FOX JOINS PSP MOVIE FRAY

[erdega79]

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...0&catType=NEWS

Execs at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment all are evaluating how they will generate movie titles for Sony's Playstation Portable handheld games system.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment was the inaugural major studio, other than Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, to devote flicks to the PSP. But the others' participation flashes the first industry-wide thumbs-up for the new PSP Universal Media Disc format.

With its support for Sony HD format Blu-Ray, it wasn't a surprise when Buena Vista committed such films as National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl for the company's latest device. But the fact that truer rivals Fox, Universal and Paramount are circling PSP seems to bode well for the PSP's success. Universal and Paramount are attached to HD DVD and Fox remains undecided.

Fox is believed to be in advanced negotiations to release titles. Retailers understand that film titles Dodgeball, Napoleon Dynamite, I, Robot, Super Troopers and Predator are among the likely UMD output this year. The studio didn't give title specifics.

Universal also is considered likely to commit to releasing movies for PSP. The studio is working on a final decision, which could see Uni entering the PSP market by mid-summer.

Paramount is said to be assessing its involvement, but its timeline on a decision is less clear.

"I think by the end of the year most, if not all, of the studios will be releasing movies on PSP," Sony president Ben Feingold suggested. "For a format to be successful, it's important to have a broad product offering. We've been working with all the studios to help them get up to speed on releasing product."

Last week, Sony unveiled a fresh slate of UMD content priced at $19.95. Coming June 14 are Daddy Day Care, Bad Boys, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series--Mutant Menace and The Grudge. Hitting retail June 28 will be Resident Evil, Starship Troopers, Air Force One and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Disney also recently announced several new PSP movie titles (VB, 4-25).

Feingold is open to collaborating with studios on joint marketing and advertising strategies. He believes corporate cooperation was a big help in getting the DVD format off the ground in the late '90s.

Retailers reported strong first week sales (VB, 4-25), representing another boost for the PSP. Some store executives were initially hesitant that consumers would pay to view on a small screen movies that they might have already bought on DVD. Some PSP titles also lack bonus features that usually come standard on DVDs.

"This is the second format I've been involved in launching," Feingold said. "There was some skepticism to DVD. And there was a little skepticism with PSP on the movie side. But it's off to a fantastic start."

[Cooter]

Somehow this doesn't surprise me seeing as how Fox is a Blu-ray member and all. In fact, they've already put out quite a few titles exclusively on Blu-ray. The next big Fox title to come out will be Star Wars, which is quite exciting.

[dialog_gvf]

I think the above is the bump of all time. The original post is from April 2005!

In the meantime Universal got mightly upset with Sony over the results of the movies on UMD, and I believe no longer supports the format.

The future, as announced by Sony, is to supply PSP and iPod targetted encodings as an added feature on Blu-ray discs. Something like a pre-encoded managed copy.

Of course, only Blu-ray has the luxury of capacity to support this idea.

Gary

[phloyd]

Yeah, I have a whole pile of Fox UMD movies, as well as a bunch of Disney and even some Universal titles (as well as Sony of course).

Fox is indeed one of the more prolific studios on the format.

[dialog_gvf]

What do you think about the idea of supplying the PSP movies on BD disc that can be securely copied into a MemoryStick Pro Duo?

Gary

[JTK]

I figured PSP was almost dead in the water at this point...

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by JTK

I figured PSP was almost dead in the water at this point...

The PSP has sold over 20 million units worldwide since release in 2005. About 40% of that in 2006. Just because the DS is outselling it, it doesn't mean the PSP isn't selling very well.

Gary

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

The PSP has sold over 20 million units worldwide since release in 2005. About 40% of that in 2006. Just because the DS is outselling it, it doesn't mean the PSP isn't selling very well.

Gary

Its funny when people talk about the PSP failing. Failing vs what? The DS is mostly for weird and odd games. The only true games on it are the castlevania series. Everything else is short and/or a let down to a true gamer. People bought New Super Mario Bros and beat it within hours of being home. Gimme a break!

PSP is doing very well and actually improving its gaming profile bigtime. While the DS gets more cooking games and brain games, PSP's library is getting better and better, especially with squares new announcements of Final Fantasy games (i think theres at least 3 right now, possibly more). So to be honest, they could sell 100 million DS's and 40 mil PSP's, and it still would look good for the PSP. Its a TOTALLY different demographic and price range. One is for cutey games and simple play style, the other offers console style gaming on the go.

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

What do you think about the idea of supplying the PSP movies on BD disc that can be securely copied into a MemoryStick Pro Duo?

I think that is a decent idea. That said, it is still a little pricey for the 2GB stick which would hold one movie, 4GB for 2 movies, etc. So you would seriously have to decide what movies to have loaded since it takes time to move 1.8GB around.

So until Duos at 16GB are a reasonable price I think that the UMDs will be a better choice...

[JTK]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

Its funny when people talk about the PSP failing. Failing vs what? The DS is mostly for weird and odd games. The only true games on it are the castlevania series. Everything else is short and/or a let down to a true gamer. People bought New Super Mario Bros and beat it within hours of being home. Gimme a break!

PSP is doing very well and actually improving its gaming profile bigtime. While the DS gets more cooking games and brain games, PSP's library is getting better and better, especially with squares new announcements of Final Fantasy games (i think theres at least 3 right now, possibly more). So to be honest, they could sell 100 million DS's and 40 mil PSP's, and it still would look good for the PSP. Its a TOTALLY different demographic and price range. One is for cutey games and simple play style, the other offers console style gaming on the go.

Ok, then what's Universal's supposed beef?

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by JTK

Ok, then what's Universal's supposed beef?

UMDs don't sell, Sony promised UMD players for TVs, they never materialised, NBC got upset.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

UMDs don't sell, Sony promised UMD players for TVs, they never materialised, NBC got upset.

Ah.

[MrBogey]

If they came up with a GigE adaptor for the PSP I could add it to my network and download a movie on the fly in no time. It'd be a perfect mobile video platform as it has a long battery life and a large "mini" screen.