currently than HD-DVD and it has the PS3 behind it. Although admittedly betamax combined with the recent losses around UMD movie sales could cause some of the movie studios to drop Blu-Ray as a format, i believe it to be unlikely. Also you people need to get your facts straight before you post. Blu-Ray players will be around 1200 when first released, and HD-DVD players will be ( i dont know the exact number ) around 800. Now if you take into account that Blu-Ray holds more, is/will be about the same cost to manufacture, and the PS3 (to be released a mere month or two after the first Blu-Ray players) will be only 400-600 and they have the biggest backing movie studio wise. Universal must be a microsoft affiliate ....

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-03-30
 » blu ray better win

I mean come on it just rolls of the tongue. come on HD-DVD, its too much to say DVD. bluuuu- rayyyyy....ahhh.

BUT THE MAIN POINT....sony's format is backed by alot more movie companies currently than HD-DVD and it has the PS3 behind it. Although admittedly betamax combined with the recent losses around UMD movie sales could cause some of the movie studios to drop Blu-Ray as a format, i believe it to be unlikely. Also you people need to get your facts straight before you post. Blu-Ray players will be around 1200 when first released, and HD-DVD players will be ( i dont know the exact number ) around 800. Now if you take into account that Blu-Ray holds more, is/will be about the same cost to manufacture, and the PS3 (to be released a mere month or two after the first Blu-Ray players) will be only 400-600 and they have the biggest backing movie studio wise. Universal must be a microsoft affiliate ....



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