Does anyone else remember the rumor from before launch about the PS3 coming with a UMD drive? That would've been pretty cool, and might have made UMDs not as pointless.

It probably also would've required people to sell, say, Mexico, to be able to afford one.

0x15e

The new ability to easily transfer a movie from Blu-ray to PSP (I know it's not out yet) is pretty much the death knell of UMDs.

Maybe if Sony had put out relatively inexpensive burners early on, the format would thrive for some, but it smells of death and decay.

AverageJoes

i got spiderman 3, 300, and 2 other recent flicks for £`0 on UMD there allready cheap enough methinks.

underground_slacker

Now we know who's Sony's target audience when it comes to UMDs.

nya-chama

@ssjmichael:

for $300.

NeoAkira

I love my PSP and I really wish I could support the UMD movie format... but I can't justify it at all. I can't justify buying a copy of a movie to-go. Buying single episodes of shows I can justify, for cheap, and assuming I missed the show when it aired I can. But buying a copy of a movie specifically for the intention of using it only with my PSP I can't justify.

Unless it's The Fifth Element. I can never own enough copies of that movie or watch it enough times. I should buy a copy of that UMD. And Blu-Ray.

Tale

@PapaBear434: That pretty much sums it up perfectly. Too little too late...but i don't blame them for trying.

Corncob

No love for The Maxx... (or The Head)

fuchikoma

Or they can admit that UMDs are a miserable failure and divert further resources to getting their damn media store up and running. Sony's mega-umbrella has more media ownership under it than GOD, yet... where the hell is it?

Moonshadow101

Could have easily left these movies go on the PC store but no, they want to sell movies UMD Style. Come sony! Get with the time!

Mr. Dark E

You know, if they had done this at release, it may have had a chance to be a viable format. As is stands now, no matter how cheap and efficient you make it, it's still a joke.

PapaBear434

@mariospants:

They have 16GB memory sticks

ssjmichael

@spiderweb1986:

Pretty sure it's because of the rebirth of the PSP. With the ability to do TV-out, UMD's have a broader use now. You can watch them like you do DVD's, or watch them on the go instantly. That's pretty appealing to me personally and the reason I got the new PSP rather than the old one.

ssjmichael

$15 is still too much. Let UMD just die already

ProfWho

Viva La Bam? No thanks. If I want to watch a douchebag, I'll go to the drug store and stare at one, it would probably be funnier.

Doomstink

Well, even tho my PSP slim can output to a bigger TV, I still am not interested in UMDs.

Here's a tip, SONY: spend the effort and money on developing larger and cheaper MemorySticks and sell all that freakin' content on the PSN. I'd sure as hell buy into that. I guess they don't want people repurposing the content too readily, but it's ridiculous to pay so much for what is essentially a non-copiable format.

mariospants

UMDs need to be included with DVD/Blu-Ray releases at no extra cost. End of discussion.

Giolon

I can't help but wonder if Sony's giving this another shot because Blu-Ray won out over HD-DVD. Maybe they've got faith in their proprietary formats again, despite the fact that they've got a horrendous historical track record for them?

Sony would save us all a lot of time and trouble if they would commit to standards instead of coming up with their own media formats every year or two.

spiderweb1986

Sweet

huxle

$15 is still too much as the people above me have said.

NeoAkira

Once the "Blu-Ray to PSP" feature goes live UMD will be utterly pointless. (for those with a PS3... the rest need to get jobs and buy one....)

SithNinja

I already have the Aeon Flux collection on DVD and Beavis and Butthead are just not the same without the music videos. Now, if they decide to release The Maxx on something other than VHS (which I already have) I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

kingofallcosmos

@thebluick: I was about to post the same thing ... $5 for some good films was fine (I got Layer Cake, Steamboy, and something else).

jayntampa

I swear, UMD's could have totally taken off if DVD's weren't so popular, the price of a UMD wasn't outrageous, and I could play them on more than one particular piece of electronics bound by a high price point and a 4 inch screen.

Oh, and if I had the chance to be able to watch these expensive movies on a big screen TV, that would help, plus the whole idea of advertising the medium, and if more than 10 million people in the world had the machine capable of playing them.

Rubix42

I only buy UMDs when gamestop has them on sale for $5 and I really really like the movie

thebluick

If I had a PSP right now, I still wouldn't opt for a single UMD. BRD's cost the same or even less and I really don't like watching movies "on the go" or somewhere else than home/cinemas.

Candlejack

@Rubix42: most of these they have gotten around to doing, but they did hurt themselves by not doing it right away. They have video out and a very large install base, a pretty good price point compared to Ipod or Zune.

I think the original price point for UMD movies was largely from the movie companies themselves and due to the risk of an untested format. I think what Sony is doing now is seeing what type of video works for this format, and I could have told them:

tv show bundles, music video collections, sort film collections. i.e. bite sized content. Heck a subscription of best of youtube videos would probably sell well, and you could be a ton of them on 1.8 gb of space.
Some movies do work for this format/screen(comedies being one), but a lot of them do not as it does provide a very inferior experience. Where the PSP was on my nightstand provided me the same sort of screen view as having a 20-30 inch tv hanging on my wall visible from my bed, so I actually used it for video a lot before I got a laptop.
As a video device, I prefer my PSP, to my ipod and my Zune, but now that MSPD prices are down for 4gb the umd video format is even less appealing to me. I don't think Sony is targeting me, or most people commenting on this forum though. Most thins they put on UMD are the same sort of things you see for movies at Gamestop/EB and aren't really my taste.
I think this is the correct thing to do, but it maybe too late as others have said.

Ehardergardens

Still not cheap enough. You can get a lot of UMD's at GameStop in the 5 to 10 dollar range, new and used. Much better deal, selection usually sucks though.

fearing

They need to be <$10.

NeverSage

I still think they should be pushing pay-per-download service for the PSP. Just doesn't make sense to do UMD movies/shows anymore with that function.

Looking forward to being able to transfer blu-rays to 1gb files on the PSP. Fun stuff.

sascha23

@D00mM4r1n3:

They're working on all of that already silly. If you really think Sony is going to try and compete with iTunes through the PS3 you're nuttier than I thought.

ssjmichael

If Sony were smart, everything they are releasing on UMD they would release on their marketplace for the PS3, and make the digital purchases transferable onto PSP memory cards. That would actually help they take a bite out of the iPod/iTunes market. Of course, this would require Sony to be smart. LOL!

D00mM4r1n3

Shot glass coasters, that is.

badasscat

@Giolon: You mean for the 1% of DVD player owners that also own PSP's?

Not to mention you'd be selling a whole lot of coasters to Netflix.

badasscat

I don't see why everyone thinks UMD is dead. It's uses for PSP's no? As long as those are around I don't see it being a dead format. UMD movies are dead, not the format.

GBA videos didn't do so well either, did that mean GBA cartridges were dead? Of course not.

ssjmichael

those titles seem to be $4.99 DVD clearance ones

htd

Think lower, Sony.

realyst2k

I'd buy the Clone High UMD collection if they ever release it. Or The State complete series.

NoBullet

$14.99MSRP is *still* too much money for a new UMD, when you consider that alot of the extras and stuff isn't on them, and when you compare the price of a DVD, which is about the same price with extras.

As for the portability, at least around where I am at (Greater Cleveland Ohio area), I've seen more teens and twenty-somethings with laptops than PSPs and definitely more DVDs than UMDs.

It basically helped the 18-25 crowd when the budget laptops brought their prices down. Sony would definitely have to rethink their pricing strategies *AGAIN* if they want to convince enough people that UMDs are the way to go for the budget movie watcher.

Oh... Almost forgot... Another reason why Sony should reconsider their pricing: Downloadable video content costs cheaper and so are the removable media chips (when you compare pricing overall.) That, and UMDs are poorly constructed IMHO...

Soldier_CLE

@ssjmichael: Actually the 16GB memory stick duo doesn't launch until March and is rumored to have a pricetag around $300. I don't own a single UMD movie, but I've got a few movies on my 8GB memory stick.

Heyyou27

Fry's Electronics has UMD movies for $9.99 (titles like Donnie Darko and Office Space), but I still think that's too much.

Rohstafari

Its still not going to make a difference. When people want media on the go, they want to get it via digital distribution, and the only crowd that really gives a shit about that has an iPod or a Zune.

DimensionWarped

Gimped-down DVDs should be priced to match their content. In other words, they should cost _less_ than their DVD counterparts. Now, Aeon Flux for $15 isn't bad...except I bought the DVD box set the day it released, so I don't much need a stripped down copy that I'd need to buy a special player to watch.

However, if they can release box set equivalents for single-DVD prices, they may actually get this thing off the ground again. Regular single-disc movies, though? They'll need to price them under $10 before people will start debating which format to buy over the other.

Purple Dave

5-10 bucks would convince me, i think.

i dunno.. also, it would have to be movies i WANT.

until then, i probably won't be buying many UMDs

joelface

15 bucks? I thought that was the average price of a UMD movie. I bet I could go to GameStop and find some used copies of some movies, that really aren't worth it, for 5 bucks. The reality is no one wants to buy a UMD movie. If they really wanna spark interest, include it with a DVD for an extra few bucks. No one wants to buy that same movie twice.

Ryadic

I guess senior marketing manager hasn't seen the Walmart clearance sales on UMD 2 for $10 on good movies...

Kinburn