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."

Comments

huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd really think Valve would have an annoucement about this on their site somewhere...

I guess there's simply no limit

[BlackCobra43]

to human stupidity.

movies I can't play anywhere other than on my tiny PSP screen, for more than a DVD? SIGN ME UP!

Seriously, I doubt UMDs will account for 60%, as the novelty of this format will soon wear off. (one can hope, anyway...)

Re:I guess there's simply no limit

[supabeast!]

" Who is buying these? I think it has to be the novelty factor that's propelling sales."

Parents looking to keep their kids quiet. Give the kid a new movie and let him wander off, watch it, and shut up.

no surprize

[Turn-X Alphonse]

UMDs seem to majorly outnumber games. You can't buy what isn't there.

Re:Slightly off-topic, but still relevant

[ivan256]

I wonder if Sony figured out how bad it looked to have 150 unsold PSPs in the case at every walmart the day after release and only shipped enough to cause an artificial shortage...

I wouldn't put it past them.

Re:Slightly off-topic, but still relevant

[RogueyWon]

This is very true. I've got a fairly substantial train commute myself. I've always seen a lot of Gameboys and GBAs (particularly the SP) on the train. However, a fortnight after the DS launch, all the DSes had vanished and the GBAs had come back. Having tried using my own DS on the train, I can see why; the stylus is an absolute pain in the arse to use in an environment that's rattling and shaking a lot. With the video-from-memory-stick capabilities, I'd expect to see the PSP being a huge hit with the (fairly affluent) commuter crowd. I've been using mine to watch movies, TV shows etc on the train for months now, with a lot of jealous glares.

Why buy them

[PktLoss]

I own a PSP, and have since around their NA launch, I've never even considered buying a UMD movie. Why pay the same price as a DVD (that plays on my PC, Laptop & Television, and can be encoded to fit on my memory stick for the PSP) for a lower quality disc I can only use on one device?.

Now, if they sold DVD & UMD combo packs for like $3-$5CDN above the DVD only price, they might hook me in. But even then, the prices on portable DVD players are comming down so fast why bother? I've already got 100+ DVDs, buying one of those (while adding bulk to my tech bag) would make more sense.

Double cross

[Apreche]

SONY comes out and markets the PSP as to compete with the DS. The DS basically won with Nintendogs and Advance Wars. With Mario Kart on the horizon hope is lost.

But wait, what's this? By selling UMDs they switched markets! PSP vs. video iPod, stay tuned.

Re:Double cross

[bleaknik]

There a few things I'd like to point out.

First, Nintendogs and Advance Wars are great games. Do not discard them because they aren't targetted to you. I don't understand it, but my niece and all of her friends want Nintendogs this year. And Advance Wars... My cousin has loved the series since inception. Just because the game isn't oGMo friendly, doesn't mean they're lousy games. People buy them because they want them.

Comparing Twisted Metal and Wipeout to Mario Kart isn't even fair. I love all three, but Twisted Metal is not Mario Kart. They are very different experiences, and each is fulfilling in it's own way.

I agree with you, though. The PSP has not seen it's first Christmas, and it's not yet "lost" the handheld war.

However, the problem with your analysis is this: the PSP is not in direct competition with the Nintendo DS. The PSP is selling the "adult" games... the Twisted Metals, the Wipeouts, and the (coming soon) GTAs. The DS, however is focusing on something entirely different; it is trying to attract a new crowd of gamers... types like the girlfriends, the less "hardcore" gamers, or the extremely casual gamer.

The PSP is instead more directly competing with the GBA, although you have a point that it's more "last gen vs. next gen" here. I guess we'll just have to wait and see... Nintendo claims the true succesor to the GBA line is still to come.

/shrug.