About a year ago when Sony launched its PlayStation Portable (PSP), sales of movies on the proprietary UMD disc took off very well with over 100,000 movie UMDs sold in two months. Unfortunately, sales began slipping after that despite an increasing number of titles being made available on UMD. In just the five months after the launch of the PSP, 239 video titles have been made available on UMD, more than the number of games made available on UMD!
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the time of Apple's launch of the video iPod, UMD movie sales fell very rapidly. The sales fell so far back that the two major studios Universal and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment have stopped releasing movies on UMD altogether. Between sales grinding to a halt and fewer titles to choose from, retailers are cutting their shelf space allocated for UMD movie titles and there are talks about Wal-Mart planning to drop the UMD movie format altogether. According to a high-ranking Universal executive, sales of their UMD movie titles are close to zero. A Paramount spokeswoman said that their focus is on High Definition.
Unlike the video iPod, the PSP does have a fairly significant drawback in that it cannot be hooked up to a TV. Another potential killer for the UMD format is the ability to rip content from DVDs to a memory stick for playback On the PSP. In an aim to overcome the lack of Video-output support, Sony Computer Entertainment executives will begin discussing plans with Hollywood studios to add TV output support to the PSP. Thanks to mrdataNY for letting us know about the following news:
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Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are drastically cutting back. And retailers also are cutting the amount of shelf space they've been devoting to UMD movies, amid talk that Wal-Mart Stores is about to dump the category entirely. Wal-Mart representative Jolanda Stewart declined comment on reports that the retailer is getting out of the UMD business. But studio sources say such a move is imminent, and a check Wednesday of a Wal-Mart store in Santa Ana, Calif., revealed a drastic shrinkage of UMD inventory. Several shelves of movies in the PSP section were gone; all that remained were seven UMD titles sitting bookshelf-style on the top of the PSP section, with no prices or other information. The full article can be read here. |
It looks like the novelty of the movie UMD format bit the dust and also clearly shows that consumers are realising that forking out on a movie a second time just to get a portable version is not such a good idea. The widespread use of PSP's also likely helped kill of the UMD movie format, since chances are that users learn from each other on how to save a small fortune by buying DVDs and ripping their movies to a memory stick instead of forking out on restricted UMDs which can only be played and watched on a PSP. On the other hand, the main purpose of the PSP is for playing games.
mrdataNY added: I can easily see that the implosion of UMD could directly reflect on Blu-ray. Doesn"t bother me in the least....
Source: c|net News
