Over 100,000 UMD films sold since PSP launch

PSP News | And that's not even including Spider-Man 2.

It's been a tough old time for Sony recently what with lawsuits and poor PAL publicity flying about everywhere. And that's before we even mention those grown-up films that will make you go blind. But - hurrah! - there's now at least one reason for the Sony suits to cheer a little. Yes, sales of films distributed on Universal Media Disc (UMD) have now cleared the 100,000 barrier. It means that the UMD format, Sony's proprietary disc format for the PSP handheld, has enjoyed a somewhat successful start.

And it gets better, for that figure doesn't even take into account the several gazillion (approximate figure) copies of Spider-Man 2 that were bundled with a good portion of new PSPs in the US. Double hurrah! According to the Sony executive who was gushing to Reuters, the UMD library is growing at a healthy rate, with Sony lining up a number of releases designed to appeal to audiences other than the 18-25 year-old male demographic. It all means that we'll be seeing more cartoons and slightly drippy romantic comedies shortly. And with 'about 25 movies' lined up for the PAL launch of the PSP this September, it looks like we won't be missing out.

Sony refused to say how many of the 100,000 UMD movies were copies of Erotic Terrorist Beautiful Body, though we'll keep you posted.

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14 Comments

Cerebral

6 years ago

The erotic terrorist can declare a jihad on me anyday.

ObsoletE

6 years ago

well i'll be...

i still don't see the point of them as a format, but it seems many people do...

David

6 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

well i'll be...
i still don't see the point of them as a format, but it seems many people do...

Not really....That means they've sold 1 movie for every 30 consoles sold. (I'm guessing they'd be up to 3 million PSPs sold by now)

LeonJ

6 years ago

I don't understand, legally if you purchase the DVD you can put this onto a mem stick and watch on your PSP? Why would anybody buy a full price PSP movie? Buy 3 PSP movies and you got yourself the same amount a cash for a decent mem stick. I'd only have buy PSP movies if they were bunlded in at like $5-10 (AU) more with a DVD.

David

6 years ago

leonmc wrote

It's legal in the US, but not in Australia. They have a 'fair use' clause in their copyright laws, we don't. It's about to get worse soon, too, thanks to little johnny's 'free' trade agreement. Basically we get all the bad things about US copyright, and none of the good stuff (fair use).

And the memory stick movies can't use the full screen resolution, so UMD picture quality is far better.

But memory stick is still the way to go.

James

6 years ago

David wrote

It's legal in the US, but not in Australia. They have a 'fair use' clause in their copyright laws, we don't.

Aystralia does have a fair use clause, it's just a little more restrictive than the US - mostly limited to using material for review purposes.

Memory sticks are hugely expensive though. You'd need to get a 1 gig one to be able to watch a movie which is about $400 AU retail ($150 on ebay).

ObsoletE

6 years ago

^ is that the clause that allows us to make a copy of anything we own, provided it's for backup purposes?

this was the most definitive reason why Mod-chips were deemed legal here, since without them we are unable to use any back-up PSX game we own...

given this is the case, making a copy of your UMD/DVD discs is fine, provided you own an original copy...

at least this was the case a few years ago when Sony tried to ban PSX mod-chips... i haven't heard of it changing, and i don't see why it would either... i back up all my PC Games and music CDs... and the majority of my DVDs too..

Andronicus

6 years ago

UMDs are selling?

Well... whaddaya know, hey?

I didn't think they were necessary... I seem to have been wrong...
Maybe it's a novelty factor, or maybe it's a successful new medium for movies 'n' stuff...

David

6 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

No, they were deemed legal because they were the only way to import games, and that was allowed (because otherwise it's considered local price fixing). Also, the fact that under australian law you're allowed to do whatever you want with a piece of hardware you buy didn't hurt.

ObsoletE wrote

given this is the case, making a copy of your UMD/DVD discs is fine, provided you own an original copy...

at least this was the case a few years ago when Sony tried to ban PSX mod-chips... i haven't heard of it changing, and i don't see why it would either... i back up all my PC Games and music CDs... and the majority of my DVDs too..

Mod chips have now been banned in australia, I'm not sure how they managed it. James?

ObsoletE

6 years ago

^ thats strange... we still have stores that openly sell and install mod-chips into whatever...

and not backyard jobs, but actual stores on main roads/malls of Perth and Fremantle (plus others)... they even advertise in the TV-Guides we get on the weekends...

banned in some states maybe, but for whatever reason, they are perfectly legal in WA... (maybe we had some other law that superceded the illegality)

(i'd actually forgotten the importing reason, but backing up the games was another major reason... legally, we are allowed to make copies of games, but if you couldn't play them, what was the point?)

James

6 years ago

In Australia it's illegal to sell a device that circumvents copyright protection.

In the first ruling Sony's legal team didn't manage to establish that mod chips actually bypassed copyright protection (although they clearly do). Thus Sony went to the high court (and presumably got a new team of lawyers) and won the case the second time around.

It is illegal Australia wide.

Andronicus

6 years ago

James, excuse me if this has already been established, but are you of a legal background?
You seem to know a lot about Australian law, and so I was just wondering...