animefobber said: @Keep_the_change I thought Sony was just testing the waters for digital downloads on the psp with Patapon 2 since a UMD version is available for regions outside the US.

Oh, sorry then, didn't know about that :|

When electronic stores got rid of the dedicated space for UMD Movies, UMD became a failure. It wasn't a smart move to sell UMD movies which was obviously of lower quality and cost more.

Edit: When CS became possible on PSP, UMDs became obsolete to many.

pbroy said: When electronic stores got rid of the dedicated space for UMD Movies, UMD became a failure. It wasn't a smart move to sell UMD movies which was obviously of lower quality and cost more.

Stores at my country got rid from VHS tapes. VHS movie tapes were a failure?

pbroy said: When electronic stores got rid of the dedicated space for UMD Movies, UMD became a failure. It wasn't a smart move to sell UMD movies which was obviously of lower quality and cost more. Edit: When CS became possible on PSP, UMDs became obsolete to many.

So without distributing movies on UMD, UMD would have been a success, but not now?

I can see you are no businessman. The PSP is powerful and featurefull enough to include a movie codec, IMO it made sense for Sony to tap this potential. It probably helped lower UMD mass production costs and provided a few extra bucks for Sony and additional options to users.

UMD as a movie format has been more successful than I expected. Many years before the PSP launched I already watched movies in the train using my laptop, higher quality and much bigger screen, I think Sony knew such things as well.

MikeB said: pbroy said: When electronic stores got rid of the dedicated space for UMD Movies, UMD became a failure. It wasn't a smart move to sell UMD movies which was obviously of lower quality and cost more. Edit: When CS became possible on PSP, UMDs became obsolete to many. So without distributing movies on UMD, UMD would have been a success, but not now? I can see you are no businessman. The PSP is powerful and featurefull enough to include a movie codec, IMO it made sense for Sony to tap this potential. It probably helped lower UMD mass production costs and provided a few extra bucks for Sony and additional options to users. UDM as a movie format has been more successful than I expected. Many years before the PSP launched I already watched movies in the train using my laptop, higher quality and much bigger screen, I think Sony knew such things as well.

UMD as a format is a faliure. PSP as a media player is not. It is the ultimate mutli-media, emulation handheld (PSP-2000). You can put any movies you want on a memory stick/microsd and watch it on your PSP. Why carry around a bunch of UMD movies when you can rip them from your own DVDs that you can buy for cheaper than UMD movies?

What does being a businessman have anything to do with it? Are you a Sony salesman or something? o_O

 

@pbroy

I think its a bit harsh to call the umd a total failure. Sure it failed as a movie format but the extra space on the umd kinda allowed for certain games to only be done on the psp since those games couldn't have fit on a ds sd card.

Did UMD fail in terms of what Sony intended it to be ? most defintley , it wasn't the portable multimedia format Sony wanted it to be , the UMD drive doesn't and has never existed in any other electronic device apart from the PSP.

Did UMD fail as a gaming format ? Hell No , that would be like saying the Catridge in the SNES , N64 and the disc in the GC failed , all the format does is serve as a medium for the gaming experience so if games sell on the platform then the format coincidentaly does well .

Sony isn't as reliant on the UMD's success as a viable multi-media platform as it is on the Blu-Ray . R&D , Marketing & Promotion and other expenses for the UMD are likely not nearly as large as Blu-Ray's. But on the other hand Sony stand to gain alot more from the Blu-Ray format than they do the UMD , infact if certain factors go in Sony's favour they could make more the format than they did on PS2 even.

@ pbroy

What do you mean? Well over 100 million UMD game discs are out there. The first couple of years UMD as a movie format even rivalled game sales (the PSP's primary use!).

If you expected UMD as a movie format to take over the world and rival DVD or something like that, then I could have told you well over a decade ago that wasn't going to happen.

Maybe we disagree because we had entirely opposing expectations. You having unrealistic expections for the format.



No, if you had any business sense you could have gathered this from my comments. PR spokesman usually overhype things. For example proclaiming UMD movies or early PS3 games as the best thing since cut bread, I actually did the exact opposite, for example highlighting there were better options available long before UMD existed or that early PS3 games tapped very little of the console's potential technically.

This should IMO all have been obvious and I think it's sad I need to point out such things.

MikeB said: @ pbroy UMD as a format is a faliure. What do you mean? Well over 100 million UMD game discs are out there. The first couple of years UMD as a movie format even rivalled game sales (the PSP's primary use!). If you expected UMD as a movie format to take over the world and rival DVD or something like that, then I could have told you well over a decade ago that wasn't going to happen. Maybe we disagree because we had entirely opposing expectations. You having unrealistic expections for the format. Are you a Sony salesman or something? No, if you had any business sense you could have gathered this from my comments. PR spokesman usually overhype things. For example proclaiming UMD movies or early PS3 games as the best thing since cut bread, I actually did the exact opposite, for example highlighting there were better options available long before UMD existed or that early PS3 games tapped very little of the console's potential technically. This should IMO all have been obvious and I think it's sad I need to point out such things.

I'm sorry but it's clear that Sony had greater expectation for the UMD format that goes beyond just a medium to distribute games. In that respect it certainly is a failure, and the fact that Sony is now choosing to forgo it's inclusion in the next iteration of the PSP just proves this. It was never meant to be a rival for DVD because it was meant to be the definative portable format (which it also never was).

UMD was / is a failure just like the MiniDisc.

The expectations Sony had for the UMD were huge, but it never took off in any form. You can't buy movies at retail, just online (in Germany). So that is not what Sony hoped to achieve.