Studios pull back from UMD movie releases for the PSP

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18 Feb 06 18:34 by Crabbyappleton in category Uncategorized To news archive

Sony has thrown a lot of lines into the water in a desperate attempt to regain some sort of killer consumer product, but they can’t do it. The PSP is popular and there was a lot of hub-bub about the release of the proprietary UMD disc movies. They even had the insanely popular Sony title “Spiderman 2″ to prime the pump with. But, folks are not buying them, so the studios don’t look like they are going to continue to pay to produce the movies on these tiny 1.8GB discs. At least they are indicating they will scale back the amount of releases in the future. You might say well, what the heck, Sony Pictures will still put them out full bore. But then you would be wrong, even they are saying it’s a poor business venture!

src="http://www.cdfreaks.com/contentimages/newsimages/1007613399" align=right border=0
>With sales falling below expectations, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video are cutting back on movie releases for Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld videogame player.

SPHE president Ben Feingold said the studio is temporarily scaling back the number of new release PSP movies it puts out due to weak performance. Sony last year was the first studio to release movies for the PSP and has been the biggest cheerleader of the format since its launch by the studio’s parent company.

SPHE and sister unit Sony Computer plan to visit other studios in the next month to garner support for PSP by making an adapter that would allow the movies to be watched on a TV, making them more versatile for consumers.


‘It would be a huge boost to [PSP movies] if we can arrange for the disc to play on TV players,” Feingold said.

It would be a huge boost to all these companies if they would simply drop all this lock down thinking with oddball discs and incompatible DRM schemes. It is common knowledge that there is a hack for playing UMD on TV already (see above UMD link) and the UMD disc has been cracked allowing launches of content from memory sticks, making the UMD disc unnecessary. Due to the Internet and the vast community of hackers dedicated to trumping these schemes, it seems futile for the companies to even try. But they will anyway, as long as they see folks like Apple and the success of iTunes and iPods.

Source: Video Business Online

14 Comments

regnim99
Posts: 42
Posted on: 18 Feb 06 19:56
I clicked all the links but could not find out what a UMD movie is. Please help the unenlightened. And PSP is Play Station Something?
regnim99
Posts: 42
Posted on: 18 Feb 06 20:12
Nevermind, clear cache, links work, open mouth insert foot......
greensabath
Posts: 47
Posted on: 18 Feb 06 20:56
Lol...big woop! "Consumers are simply not buying them" No S*** Sherlock. For $30 a pop, who would want to buy these insanely overpriced pieces of junk that can only be played on a PSP. Personally, I feel that if you buy the DVD of a movie, you should get the UMD for free. But since that would never happen, I could settle for $5 a pop. But Sony is so stupid as to thinking they can charge up to $30 for a UMD movie, no wonder nobody wants them.
heystoopid
Posts: 307
Posted on: 18 Feb 06 21:19
Any fool, who read the test market reports, would have been well aware, that this product was a true turkey(hint look at the age group dynamics of the average PSP users, a miniscule DVD buyer age grouping, to be sure) What were they smoking, at the time they made these lame decisions?, must have been some good quality cloud cuckoo land stuff! Oh well, I suppose the bulk of this unsold rubbish, will be incorporated with the initial sale of blu####, as an unwanted bonus extra, in order to empty the bulk of the unsold stock held in the warehouse gathering dust!:r
DJ Specs
Posts: 45
Posted on: 18 Feb 06 21:43
Proff of how stupid Sony & the Studios are. The answer is plain and simple. PRICE IS TOO HIGH! Who would pay the same amount of $$ for a PSP Movie, when the real disc cost the same. It should have been half the price, like it's size. Dumasses!
TT111
Posts: 27
Posted on: 19 Feb 06 12:34
Sony should screw the studios and release UMD recorder and blank media. But then it will probly screw the PSP game market. ?????
cynicalbastard
Posts: 480
Posted on: 19 Feb 06 13:37
well, this is interesting because I've heard multiple times UMD were selling extremely well in the past. Hype-o-rama, it seems. I guess that's why Sony is gonna start bundling 'em with DVDs come March (for a few dollars added cost, of course). Not that it costs them more than cents to pump out these discs. My policy on playback-only formats with content (ZzzZzz) only released by major studios is a firm snoozefest. If these things could record (without DRM) - and the media was relatively inexpensive - then we'd have a PSP sale here. Likely several. And lots of positive recommendations to friends and so on. Can we say "Sony electronics division earnings up?" But it doesn't look like it's very exciting being a mere "consumer" of content these days. Particularly with the 'killer' format DVD making it hard for anyone to sell content (new formats included) YET AGAIN on another disc. Possibilities ------ I'd love to dump my digital camera pics to a UMD (or similar non-hard drive portable) and view and delete images on the trip back home on the bigger display the PSP provides. Video Out would be useful for many, there's no doubt about that either. Sometimes you just have to ask yourself "why?" when it comes to Sony. And it all starts to make sense when you know their Sony Pictures / Entertainment division is paranoid about piracy - and their electronics division always suffers because of it.
Dennis_Olof
Posts: 168
Posted on: 19 Feb 06 15:57
Thats right, UMD is stupid, why introduce a new format (or dics) when everyone is using DVD. This is a typical MORON sony move.
Hypnosis4U2NV
Posts: 1464
Posted on: 19 Feb 06 17:13
This probably wouldnt have happened if they stuck to either the minidisc format or mini-dvd format.. They are strictly proprietary with everything they do.. Its no wonder that even their memory stick format is so damn expensive when compared to SD memory.. They even pushed their own audio compression format at one point with their own MP3 players which failed.. Stop giving us your crap Sony..
SilverBlade2k
Posts: 44
Posted on: 19 Feb 06 18:33
Sony has great technology, like the minidisc, its just so POORLY executed. Proprietary atrac compression, bad mp3 playback, software which makes Windows look stable. No wonder Sony is looking out to Apple and other electronic companies. Their entertainment division is calling the shots, and bringing down from their once high quality electronics. There was a time when Sony was considered good. Now they are too controlling, and no one wants their products because of it.
malimarek
Posts: 16
Posted on: 20 Feb 06 12:19
I do not really understand why shareholders for Sony keep that Management Board full of idiots there. On every management training they teach you how well Japanese companies think strategically and they know where they will be in 300 years (if they made there). Sony apparently does not know that. Corporation is shitty organized, Departments do not cooperate, no common strategy '“ and they just bleeding money (shareholders money '“ because management still is being paid). And it is so easy '“ I just now can throw in couple of ideas '“ PSP '“ just make two versions '“ one as it is and one (PSP-O) open which allows to run Homebrew; then monitor homebrew movement, even organize it and help it and harvest it. Charge very healthy margin on PSP-O. And you need to remember that Playstation One was such a hot cookie because it could be moded. And kids love to have zillion of games they do not play but the one they like they push parents for originals so make sure that you have bonus strategy for buying original game. So do not think in terms money lost (fired up by lawyers) but how much you've made and if this justifies further investments (that economist point of view). UMD disk '“ I just can not forgive Sony for wasting Minidisc as MP3 carrier that would keep this beautiful device alive even now and then additional total screw on 1 Gb Minidisc. Now UMD closed, unusable '“ it has perfect size for pictures, for music and for movies. If it was cheap enough you can even have it as permanent storage. There are minidisk players' designs '“ revitalize them and make UMD player instead. Keep the disc technology proprietary though. So do not think in terms money lost (fired up by lawyers) but how much you've made and if this justifies further investments (that economist point of view). BlueRay '“ people do not want HD. Upscaling is OK. Remember SuperAudio CD and DVD-A '“ people want music on the go nowadays; no one sits in armchair anymore enjoying Floyd, Genesis or Marillion despite the quality you can get. And MP3 is OK. In exchange people want storage '“ they want less space taken with the content they already have '“ let them then place whatever they want on BD. Make sure only that the player plays all formats which are existing so far and plays it out from BD ('“ this is what Microsoft is heading for accommodate all formats but make one ours). Reach critical mass of BD players, recorders and plastic in the world. Then start releasing content at reasonable price. Do not punish people for copying that or that. Make better sales strategy for people buying originals. So do not think in terms money lost (fired up by lawyers) but how much you've made and if this justifies further investments (that economist point of view). ….until then though you people better sell the stock. Marek
DukeNukem
Posts: 998
Posted on: 20 Feb 06 16:47
UMD movies aren't selling for 3 reasons: 1) UMD movies are too expensive. 2) PSP players are too expensive. 3) You can rip a DVD and convert it to PSP format using Nero. Then, just put it onto a memory stick and you're good to go. Simple.
Drum
Posts: 78
Posted on: 21 Feb 06 22:56
If SONY would get their heads out of their asses they would be the biggest, most powerfull corporation in the world. How many corporations can screw up as much as they have and still be in business? I try to talk people out of buying SONY products, but they all say "Dude, SONY's the best". They all find out the expensive way that SONY is not the best and it doesn't play well with anything, even other SONY models. Almost all of them won't ever buy another SONY product, regardless of the price. It's just not worth it.
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 11 Jul 07 06:52
I am interested in buying a PSP but my main concern is the UMD. i have a massive dvd collection and i know that you can put your dvds on the memory stick and play them that way, but i would rather put them on a mini disc, or umd, or whatever to play on my psp. in other words not have to store them on my memory stick, but be able to hold a physical disc and instert it in place of the UMD. is there a way to do this? can anyone help me?

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