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Win the entire collection of UMD videos from MTV
MTV and Sony Computer Entertainment America are teaming up to bring new UMD videos to the PSP. Get classic MTV series on your PSP for a new, low price of $15. Read more.UMD is back! With the new, slimmer PSP with video-out, not only can you watch your movies on the go, you can display these UMD movies on your TV at full DVD resolution. With a new low price point, these UMD movies are quite tempting. Win all ten new releases, courtesy of SCEA. To enter, simply tell us what your favorite MTV show of all time is. The comment must be left before February 2nd, 5PM EST. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing. One Grand Prize Winner will receive one copy of every new release MTV UMD release (valued at $150 total). Click here for complete Official Rules. Eligibility is restricted to the legal residents of the 50 United States (including DC). You must be 18 years or older to enter.%Gallery-14592%
Classic MTV programming coming to UMD
Though it faced some troubled times over the last few years, the PSP's Universal Media Disc is showing impressive resilience as a portable movie format. Case in point, today's announcement that MTV will become bring some of its classic programming to the PSP-exclusive format.The discs, which will be available for $14.99 at retailers nationwide starting today, are: "Beavis & Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection," Vol. 2 and 3 "Jackass," Vol. 2 and 3 "Wildboyz," Vol. 1 and 2 "Viva La Bam," Vol. 2, 3, and 4 "Aeon Flux: The Complete Animated Collection" (2-disc set) No word yet on whether or not current MTV hits like ... uh ... current hits ... um ... there's no word what other classic MTV hits will be released on UMD, but we'll let you know if and when we hear.
MTV and SCEA team up to bring back UMD
It's not dead! Sort of. Sony Computer Entertainment of America and MTV have announced a collaboration to bring new UMD movies to store shelves. In fact, they should be available now. "Jackass," "Beavis & Butt-head," and "Aeon Flux" are all available for $14.99 (MSRP) beginning this week."This collaboration with MTV is a key first step in meeting the needs of our consumers, who are utilizing PSP as a video player more than ever and are thirsting for more content, particularly short-form videos," said Phil Rosenberg, senior vice president of sales and business development, SCEA in a press release. "MTV's programming is hugely popular, and SCEA can utilize our internal resources to appropriately manage the publishing and distribution of these hit shows on UMD. This demonstrates our commitment to supporting the UMD video format by delivering what consumers want to watch at the right price. SCEA will continue to license movie, TV, and other video content, leveraging our sales and marketing strengths, as a strategic focus moving forward.The price is certainly nice, and this is planned to be the first of a growing library of UMD movies to release in the future. Does the $15 price make you want to bite? We'll see how consumers respond.%Gallery-14592%
Blu-ray discs to offer portable movies for PSP
As tempting as it may be to drag your PlayStation 3 and 50" HDTV along on your next road trip, Sony would like you to consider a slightly more convenient and decidedly less dangerous option for watching movies on the go. In a CES demonstration of the BD Live standard (encapsulated in the upcoming Blu-Ray Profile 2.0), supported Blu-ray discs were shown to offer portable versions of the included movies for download to a Memory Stick or PlayStation Portable. Pop the disc into your PlayStation 3, connect a PSP and watch the smaller movie on your smaller screen (sans UMD).If you're looking to take advantage of this feature in the foreseeable future, it might be wise to start saving up for one of those fancy 16GB Memory Sticks. [Via PSP Fanboy]
Cheap UMD movies at Circuit City this week
Believe it or not, major retailers are still carrying UMD movies, but Circuit City is most definitely the place to go to add to your collection this week. Through Sunday, the retail chain is offering several great titles for only $7 a piece. Here's the full line-up: Spider-Man 2 Spider-man XXX Men In Black Big Daddy Bad Boys Underworld S.W.A.T. Hitch Click If you'd like our personal picks, we'd have to go with Men in Black and Underworld. Both take interesting twists to their respective genres and are damn entertaining. While you're there, look for Mortal Kombat: Unchained, because it's on sale for $14.
Downloadable games may not feature same content as UMD
The PSP Store is not only offering original downloadable content, such as beats and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. It's providing archived UMD games, such as Wipeout Pure and B-Boy. Darren Carris spoke to GI.biz about how the Store and UMD games will intermingle: "I don't think that this would give us any cause for concern over UMD, I think they sit very well together. When you talk about the more casual games, pick-up-and-play games, you would definitely want to put them through the Store rather than have disc production, in to retail, and so on."Thankfully, the PSP Store has no size limit, and some games are already topping 1GB. However, future downloadable games may not have all the features of their UMD counterparts. "Full titles won't necessarily include all content found on the corresponding retail UMD," the article notes.
$5 UMD deal returns to GameStop
The UMD format might be dead, but that doesn't mean you can't pick on its remains for cheap! Great movies, like Ghostbusters, Kung Fu Hustle, and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children are all available for $5 each. Check out the massive selection at GameStop here. With PSP-2000's ability to output video at full DVD resolution, these deals taste even better.Make sure you use coupon code SAVER to get free shipping.[Via CAG]
Infomercial: UMDs are 'built to self-destruct'
If you're like the folks at Multimedia Recovery, your UMD discs are exploding all the time. Seriously. As this seller admits, they're "built to self-destruct." Our experience with the discs have been far less volatile -- and trust us, we've played a lot of PSP games. What could be the reasoning behind making such a bold claim?Well, it's obvious. He wants to sell you something: so-called "indestructible" UMD casings. Sure, they're cheap (only $4, shipped!). But, as bickle from CAG puts best, it "looks like a solution in search of a problem."
UMD claimed a waste of money, time and investment
David Perry thinks so, at least. The founder of Shiny and operator of GameConsultants.com came out and told the world what he would do if he were in charge of the PSP. To start, he said, "they really need to bring out the PSP 3.0 and start again and try to get a lot of units out by reducing the manufacturing costs, by taking out all the motors and drives and stuff they have in there." This would make the system slimmer still and drive developers to make games for it, he believes.Perry thinks if the PSP turned into a download-only handheld, current PSP owners would only have to register their game with a iTunes-like service, to prove they own it, and bam! instant success. We think a download-only handheld would be pretty sweet, but Perry thinks that retailers hinder this progressive thinking. "The truth is, the stores will not carry PSPs unless they feel they are going to get a piece of the action on the back end. And Sony has not come up with an innovative business model that can support that concept." Who knows, maybe we can get some kind of "download station" at retailers in the next decade or so and just bring our systems in for purchases. It's a neat way of thinking, but really, you could say the same thing for the DS. What do you guys think? Would the PSP 3.0 be well-received if it were a download-only handheld?[via DCemu]
Sony Europe and Sky to deliver on-demand video for PSP
While some may feel that the decidedly non-universal Universal Media Disc still has a bright future ahead of it, others looking for portable entertainment likely believe that a proper PSP video service is long overdue. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and television service operator Sky seemingly agree, having today announced a cooperative venture that will grant PlayStation Portable owners in the UK and Ireland access to an on-demand video delivery system. The newly formed Joint Venture company "will draw on the unrivalled entertainment aggregation expertise and technical leadership of SKY, and the handheld entertainment knowledge and brand power of PlayStation." On paper, those certainly do sound like excellent things to, umm, draw on.Sony and Sky (Skony?) promise "a wealth of video and film content" for PSP-ers in Ireland and the UK, and note that plans are already afoot to share said wealth with the rest of increasingly fortunate Europe. Further details regarding the service are expected to be announced during Leipzig's Game Convention next month.
Sony will not 'walk away' from UMD support
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]
Compal showcases prototype UMPC running Windows CE
Although it's still proudly donning the proverbial prototype badge, a nifty machine from Compal was spotted at Computex running Windows CE 5.0 in favor of the battery-draining XP or Vista. Simply dubbed the UMD (Ultra Mobile Device), this ultraportable supposedly pulled double duty as a smartphone and even played nice with HSDPA. Internally, it featured a 532MHz Freescale i.MX31 processor, 512MB of NAND Flash memory, 256MB of DDR RAM, a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, trackpad, hot keys, built-in speaker and microphone, a 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera, SIM card slot, and a miniSD slot to hold excess media. Additionally, it boasted USB connectivity, a headphone jack, a meager five-watt power consumption rating that enabled nearly five hours of battery life, and the obligatory media playing and Skype-friendly applications that you would expect on such a multifaceted device. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell whether Compal will come through on bringing this thing to market, but we're sure there's a niche that would be all over it should it eventually roll out.[Via Wired]
Deal of the Day: 20% off all UMD movies
Deep Discount is at it again. They're having their semi-annual 20% off sale, which will let you take off 20% off all DVDs, Blu-ray discs and UMDs in their collection. They have fairly low prices throughout the store, and with an additional savings of 20%, PSP bargain-hunters are sure to find something they want. Simply use coupon code USATODAY -- not only will you get an additional discount, but you'll also get free shipping. We were able to pick up Sin City for only $7, the perfect price for a movie on the go.[Thanks, Spencer!]
Why is the PSP not putting up a video fight?
Ugh, it's so irritating when analysts actually have a point. Take this Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey for example. He started seeing everybody downoading video to watch on their iPod (about 50 million TV shows have been sold through iTunes) and started wondering "Hey, doesn't Sony want a piece of this pie?" That was when Sony stopped making out with UMD (always just one "P" from "dump") long enough to insist that he was "cool," but "thanks anyway." Oh, and Betamax was left quietly weeping in her room, sniffling along with "Total Eclipse of the Heart."We've heard rumors of a PSP video download service before and nothing has come of them, but it seems like the pressure on Sony is continuing to grow. One anonymous studio exec is even quoted as saying that Hollywood is pulling for the PSP, in its own heartless way. "We keep hoping they pull themselves together," she says. "... With the PSP video, we're hoping they create a forward-thinking strategy and stick to it." So, Hollywood wants it, James McQuivey (who managed to be right without time travel, Billy) wants it, but do you want it? Perhaps a better question is, can Sony reposition PSP at this point in its life cycle? Or will the iPod's real fight have to come from PSP2?[via PSP Fanboy]
Hollywood wants PSP to compete with iPod
In a recent CNET article, Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey explains Sony's lost opportunity to capture the media download market. Due to their fixation on UMD, Sony has let Apple hold a near-monopoly on digital downloads. "The thing is, Sony could have been all this. The Sony PSP is one of the best portable entertainment media devices that anyone has come up with in years. It has a relatively big screen, plays video beautifully, has good storage and audio. It could have been the first big mobile carrier for TV shows and movies."Even now, Sony continues to stand by UMD, instead of offering a true video download service for the handheld. Sony seems content with their position: their attempts in Japan have been lackluster at best, and PSP's video playback remains crippled due to incomprehensible video restrictions. "You got a company here that's pushing its own approach on every level, and as a result nobody is using its memory stick or video format," McQuivey said. "So you don't have the same robust market that you could have had if you said, 'We're going to open this up. You can put your Windows Media files on here. You can put your QuickTime files on here.'"All hope is not lost, however. A Hollywood executive spoke anonymously to CNET, noting that many Hollywood executives are "pulling for the PSP to emerge as a competitor to the iPod." Many executives are afraid that Apple will maintain a monopoly over movies as it has had over music. Competition is good for the consumer, and the companies making the content. A PSP video download service makes so much sense, but it won't happen until Sony stops making lame excuses. "But Sony has been so dysfunctional and clueless when it comes to the Internet," said the executive. "We keep hoping they pull themselves together ... with the PSP video, we're hoping they create a forward-thinking strategy and stick to it."
God of War: Chains of Olympus revealed, free UMD demo offered
Someone over at IslandOfRhodes.org finally got around to tacking the "r" and "us" onto "God of Wa: Chains of Olymp," setting in motion a cataclysmic series of events that has unearthed this trailer and unleashed a mail-order UMD demo (Sony, you know the PSP can like totally do that WiFi thing and download stuff, right?). So, did we mention the demo is only available while supplies last? That means the dude who read this a second ago is already clicking away. What are you waiting for ... a bigger price cut?[Via PSP Fanboy]
God of War: Chains of Olympus - first trailer & UMD demo
Do it. Now. Yes, get a free UMD demo of the newly announced God of War: Chains of Olympus. Hurry! Then, see past the cut for the very first footage of this PSP-exclusive God of War. You will be absolutely stunned by the graphics.
GameZnFlix rental service drops PSP support
Movie and game rental service GameZnFlix has recently dropped all support for PSP. The company, which used to provide UMD games and movies to about 100 customers, has called it quits due to changes in postal regulations. "The bad news is that these changes to the mailing standards are forcing us to discontinue offering games and movies for the PlayStation Portable device. Because of both the disc weight and thickness, we would have to use a more expensive shipping method and slower side of the postal system since these discs are no longer eligible to be shipped as 1st class letters."Currently, it appears that GameFly, a competitor, will continue supporting PSP systems with game and movie rentals.[Via Aeropause]
Price drop causes 300 percent sales increase?
Sony recently dropped the price of PSP down to $170 in an effort to revitalize the ailing PSP market. Did it work? According to Kotaku, the plan has worked quite spectacularly: "In the the first two days following the PSP's price drop there was a 300 percent increase in the number of the portables sold."Unfortunately, Kotaku hasn't provided a source for their information, and without specific numbers to work with, the authenticity of such a claim becomes a lot shakier. However, we'll play the optimist: with both system and games reaching mass market affordability, PSP is bound to bounce back in the handheld wars.More surprisingly, it appears as though the UMD is not dead. Apparently, UMD movie sales were actually up 35 percent from 2005 to 2006. "That jump in sales enticed Target to bring the format back to their stores."These are interesting developments for PSP, especially if true. The handheld wars are certainly getting far more interesting, now that Sony's recommitted to the fight.
PSP price cut U.S. only, includes Entertainment Pack
So, you want to buy the PSP, only have $220 and you're a big fan of Lords of Dogtown. Well, you're in luck! The PSP Entertainment Pack, which includes the UMD skate film, a 1 GB memory stick and ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails, has received the same $30 price cut as its little brother, the $169.99 Core Pack.But let's say that you want to buy the PSP, but you live in Europe. In that case, Sony has told GamesIndustry.biz that you're out of luck, as there's no European price cut at the moment. Yikes, Europe. Sony's retaliation for this little stunt was pretty swift and terrible, huh? This seems a little harsh, did you do something else to upset them? Just remember this lesson: If you buy a PS3, you get a free TV and a taxi ride home. If those 100 dudes are the only ones to buy it though, you keep paying €150/£100 for your PSP.[Via Engadget]
