European PSP owners are going to get a few former PlayStation Network only titles in cold, hard physical media format, as SCEE is planning on releasing two collections of PSN titles on UMD. The PlayStation Network Collection releases, unearthed by Siliconera, consist of one Power Pack, containing flOw, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Beats, and the Puzzle Pack, featuring Lemmings, Go! Puzzle and Go! Sudoku.

Handy, even if one of those is a very odd mix of genres, but we thought we'd be seeing less UMDs, not more. No pricing yet, so try not to get too excited about the big big savings.

PSP PSN downloadable games get UMD collections [Siliconera]

Sony has thought about and continues to play around with the idea of building a Playstation Portable with a built in hard drive or internal memory, Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said this morning at a gather of game writers.

"I think we definitely thought about it", he said. "I think that's the trend moving forward".

With the recently announced ability to purchase movies on a Playstation 3 and move them over to a Playstation Portable, and as the cost of memory continues to drop, the chance that a new Playstation Portable would include some sort of internal storage option is becoming increasingly likely, Tretton said.

New of the push toward digitally distributed movies through the Playstation Store is also like to impact UMD's already flagging movie sales, he added.

"I think the UMD has struggled", he said. "And that's an understatement. That's been a very frustrating thing. I don't think (UMD movies) were handled very effectively".

He said it seemed that studios said "lets see if we can get people to pay $US 20 or $US 30 for crappy movies with less content".

Digital distributed movies, he said, is either going to supplement the UMD movie's struggle or be the "stake in the UMD's heart".

When we spoke with PSP senior marketing manager John Koller at CES, he told us about Sony Computer Entertainment America's plans to revitalize the UMD platform for non-gaming purposes. Key points? Price and selection. General consensus amongst gamers was that buying UMD movies didn't make much sense at a $US 30 price point, sometimes close to twice that of their DVD counterparts. Also, too little focus on dick and fart humor. Sony is attempting to revitalize the UMD movie and television market, today releasing details on new, SCEA-distributed titles that ring in at $US 14.99.

Available now, at the more budget-minded price are MTV staples Beavis & Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection (Vol. 2 and 3), Jackass (Vol. 2 and 3), Wildboyz (Vol. 1 and 2), Viva La Bam (Vol. 2, 3, and 4) and Aeon Flux: The Complete Animated Collection (2-disc set). Leave your brain and your big bills at the door!

MTV Hits PSP This Week [PlayStation.blog]

UMD's? So 2005. This is 2007! They never really caught on as a movie format, and with the new PSP Store offering full-game downloads, they've been relegated to the second-best way to play games on the system. So can we finally proclaim a time of death, end the format's misery? Sadly, no.

The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market.

That was SCEE's Darren Cairns. SCEE's Darren Cairns also says that, when games formerly available on UMD are made available on the PSP Store, they won't always include everything they did in disc format. Hopefully he's talking about agonising load times, and not things like cinematics or extra features.

PC Store won't kill off UMD, says Sony [GI.biz]

According to some unofficial news that's leaked, Sony will be releasing at least 7 downloadable titles through their PSP store following its launch in 2008. Said to be one-half to one-third the size of a UMD, the games will offer anywhere from 2 to 10 hours of play. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the titles will consist of:

...three action games, two music-based games, one racing title and a shooting game...

Read More »

Wii-mote straps had a problem. This I knew. And Xbox 360 have hardware issues. This also I knew. But UMD cases falling apart? That would involve prolonged PSP use. Not an issue! Above, Dave's hands from web vender Multimedia Recovery claim to have repaired 70,000 busted UMDs and shows the horrors of "flimsy" UMD cases. So flimsy that it looks "deliberate" as the disks are "designed to self-destruct", while the cases are made out of "junk".

Awesome.

Each improved case, designed to keep the UMD from self-destructing, costs $US 3.99 with free domestic shipping and comes in different five different colours like green — which Dave claims is blue. Go figure.
UMD Problem Solved [Multimedia Recovery via PSP Fanboy]