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UMD Sales Picking Up Steam
After what some deemed a slow start, Sony is now claiming that they've sold slightly more than 17 Million UMDs since the launch of the PSP. 9 Million of these discs have been games, with just over 8 Million UMD movies. From the article: "Current manufacturing lines are stretched to the max - Bob Hurley, with Sony DADC, says that Sony is churning out 200,000 UMDs a day and future capacity is expected to be 500,000 per day. 'Tiger Woods Golf is my personal favorite [game], but video has been surprisingly good to us,' says Hurley. In a few years Sony expect videos to be more than 60 percent of all UMD sales, with an expected 130 million UMDs being sold in 2008."
I'd be curious to see the sales numbers broken out by territory, especially the movies. Are UMD movies selling well in America, or has Japan been helping those numbers?
Considering no one I know has been the least bit interested in movies, despite enjoying the PSP, I'm honestly surprised with those figures...
Are these actual retail sales or simply product that Sony has sold to retailers. The number seems awfully high and it makes me wonder what percentage of the UMDs are sitting on store shelves right now versus how many have actually sold.
The whole things smells of how to lie with statistics.
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Sony historically undersupplys stores so that it doesnt look bad that PSPs are just sitting there. I know around here after the first week where you couldnt get it anywhere, the things just sat on the shelves unsold and remain so while the DS vastly outsells it thanks to the sheer amount of fun games in comparison to Sonys rehashes of older (and in most cases still sucky the second time around) games. The DS might not be as powerful as the PSP, but just like Sony is able to kick Nintendos ass with the PS2s library, the DS with its own library and its compatibility with the Advance has managed to kick Sonys ass the exact same way with the DS.
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I know that WHSmith had 1000 PSP's, across the country, for launch. With 300 odd shops, thats not a lot.
Who are we? I'm 22, most of us are adults. We often have laptops, or portable DVD players to watch movies on. We buy our own things.
Who is buying the PSP movies? I think the answer is obvious: not us. So who is doing it? Moms! There are lots of kids out there with PSPs (despite Sony targeting it as the Adult handheld). Buying UMD movies makes some sense. You can get something that you kid will watch in the car on the way to/from school, sitting at the doctor's office, etc. It runs on something they already have so you don't have to buy (and they don't have to carry around) a portable DVD player. Most cars don't have DVD players. And most kids don't have laptops to play DVDs on. For a kid, it does make some sense.
I think this is where all the movie sales are going. I don't think I've ever seen an adult interested in them, but I've seen many kids at stores looking at those movies. I can see why they'd want it (I would have when I was 10 if I liked more movies they sold).
I'd like to see the sales broken down by age range of the person the movie was bought for. THAT would be the interesting information (although sales by territory as another commenter suggested would be interesting too).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Or they're reporting units shipped to retailers. Sony generally does that.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
I live in Europe and passed by the main retailer in my area today and saw an intersting thing.
Where up until yesterday there was a shelf full of plastic boxes representing preorder-PSPs, there were a line of GranTourismo-PStwo bundles, and above literally hundreds of UMDs.
The only systems I saw were 4 boxes lodged between the PS2s and another huge pile of UMDs.
I'll check out the situation again maybe tomorrow, but if Sony give main retailers, like maybe ten PSPs it's no wonder they're sold out.
Not really. It's more like Sony announced a next-gen handheld, and Nintendo tried to counter with the DS. Sony specifically doesn't consider the DS a competitor: nor should they. The GBA, perhaps, but more as a "reigning handheld champion vs the next generation" rather than on features.
This is laughable, and insulting to Nintendo. They will forever dominate this generation based on an advanced tamagotchi and a strategy game that just came out? I should hope they have something better in their lineup. People buy these games for one reason: it's the only thing they can get.
I find this amusing. The PSP has had similar stuff since launch, like Wipeout Pure and Twisted Metal (both excellent games).
Actually, selling it as a device that also plays movies and music was a goal from the beginning.
The NDS has some redeeming qualities and (hopefully) will have some system-sellers for it. Being a starry-eyed fanboy, however, just makes you, the DS, and Nintendo look silly. The PSP hasn't even seen its first Christmas yet; saying it has "lost" is laughable, especially with the numbers of people I saw playing it at PAX.
If I were you, I'd be rooting for both consoles. Competition in the market has always done the market good: more games, better games, cheaper games.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage