Sony will not 'walk away' from UMD support

by Colin Torretta { Jul 5th 2007 at 3:30PM }

In a recent interview with Pocket Gamer, John Koller, senior marketing manager for the PSP, strongly defended the UMD format against accusations of waning industry support. Though movie company support has definitely dropped as companies try to figure out what titles work with the UMD format (hint: more Family Guy and less Rent), Koller says that UMD movie sales have actually increased 35% between 2005 and 2006 and goes on to say the sales increase "clearly demonstrates a growing interest by consumers for UMD movies."

Interestingly, he also mentioned that the cost to duplicate and create UMD discs is actually cheaper and faster than duplicating DS cartridges. Unfortunately, this brings up one of the problems of the UMD format -- the disc based aspect of it allows for cheap production but slow read speeds cause massive load time troubles for developers. It isn't a deal killer, but it something that causes headaches for developers. Koji Igarashi, the guy behind Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, has had to deal with that first hand and says that while he was initially worried, it turned out to be something that didn't hamper the team that badly while making the much anticipated title. "[Game companies] can overcome [loading times] by technique – it is the programmers' chance to show what he can do," he said.

The most important part of the interview was that, even with an official PSP iso loader, a new possible PSP redesign with large amounts of onboard storage, and an upcoming PSP Store with video/game content, that Sony will not abandon the UMD format. "We'll never walk away from our base," says Koller. "Whether it's movies or game content, third parties have an incredible opportunity to utilize it."

[Via Games Industry]

Tags: castlevania, umd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Aaron @ Jul 5th 2007 3:55PM

I agree. There is nothing inherently wrong with the UMD form factor.

Daxter proved a UMD can be used very well during in game loading. Sure it was slow as honey on an Alaskan morning but once it got loaded, going between levels and such was almost seamless.

As far as movies go on the UMD, just lower the price. Don't expect me to pay full DVD price when I'm getting a micro sized format that doesn't include all the content.

The market has pretty much proven that $9.99 US (or less) is about all people are willing to pay for any movie on UMD.

Hey Sony, what would happen if you released Spider Man 3 with a free UMD version included?

Think about it.

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:08PM

screw UMD. let's go back to cartridge and mini-games.

;). Time to impliment pre-loading to all games, it's not like it can't be done.

rockeranimefreak @ Jul 5th 2007 4:10PM

umd is good and well. If people want extra content developers can do that like downloading extra levels to memory stick.

PSP-Retro @ Jul 5th 2007 6:08PM

Screw UMD?

Yah forget the millions up users that support it, forget the fact that putting games on cart is MUCH MUCH more expensive. How much would a 1.8 Gigabyte cart cost?? Much more than UMD. Mini games are good for kids or if you want a game that has no real depth. I want the true console quality type games that my PSP has to offer not frickin Mario Party!

I love the idea of downloading the games and movies from the PS Store as well but UMD works fine for me. People whine about load times, sounds like a child in a toy store whining to there mommy because that can't get the toy the want. what I have always wondered it why can't a game UMD game cache parts of the game to the memory stick during play? Maybe slowly streaming it as you are playing? Is this possible?

Kade Storm @ Jul 5th 2007 9:23PM

I know some games of heinous load-times, but basic load times are fine, and I gladly embrace the disc medium.

h0mi @ Jul 6th 2007 1:02AM

UMD games seem fine to me. Movies? They cant be expensive. $20 is a rip off when the DVD is the same price or cheaper.

Bundle them with bluray discs or sell them for under 10 bucks and they will move a bunch of them.

Deluxe @ Jul 6th 2007 2:03AM

(hint: more Family Guy and less Rent) Hahaha. Gold

I don't own and UMD movies, can anyone tell me if series content is even available? I would honestly buy animated tv UMDs (Family guy, Futurama, South Park) etc if it were available. The kind of content that you can watch over and over.

I live in Tokyo so I'm not sure what UMD content is available overseas.

PSP-Retro @ Jul 6th 2007 2:20AM

Deluxe.

Not sure how up to date this is as far as what has been released but it mightbe worth a look.

http://www.psp411.com/list/movies

Benjamin @ Jul 6th 2007 7:29AM

"[Game companies] can overcome [loading times] by technique – it is the programmers' chance to show what he can do, he said."

- This is proven by Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories.

There is no argument against the UMD format, because the proof against all the criticisms lie in that one game.

Sean @ Jul 6th 2007 1:12PM

I want downloadable PS Store titles for my PSP that would simply make my day!

zorkon65 @ Jul 6th 2007 3:37PM

i agree 9.99 or less for movie umd, mabye even as a buy the dvd pay 5 more bucks get the umd type deal, i know sense the local gamespot got umd's for 5 bucks my collection has exploded, i have like 12 or 13 now, i would love to see the ds put a full MOVIE, not cartoon, onto one of there plastic little toys

ps whats wrong with the movie rent? i like the movie rent.... i own the movie rent on umd and dvd :P lol but this is a theater majors life

NdFaN1083 @ Jul 6th 2007 5:02PM

great...my UMD drive just broke...ahwell...$90 more dollars for Sony i guese...

PSP-Retro @ Jul 6th 2007 6:07PM

Bummer for you....
Mine is 19 Months old and going strong.....
I hope it goes 10 years more :)

GoBob @ Jul 7th 2007 11:10AM

@NdFaN1083

$90?????? You could replace it yourself for $45.

NdFaN1083 @ Jul 8th 2007 9:53AM

true i could for 45 but i need to because my L button is stuck =/

txa1265 @ Jul 9th 2007 7:59AM

OK, regardless of what you think about UMD, you have to laugh at this one:

"UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability,"

Hehehe ... yeah, we get it - it is small! The problem is that jumbled praise sounds desperate in the fact of the criticism laid out in the same paragraph related to the seek speed.

So the strengths are size and that it is cheap for Sony (a cheapness not passed on to consumers) to duplicate. The weaknesses are that it is sub-DVD in terms of capacity and that it is quite slow.

Sure it is surmountable - there are many good games with quite short loads and as mentioned Daxter does background streaming. But those are all things that require far more from developers than other consoles. Which is unfortunate.

I still think this is much ado about nothing. Decent developers are putting out games with pretty reasonable loads all the time now. 10 - 15 seconds in Crush is no problem. I think that games with 1 - 2 minute loads are becoming more and more scarce and I just hope that trend continues.

leo2178 @ Jul 9th 2007 9:29PM

I've had a PSP since two months after it's release, and haven't purchased a single UMD movie.
Maybe at $5 or $6 I'd think about it if the movie was good enough but otherwise rip from a DVD.
Why buy a movie for a system that can only be watched on that system.

NecroComicon @ Jul 10th 2007 2:21PM

I picked up a used PSP last week (for CastlX), and I purchased a couple UMDs from Deepdiscnt during one of their sales.
The first thing I did with my PSP and (bonus 1gb card) was rip Time Bandits to the movie file, while it is nice to have movies on the Mem stick, the superior fidelity of the UMD is a bonus, watched Serenity last night and MManson Guns god and Gov the night before and they look and sound great for such a small unit. I think UMD on the PSP is terrific even with load times and a battery that needs its own charger case, We need more varied content (Lynch or Jodorowsky on UMD?) & lower retail prices---I Just got Katamari UMD for PSP lovin' it, it is still fun:)