Sony fails with another media format.

[Quorthon]

Clickers

So, the UMD's are heading to the grave. Big surprise. (not really)

And roughly half a year before Sony releases the hyper-expensive PS3 and Blu-Ray disk players.

With this glaring failure, and Sony's heavy competition in the realm of HD-DVDs, what are the chances that more Hollywood studios are going to want to side with Blu-Ray when fall rolls around?

The latest estimates/rumors have the PS3's price at anywhere from $615 to $735 (499-599 Euro I think), with the Blu-Ray drives themselvs costing up to a grand.

[ZapRowsdower]

Good to see I'm not the only one who thought UMDs were worthless. Movies were not meant to be watched on that small of a screen.

[Quorthon]

Well, it was doomed to failure from the start. I don't get why they couldn't see that.

PSP = $200-$250
UMD = $25 (average example: Kill Bill was that price)
UMDs = Can ONLY be used in the PSP.

Portable DVD Player = >$150
DVD = $15-20 (average example: Kill Bill brand new was that price)
DVDs = Can be played in most any DVD player, Xbox and PS2.

On top of that, the battery would die after about 2 hours--you wouldn't even be able to finish Kill Bill Volume 1!!

I guess it doesn't help matters that the Nintendo DS is practically obliterating it in sales, worldwide. The top selling system in Japan: Nintendo DS Lite, the second? The regular Nintendo DS! And then I think it's the PS2, Game Boy Advance SP, PSP, GameCube. Don't quote me on those last few, though. I'm going from memory.

As a side note, and this is funny, the Xbox360 is only outselling 2 other systems in Japan--the original Xbox and the original Game Boy Advance (without the flip-up, backlight screen!)! The Game Boy Advance SP, and even the PS2 and GameCubes are still outselling the X360.

I think the days of horsepower and gimmicks selling game consoles are about over.

[Phoenix]

I know we've dicussed how the porn industry drives the market....

this is from (of all places) IMDB news:

Adult movie producers Vivid Entertainment today (Monday) launched a website that allows users to purchase and download pornographic movies online and burn them directly to DVD to watch on their TV sets or personal computers. They'll contain the same "extras" found in the usual DVD packages. Several analysts are suggesting that the service may represent another instance of the porn industry taking the lead in delivering entertainment to the home, as it did with the VCR. In a statement, Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid, said that for a payment of about $20, users can go to the All Adult Channel's website, click on "Download" and burn the disk automatically. Hirsch maintained that the technology used by the site contains effective copy-protection software and predicted that it will one day "be commonplace."

I agree that this is going to be commonplace!

[Quorthon]

Pretty soon, there won't be much reason to leave one's house...

We're all gonna get even fatter!!