Sony defends UMD, says 'future is bright'

by Ross Miller { Jul 5th 2007 at 4:15PM }

No, it's not opposite day (even though on opposite day one would still say it's not). Sony PSP senior marketing manager John Koller is standing by its Universal Media Disc. The format has received an abundance of bad press for long load times for games and lackluster sales for movies.

Speaking to Pocket Gamer, Koller said "UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability," as well as lowered production costs, while admitting disk space can be a concern. Castlevania series creator Koji Igarashi chimes in, citing load speeds as a big problem for the format. Igarashi said, however, that programmers for the upcoming Dracula X Chronicles managed to shrink load times to a "considerably fast" level.

On the subject of UMD movies, the sale of which was discontinued by Target, Koller showed optimism a cited a 35 percent growth from 2005 to 2006. As Pocket Gamer states, sales have been mediocre but consistent in Europe and North America, but Japan's increased interest can be explained in three words: massive price drop.

But despite murmurings of a downloadable games and movie service, Koller is adamant about his faith in the format. "We'll never walk away from our base. Whether it's movies or game content, third parties have an incredible opportunity to utilize it," he said. Don't expect to see UMD to go away should Sony decide to unveil a PSP2.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Admiral_Mike @ Jul 5th 2007 4:21PM

Wait for it................

happygolucky @ Jul 5th 2007 4:22PM

..how is the future bright?

Fernando Rocker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:22PM

"Future is bright"

... and Bush is a good President, the trees are blue, and Whoopi Goldberg is on the Playboy Magazine cover.

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:22PM

heck, if 23 million units sold = dead.

then PSP is Loooong dead. :)

Justin @ Jul 5th 2007 4:23PM

"UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability,"

Ummmm so size...what a douche. All three of these mean pretty much the same thing.

How does using the memory stick not have these features?

Spitkicker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:25PM

LOL. SONY I love to hate you guys. You make it sooooo easy.

Anonim @ Jul 5th 2007 4:25PM

"..how is the future bright?"

There is a nice nuclear explosion at the end - when all usseless UMD will be destroyer
(landfills in Mexico are full of ET cardridges so...)

x876543 @ Jul 5th 2007 4:25PM

Wasn't UMD like last-gen? Or abandoned by like everyone?

Alex @ Jul 5th 2007 4:27PM

[....waiting is over]

So I assume they are only saying this to keep people from giving up on the PS3 and BluRay??? Just because Sony "will never walk away from our base" doesn't mean retailers and consumers didn't over a year ago...

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:29PM

>So I assume they are only saying this to keep people from giving up on the PS3 and BluRay??

yeah, because Blu-Ray is getting destroyed by HD-DVD in sales number, :)

Ninegauger @ Jul 5th 2007 4:30PM

The UMD is probably the biggest mistake in the design of the PSP. It's at the root of almost everything bad about the PSP. Battery Life? UMD drive sucking all the power. Loading Time? That would be the UMD disc media again. Overpriced and almost universally terrible movies on the console? The UMD again...

I would expect the UMD to go away for the PSP2... in fact I expect the PSP2 to have two screens... both being touch screens if their history of blatant copying is anything to go by.

mastafool @ Jul 5th 2007 4:30PM

I swear, SONY smokes the best weed ever!

Fernando Rocker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:35PM

@Ninegauger

I bet my ass again: next PSP will have touchscreen, and nex gen consoles (PS4 and Xbox 720) will have motion sensing and pointer capabilities.

As always, Nintendo is always the innovator, and Sony just copy what Nintendo does.

Spitkicker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:37PM

PS4? Not at this rate.

sirpilf @ Jul 5th 2007 4:37PM

the only disadvantage is the load times. the motorspinning the disc is hardly an issue, the wifi and screen is more of an issue then spinning the disc. The storage space is so much higher then any cartridge, its worth the loading times. try getting a PS2 quality gta on DS.

anyways, as a movie format sure UMD is dead, and it always was. nobody wants to spend money on a movie that only plays on one portable device.

as a gameformat... its great. anyone who thinks UMD was a bad choice is probably just a fanboy, it was a bad choice when nintendo stuck with cartridges for N64, and was great choice for sony to use CD. same with PSP, because the storage capabilities are much more beneficial then the con of waiting 10-20 seconds.

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:39PM

>As always, Nintendo is always the innovator, and Sony just copy what Nintendo does.
HAHA. yeah, like how when Sony copied Nintendo by putting CD and then DVD as their disc-driver.

or introducing rumble feature.

or selling 100+ million units in two iteration of system in a row?

in fact, explain to me what did Sony copy from Nintendo again? :)

The Truth @ Jul 5th 2007 4:39PM

@ kingofwale

"yeah, because Blu-Ray is getting destroyed by HD-DVD in sales number, :)"

Even so... it is still getting killed by DVD. Neither HD-DVD nor BLU-RAY could be classified as anything but a niche market. Which means... it could still be abandoned by the mass market.

derek @ Jul 5th 2007 4:39PM

#13

"As always, Nintendo is always the innovator, and Sony just copy what Nintendo does."

What the hell does this have to do with the topic? Go be irritating on the IGN forums or something.

Anyhoo, agreed that Sony does indeed smoke some incredible weed.

Fernando Rocker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:40PM

@sirpilf

"with PSP, because the storage capabilities are much more beneficial then the con of waiting 10-20 seconds."

10 to 20 seconds???... wrong... try 7 minutes to start playing the WWF game.

Fernando Rocker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:43PM

@kingofwale

Sony did not introduce the rumble feature... it was the N64

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:43PM

>Even so... it is still getting killed by DVD. Neither HD-DVD nor BLU-RAY could be classified as anything but a niche market.

Oooooh, you mean like how DVD was getting PWNed by VSH for 5 years after launch? yeah, Pfft, DVDs, what a joke, right? who the hell watches that? I mean, we all know people don't move on to better stuff slowly. ;)

WWF games suck, blame software company for slow-load time, when I can get my GTA game fired up in 20 seconds.

Michael K. @ Jul 5th 2007 4:44PM

why would you play the wwf game though?

Fernando is cool @ Jul 5th 2007 4:44PM

Fernando is smart, Fernando can form an opinion without a celebrity forming one for him, Nancy Pelosi and communism are great for a society, etc

Admiral_Mike @ Jul 5th 2007 4:45PM

@ King of whale

Um, N64 had rumble before sony slapped it on their controller, analogue sticks too.

sheppy @ Jul 5th 2007 4:46PM

@Ninegauger

Everyone seems to believe this whole Memory Stick thing was the best solution... except you people conveniently ignore several factors.

-When PSP debuted, flash media was getting cheaper but was NOT a decent price. A 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo of Sony Brand was $219.99 Sandisk was $30 cheaper. My 512MB ran me $89.99. So obviously Memory Stick or Flash Memory as the solution didn't exist at the time.

-UMD is capable of delivering a massive amount of content compared directly to DS where movie files are compressed to hell and music games either reduce audio quality (ala Daigasso) or feature far fewer songs (ala Ouendon). The storage space is the UMD advantage although the tradeoff is the necessity of planning physical placement of data and loading times.

-UMD is cheap, like crazy cheap. Seriously. It's comparable to make a UMD to a DVD9 according to stats from about a year ago. Physical media and packaging for a PSP game is under $2. Flash Memory cannot beat that.

-Digital Distribution is NOT a viable platform. Seriously. Look up a console called Phantom. For the average consumer, digitial distribution still has a level of mistrust to it. And it will stay that way for a while.

Fernando Rocker @ Jul 5th 2007 4:47PM

@kingofwale

And Sega CD was before the PS1

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:49PM

I do realize most of the fanboys have never own a PSP. so let me spell it out for you

No company (NOT A SINGLE ONE) will develop a game for you if it's on memory stick. get it? Sony will NEVER go that direction until developers agrees to it

and considering what Itune had to go through, I'd say it's at least 5 years away.

kingofwale @ Jul 5th 2007 4:51PM

>And Sega CD was before the PS1

Sega CD? LMAO... ooh, if only you know the jokes I'd make. ;)

but wait, did you say "Sony just copy what Nintendo does."?

liqwid @ Jul 5th 2007 4:52PM

UMD = MiniDisc

UMD being the only small format media of Sony's that I've seen. No lie. I've never seen a MiniDisc or MiniDisc player/recorder.

Mr Khan @ Jul 5th 2007 4:56PM

@ sheppy

Digital Distribution is nowhere near where it needs to be to gain mass market appeal in the US, mostly because Broadband (and our interpretation of Broadband is 200Kbps on up, which is still a very poor download speed) only has less than 60 million subscribers in the country, and that if the content has to be downloaded through WiFi, you can send that number CONSIDERABLY lower than that

My guess is that their strategy is to offer both, DD for the fewer people who will buy more games, and UMD for the masses that can't access DD...

sheppy @ Jul 5th 2007 4:57PM

"10 to 20 seconds???... wrong... try 7 minutes to start playing the WWF game."

Wow, all new lows. You had to search forever for that example, didn't you? Because, on the realio, it's the only example that exists. Before the smackdown game, the largest loadtimes were on previously from the ZOE clone Soukyuu no Fafner weighing in at nearly 40 seconds. And it got bashed to fuck for that.

So let's make a deal. You quit being so pathetic and lame and I'll forget about Quake 1 & 2's load times on N64.

The Truth @ Jul 5th 2007 5:00PM

@ kingofwale

"Oooooh, you mean like how DVD was getting PWNed by
VSH for 5 years after launch?"

VSH?!?! Is that yet another format that you just came up with??

"Pfft, DVDs, what a joke, right? who the hell watches that? I mean, we all know people don't move on to better stuff slowly. ;)"

They sure do!! For instance.. look at how slow the masses are catching on to UMD's. Ha Ha. Yeah right! =P

Evan @ Jul 5th 2007 5:00PM

@kingofwale "Oooooh, you mean like how DVD was getting PWNed by VSH for 5 years after launch?"

More like how LaserDiscs were "PWNed" by VHS.

Player1 @ Jul 5th 2007 5:03PM

I don't understand these arguments. Is it just because UMD has "Universal" in it's name? Is it because they put some movies on it?

I never see articles where people say the gamecube disc is a dead format, or the gameboy advance cart, or the NES cart. Don't the put some kids shows and stuff on gameboy advance carts? Do those sell better than UMD movies or something? What did people expect that someday every home would have a UMD player in the living room? What exactly is the level of success that people were expecting these to meet?

BulletToothTony @ Jul 5th 2007 5:07PM

joystiq loves it's sony news, they love to see the haters get all wet. they think that these news make them the best. you can sense the arrogance and disguised hate in most of their posts

Frangible @ Jul 5th 2007 5:12PM

Woah, the UMD doesn't hurt battery life very much. The DS Lite's battery life is comparable to the PSP's (with the new battery), when the DS is at max brightness. Look at all the Sony Minidisc players... those got 40 hours of battery life off a single AA, and the disc was spinning constantly. Sony is very good at making this stuff efficient.

With some intelligent precaching, and perhaps even the option to cache frequently loaded data onto a Memory Stick (why games do not do this, I don't know), the loading times would be greatly minimized.

UMDs can fit a ton of stuff onto a disc, and the PSP is a very capable and powerful system. It's a bargain for $170. It is certainly more powerful than the Dreamcast, and almost as powerful as the PS2.

JFink @ Jul 5th 2007 5:13PM

Wait hold on. He "cited a 35% growth from 2005 to 2006"? Isn't it half way through 2007. How is it doing now?

mccomber @ Jul 5th 2007 5:15PM

sheppy is on the nose with comment #25. At the time it was, and even now is, the best format for the psp. The failure of UMD as a new media format was it's price and inclusion in only the psp. It's "failure" as a format for the psp holds as much water as the idea that the psp itself is a failure.
No, it hasn't sold as well as Nintendo's handholds. But it's a long way from the PSP to whatever trails it in sales. The psp is holding it's own in a market that is basically dominated by Nintendo, and always has been.

TDub301 @ Jul 5th 2007 5:38PM

kingofwang:
"or introducing rumble feature.

or selling 100+ million units in two iteration of system in a row?

in fact, explain to me what did Sony copy from Nintendo again? :)"

Wasn't it Nintendo's idea to use the CD drive in the first place? Thus calling on Sony to make one for them, then the deal not working out? And rumble, shoulder buttons, control sticks, half-assed waggle controls (six axis)? Sony can't even come up with a new controller without putting stuff on it that other companies already made standard. Wireless controllers? Hard drives? Internet play? Sony never comes up with anything first (except mediums that tend to fail miserably), they only emulate.

Let's not forget that of those 100 million of both itations of the first 2 PS's, about 50% were replacements because it was such shitty hardware. I don't know anybody who only had one PS1 or PS2, they all had to buy multiple systems.

Load times are bad on a lot more games than just the WWF game, it's pretty common, which means it's a hardware problem.

sheppy @ Jul 5th 2007 5:42PM

@Mr Kahn

We're in agreement. Everyone loves to think PSP's future viability remains in built in flash memory and digital distribution. But it's not. It would be a cool option, indeed, but should not be the only one. Because as someone else stated, PSP needs a mass market approach to get the mass market. It's like trying to sell an idea to an average consumer base. I would pity the retailer who has to try and sell a digital distribution console because they'll have nothing to show consumers while describing everything compared to DS where they can open a case and show a package.

@mccomber

UMD as a Universal Media Disc is, indeed, a failure. But that's largely due to how the industry handled it. I mean, c'mon... $20 for Metallica's black album on a format only one of your devices could use compared to $10 on CD? Movies chopping out bonus content but increasing their price by 40%-150%? The media industry itself was telling a joke with the UMD system that they, themselves, just never understood. I have no doubt in my mind that if the pricing was reasonable ($10 per movie) or if the slightly more expensive dual sets were available for new releases (aka, $5 more snags you both the DVD and UMD), we would be looking at UMDs differently right now. But Sony was the cheapest on their UMD prices and everyone else applied niche pricing and wondered where things went wrong. I mean, examples? At the same time the DVD copies of Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 were obtainable as a set for $20, Vol 1 dropped on PSP for the unforgivable $39.99. I mean, no wonder it failed.

But at the end of it all and as the rush to put videos on a handheld died down due to retarded levels of misunderstanding of the industry... we are left in a situation where Audition Portable and DJ Max Portable 2, due to the media alone, can stack in over a hundred songs, and I'm trying to find a downside. I guess I could claim it sucks that I never got a chance to watch Casino Royale on UMD but if I'm really that desperate to punish myself with watching that flick twice, I could always convert my DVD...

BPM @ Jul 5th 2007 5:44PM

"Is PSP a failure?"
It's not dead yet, so I'd say no.

"Is PSP a success?"
It's hard to say. Many compare its sales to those of GameCube and Xbox, which are nearly the same. However, there's a big difference between console sales and handheld sales. Consoles are usually one to a household, and handhelds are usually one to a person.
Also consider the total sales of previous Nintendo handhelds: Game Boy (possibly including GB pocket and GB Light): ~70 million, Game Boy Color: ~50 Million, Game Boy Advance (including GBA SP and GB micro): ~80 million.
However, if you compare PSP's sales to non-Nintendo handhelds, it's the best selling (Game Gear managed to sell ~11 million in its entire life).
Success is relative, I guess.

"Is UMD a bad format?"
It's a matter of storage vs. loading. Aside from a few examples (like loading and saving in Animal Crossing: Wild World), DS games had virtually no loading times. Granted, the largest DS Game Card, yet, is 128MB (examples: The Rub Rabbits! and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence). But, even that's twice the largest N64 Game Pak (64MB, with games like Resident Evil 2).
However, with PSP using higher-detailed models and textures, a much larger medium of storage is needed. Not to mention, higher quality audio.
And as Sheppy points out, flash memory was NOT viable at the time PSP launched, and it really isn't now, either. Sure, you can get 2GB cards for about $30 now, but that cost would still factor into the game's price tag, which would make it higher than it is now.

Oh, and IGA didn't create Castlevania. He's only been the producer/director since Symphony of the Night.

Billster @ Jul 5th 2007 5:48PM

I would love it if, as an option, you were able to transfer the contents of the UMD to a memory stick - but still require the UMD to be in the drive to play.

It's done this way on a PC, why can't it be done on a PSP?

sheppy @ Jul 5th 2007 5:50PM

"Wasn't it Nintendo's idea to use the CD drive in the first place? Thus calling on Sony to make one for them, then the deal not working out? And rumble, shoulder buttons, control sticks, half-assed waggle controls (six axis)? Sony can't even come up with a new controller without putting stuff on it that other companies already made standard. Wireless controllers? Hard drives? Internet play? Sony never comes up with anything first (except mediums that tend to fail miserably), they only emulate."

Aww man, don't even KNOW were to start on that one. So I'll just call you retarded and move on.

"Load times are bad on a lot more games than just the WWF game, it's pretty common, which means it's a hardware problem."

Actually, the WWF game is exceptionally bad for load times. Just as Sonic The Hedgehog is exceptionally bad for load times on 360. So I ask you this. When the average PSP load time is 10-20 seconds but there are a few examples of excessive loadtimes, does the entire console become a failure based on lazy ass programmers? Keep in mind, even some N64 games had terrible load times.

BPM @ Jul 5th 2007 6:44PM

@sheppy:
I also recall there being a Super NES game with load times. Batman Forever. Only reason I know this is because, sadly, I once played it. Hey, I was young, okay?

Point is... loading more has to do with efficient coding than storage medium. The MegaMan Legends games for the original PlayStation had virtually NO loading times! And on top of that, they were extremely awesome games (I recommend everyone go out and find copies for all three games in the series, be it for PlayStation, or N64/PC (for Legends 1 only)).

chispito @ Jul 5th 2007 7:07PM

"-When PSP debuted, flash media was getting cheaper but was NOT a decent price. A 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo of Sony Brand was $219.99 Sandisk was $30 cheaper. My 512MB ran me $89.99. So obviously Memory Stick or Flash Memory as the solution didn't exist at the time."

All things Memory Stick have always been the unwanted, overpriced, unadopted step brother of SD. The PSP uses not one, but TWO needlessly expensive proprietary formats that remain unused outside of Sony gear. Even now, Memory Stick Pro Duo costs double to triple what SD does.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 5th 2007 8:40PM

...and Sony shows that despite making some good moves lately, they still have their heads up their asses in other areas.

zoo @ Jul 5th 2007 9:26PM

"Sure, you can get 2GB cards for about $30 now"

You are getting ripped off. I see 2gb SD cards on sale for $5 virtually every week. That means the ACTUAL cost to a supplier is even lower. Of course UMDs likely cost pennies to make, but flash is very much a viable alternative now. The storage medium is a very small part of the price we pay for games.

K_G @ Jul 5th 2007 10:07PM

You know, if you had been in a Target sometime in the last year, you'd know they still sell them and its not old stock...it may be only a handful but they still have them...and its not stuff that its been sitting around since launch, it is stuff like Casino Royale