Author Topic: Paramount and Universal drop PSP support (Read 7671 times)

Arbok · « **on:** March 30, 2006, 09:10:42 AM »

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-03-30/#film1

Seems that both Paramount and Universal have dropped any continued support of the PSP due to lagging sales. The article also mentions that other studios are cutting back support (which we already knew), and that the shelf space at retailers will also be reduced... which seems like it should have happend a long time ago. Speaking from a personal stand point, the PSP movie section at my Best Buy is a large as the DS and PSP game sections combined, which was insane given how full the shelves always were with PSP movie titles that weren't moving.

UncleBob · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2006, 09:13:36 AM »

Quote
"No one's watching movies on PSP," the president of one of the six major studios' home entertainment divisions told the trade publication. "It's a game player, period."

It plays games?

IceCold · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:27:40 AM »

Hahaha; Sony what have you done? The multimedia people dismiss it because it plays games, and the people involved with games dismiss it because it's multimedia-focused.

Arbok · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:38:24 AM »

What I laughed about was Sony's "defensive" stance toward the accusation that people were only using it for a game device:

Quote
But Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, said that he believed owners of the device were loading movies into its memory stick and watching them that way.

See? People are watching movies on the system, just illegally, isn't that reassuring Paramount and Un... wait where are you going?

mantidor · « **Reply #4 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:41:08 AM »

Ive heard more than once that the number of psp movies sold were big, but I think they were comparing them to game sales, and for the movie industry, game sale numbers are pathetic overall.

Arbok · « **Reply #5 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:48:53 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
Ive heard more than once that the number of psp movies sold were big, but I think they were comparing them to game sales, and for the movie industry, game sale numbers are pathetic overall.

I think you are talking about the initial sales, which from what I have heard were actually good. They convinced studios to support the system with more movies. However, from other reports it would appear that people haven't really been picking up more UMDs for their system beyond a few new releases, which is why sales quickly lagged off and companies are now lowering support or pulling out altogether. It seems they were under the perception that these early sales would stay constant, instead of just early adopters of the system picking up somethings to play on their newely purchased system to warrant the cost of it.

vudu · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:57:22 AM »

I find the article below the one you linked to even funnier.

Quote
Sony To Release Hi-Def Movies -- With No Players

In an announcement that left many analysts scratching their heads, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President Benjamin Feingold announced Wednesday that the company will release its first batch of movies on high-definition Blu-ray discs on May 23 -- even though no players will be available at that time on which to play them. Sony has indicated that the first players may not be available until November. In an interview with Home Media Retailing, Feingold said, "We realize there may be some delays on the hardware side, but we are going to honor our commitment to release movies when we said we would." Questions immediately arose concerning what retailers will do with the disks when they receive them. Said Feingold: "There are two schools of thought: A dealer could have them for publicity purposes, to prime the market, or we can ship them later, when hardware is on the market. But the important point is, we can meet the date -- that's the key."

stevey · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2006, 02:22:38 PM »

lol is sony trying to make the psp to fail lol

SixthAngel · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2006, 05:57:45 PM »

I kind of figured umd's would fail and I am honestly surprised they are lasting this long.

Vudu that part is far funnier. Let's release unplayable movies a full 7 months before we sell the actual players.

capamerica · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2006, 06:04:21 PM »

I almost bursted out laughing when I saw this at work.

One thing that I saw in the article I read about this that wasn't mentioned here was that Wal-Mart is planing to drop all UMD movie sales.

Its going to be interesting to see how the PSP does this year when only Sony movies are going to UMD and only a few stores are selling them.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2006, 08:13:39 PM »

See? People are watching movies on the system, just illegally, isn't that reassuring Paramount and Un... wait where are you going?

That's not illegal. The MPAA would love it to be but format shifting is legal.

vudu: That is ridiculous. Who'd stock those things? Unless they are backwards compatible with DVD players there's absolutely no point and no customer base. I mean, releasing two weeks early might make sense to some marketing drones but half a year?!?

Arbok · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2006, 10:47:05 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
That's not illegal. The MPAA would love it to be but format shifting is legal.

Well I was assuming that the majority of the people involved in doing this weren't going through the steps of taking their DVDs, burning and compressing them onto their hard drive, and then sticking them on their memory sticks. I'm sure some fall into that category, but I would bet most are just downloading already compressed versions of films and TV shows and just sticking those on there. Although I see, in my bid to make a joke, I was pretty vague and kind of misleading in what I was stating...

KDR_11k · « **Reply #12 on:** March 31, 2006, 03:29:35 AM »

Judging by the number of "Encode your DVD to a PSP memstick!" programs on sale lately the number of those who are converting their DVDs is pretty large. This isn't like emulators that require special hardware noone has (unless you're emulating a C64, just need a cable to plug the diskette drive into your PC and an OS without multitasking).

jasonditz · « **Reply #13 on:** March 31, 2006, 09:29:34 AM »

Check out this article about UMD at Motley Fool. The guy's ignorance of the game industry is staggering in some spots, but even he has conceded that he was wrong about what a great idea UMDs where. He doesn't understand why though... funny stuff.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #14 on:** March 31, 2006, 09:32:05 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Judging by the number of "Encode your DVD to a PSP memstick!" programs on sale lately the number of those who are converting their DVDs is pretty large. This isn't like emulators that require special hardware noone has (unless you're emulating a C64, just need a cable to plug the diskette drive into your PC and an OS without multitasking).

Still, all of this just furthers the argument that UMD movies are a terrible idea because people just buy the DVDs, by Sony's OWN admission, to boot.

ThePerm · « **Reply #15 on:** March 31, 2006, 11:38:09 AM »

Sony would have gold if they just released a umd player!

Avinash_Tyagi · « **Reply #16 on:** March 31, 2006, 01:01:52 PM »

Today UMD in a few months Blu-Ray...Sony is about to eat major crow.

Aussiedude · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2006, 03:35:01 PM »

Excellent article on the death of UMD

Link

Arbok · « **Reply #18 on:** March 31, 2006, 03:58:59 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Aussiedude
Link

"Anonymous movie executives quoted by the Hollywood Reporter pulled no punches - "sales are near zilch," one stated, while another said that "no one's even breaking even on [UMD].""

Ouch, makes one wonder if Disney and Fox will follow Universal and Paramount's footsteps soon.

BTW, that was a excellent, excellent article. Thanks for posting it!

Shecky · « **Reply #19 on:** April 01, 2006, 04:34:50 AM »

Quote
Sony To Release Hi-Def Movies -- With No Players

In an announcement that left many analysts scratching their heads, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President Benjamin Feingold announced Wednesday that the company will release its first batch of movies on high-definition Blu-ray discs on May 23 -- even though no players will be available at that time on which to play them. Sony has indicated that the first players may not be available until November. In an interview with Home Media Retailing, Feingold said, "We realize there may be some delays on the hardware side, but we are going to honor our commitment to release movies when we said we would." Questions immediately arose concerning what retailers will do with the disks when they receive them. Said Feingold: "There are two schools of thought: A dealer could have them for publicity purposes, to prime the market, or we can ship them later, when hardware is on the market. But the important point is, we can meet the date -- that's the key."

Cool.

Maybe they can release some PS3 games while they're at it.

Avinash_Tyagi · « **Reply #20 on:** April 01, 2006, 06:49:37 AM »

If that is not an April Fool's joke then it is the dumbest move ever!

Shift Key · « **Reply #21 on:** April 04, 2006, 03:51:24 AM »

Good to see that some companies are realising how stupid propietary formats can be. The massive market that DVDs have these days won't go away easily - hell, I have three devices capable of playing DVDs in my room alone. I'm in too hot for Blu-Ray either.

Louieturkey · « **Reply #22 on:** April 14, 2006, 12:33:38 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Arbok
Quote
Originally posted by: Aussiedude
Link

"Anonymous movie executives quoted by the Hollywood Reporter pulled no punches - "sales are near zilch," one stated, while another said that "no one's even breaking even on [UMD].""

Ouch, makes one wonder if Disney and Fox will follow Universal and Paramount's footsteps soon.

Warner Brothers has already followed suit. They have quietly cancelled all their upcoming UMD releases. Fox I've heard is still trying just like Sony. Haven't heard anything about Disney yet though.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #23 on:** April 16, 2006, 03:27:29 PM »

Fox atill has one major ace up their sleeve and thats Star Wars, if they make the entire sage available on UMD the hardcore star wars fans who have to own every version of the movie will get it along with all the desparate sony psp owners who are running out of stuff to buy. Being one of those major Star Wars fans I hope they DONT make UMd versions cuz that will be what gets me to buy one.

UncleBob · « **Reply #24 on:** April 16, 2006, 04:04:50 PM »

They could release Star Wars on UMD, and Star Wars fans would likely buy 'em...

...but that doesn't mean they'd buy a PSP to play 'em on.

News:

Author Topic: Paramount and Universal drop PSP support (Read 7671 times)