Post by: Arbok on March 30, 2006, 09:10:42 AM
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.
Post by: UncleBob on March 30, 2006, 09:13:36 AM
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"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?
Post by: IceCold on March 30, 2006, 10:27:40 AM
Post by: Arbok on March 30, 2006, 10:38:24 AM
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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?
Post by: mantidor on March 30, 2006, 10:41:08 AM
Post by: Arbok 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.
Post by: vudu on March 30, 2006, 10:57:22 AM
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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."
Post by: stevey on March 30, 2006, 02:22:38 PM
Post by: SixthAngel on March 30, 2006, 05:57:45 PM
Vudu that part is far funnier. Let's release unplayable movies a full 7 months before we sell the actual players.
Post by: capamerica on March 30, 2006, 06:04:21 PM
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.
Post by: KDR_11k on March 30, 2006, 08:13:39 PM
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?!?
Post by: Arbok on March 30, 2006, 10:47:05 PM
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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...
Post by: KDR_11k on March 31, 2006, 03:29:35 AM
Post by: jasonditz on March 31, 2006, 09:29:34 AM
Post by: Smash_Brother 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.
Post by: ThePerm on March 31, 2006, 11:38:09 AM
Post by: Avinash_Tyagi on March 31, 2006, 01:01:52 PM
Post by: Aussiedude on March 31, 2006, 03:35:01 PM
Link
Post by: Arbok on March 31, 2006, 03:58:59 PM
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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!
Post by: Shecky 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.
Post by: Avinash_Tyagi on April 01, 2006, 06:49:37 AM
Post by: Shift Key on April 04, 2006, 03:51:24 AM
Post by: Louieturkey on April 14, 2006, 12:33:38 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: ArbokQuote
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.
Post by: animecyberrat on April 16, 2006, 03:27:29 PM
Post by: UncleBob on April 16, 2006, 04:04:50 PM
...but that doesn't mean they'd buy a PSP to play 'em on.
Post by: Arbok on April 16, 2006, 04:14:21 PM
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Originally posted by: animecyberrat
Fox atill has one major ace up their sleeve and thats Star Wars...
That's up to Lucasfilm, not Fox. If it were up to Fox, the original Star Wars films would have been released much earlier in the DVD format's life instead of a few years ago. Fox only has, or had as I think it has come to be, domain over A New Hope but with it being packaged with the other films, I would imagine that one of the deals with the prequels from Lucasfilm was to acquire the rights to that movie as well.
Post by: capamerica on April 16, 2006, 07:42:46 PM
And at the rate UMD is dying I think its a good bet it will never happen.
Post by: wandering on April 16, 2006, 08:35:20 PM
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Fox atill has one major ace up their sleeve and thats Star Wars, if they make the entire sage available on UMD
I'd rather they released Star Wars on DVD first.
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on April 17, 2006, 09:38:53 AM
QuoteHear, hear!
Originally posted by: wandering
I'd rather they released Star Wars on DVD first.
As for UMD movies, good riddance! They take up way too much room in the video game sections of stores.
Post by: animecyberrat on April 17, 2006, 05:54:53 PM
Post by: Arbok on April 17, 2006, 08:08:02 PM
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Originally posted by: animecyberrat
um wandering buddy Star wars has been on DVD for over a year.
I would guess that he was talking about the pre-special edition versions.
Quote
Originally posted by: animecyberrat
And I already know that Fox doesnt own the rights to Star Wars but they still release the films always have always will.
That doesn't mean they can do so at will, as mentioned before: it's up to Lucasfilm if they would ever hit the format, not Fox.
