Sony to bundle UMDs with DVDs

By Games Industry.biz Published 10 February, 2006

Blu-Ray disc price also revealed.

Sony Pictures has unveiled plans to bundle UMDs with DVDs and announced pricing for the Blu-Ray format, with new movie releases set to carry a wholesale price of less than USD 25.

From March 28th, PlayStation Portable owners will be able to purchase DVD-UMD bundles for movies The Grudge, Resident Evil, Underworld, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Terminator. April 25th will see the arrival of Ghostbusters, Mad Max, The Fifth Element and Snatch, and more bundles will follow in May.

The bundles will be priced at USD 28.95. This is a price point which is likely to appeal to consumers - in the States, new DVD releases generally sell for between USD 20-25, while UMD movies carry an RRP of USD 29.99.

Speaking to Reuters, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feingold said: "A lot of people have DVD players and also have PSPs, and this way for one price they can get one movie and play it back on both formats."

SPHE has also announced that Blu-Ray versions of older films will carry a wholesale price of USD 17.95, while new releases will be priced at USD 23.45. The company has declined to set an RRP, leaving retailers free to determine their own profit margins.

SPHE's UK subsidiary was unavailable to comment on whether similar plans are in the pipeline for Europe.

Picture of Games.

About Games Industry.biz

Read more articles from Games by visiting the Games Industry.biz archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (26) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • boo #1 6 years ago

    SPHE's UK subsidiary was unavailable to comment on whether similar plans are in the pipeline for Europe.

    And if they are announced you just know they're going to be about £29.95...

  • Redeye #2 6 years ago

    ^ Truth.

  • el_pollo_diablo #3 6 years ago

    Don't buy UMDs. Don't encourage them.
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/06 @ 10:02

  • ElephantMonkey #4 6 years ago

    I just bought my first UMD from play for £6.99 and I still feel cheated.

  • Markusdragon #5 6 years ago

    Desperacy kicks in!

    The clock's ticking before it starts getting referred to as 'ill fated'. *shiver*
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/06 @ 10:25

  • Stormflood_UK #6 6 years ago

    I'm still astonished UMD got as far as this.

  • Talha #7 6 years ago

    I am a complete technical layman, but I can't help feeling: Aren't Sony always shuffling too many formats around? That said, this bundling idea is smart.

  • neon #8 6 years ago

    ***Sony to bundle UMDs with DVDs***

    Now thats a very good idea. What sony should do is open up a web site that allows all dvds to be brought with its umd counter part, as shops that sell dvds are becoming poor, only stocking the top 100 or whatever.

  • TurdBreaker #9 6 years ago

    @boo, Redeye

    Aint that the truth...

    >USD 17.95, while new releases will be priced at USD 23.45.

    I think it's "generous" to say old releases would be just swapping the currency symbol from $ to £. I figure, due to how the UK gets ripped off so badly, old releases (which are 'new' releases by MPAA retardedness) will be £20-£25 and new movies will be at leat £29-£34 -- I couldn't see how they'd try to hold back on milking the living sh1t out of us...

    /rant done..

  • TurdBreaker #10 6 years ago

    Question - what else uses UMD besides PSP? For a "Univeral" format i have yet to see a device aside from the PSP that uses them. Anyone have any links to other manufacturers that use em?

  • Royal Fool #11 6 years ago

    Wow, sure took them a long time to figure out this little marketing strategy. Even if consumers were complaing about this months before the PSP's launch.

    Brilliance.

  • myiagros #12 6 years ago

    this sounds like a great idea, no more low quality DVD rips compressed onto a 1GB memory stick. Also will save time converting files and coppying stuff backwards and forwards all the time.

    What would be even better would be if they sold movies on unwritable memory sticks, would save space and battery life. (will never happen though due to manufacture costs).

  • Pac #13 6 years ago

    I think the term Universal in UMD was meant to imply that the same format can be used to play games, video and music.

    /Bit like DVD then.

    Sony have hinted that UMD drives will make it into other consumer electronic devices but nothing has appeared yet as far as I'm aware.

  • Pac #14 6 years ago

    It's quite funny how Sony have started bundling UMDs with DVDs for SPHE and MGM titles just when all the other studios are lining up their own titles for release on UMD. Kind of pulls the plug on that revenue stream.

  • Rambaldi #15 6 years ago

    I can just see George Lucas rubbing his hands in glee at the thought of releasing StarWars in UMD, HD, BluRay, 3D etc. etc.

    Please can we all make a point of not buying into this unnecessary force feeding?

  • tengu #16 6 years ago

    Nice idea. Still not buying any UMD movies though.

  • tenma #17 6 years ago

    Weren't a lot of people saying that Blu-Ray would be ridiculously expensive? I'm glad to see it ends up not being true whatsoever (at least in the States). I see current DVDs costing more than that in shops.

  • captain-future #18 6 years ago

    hmmmm, Sony is in big trouble if the have to promote UMDs as add-ons to DVDs.

  • Tyronne #19 6 years ago

    `Weren't a lot of people saying that Blu-Ray would be ridiculously expensive? I'm glad to see it ends up not being true whatsoever (at least in the States). I see current DVDs costing more than that in shops.`

    I hate to ask this tenwa but what shops are you going to? Harrods?

  • tenma #20 6 years ago

    hah, sorry to break to you mate, but I live in the US.

    DVDs are $25 here on average and up.

    edit: at least if you buy it in stores and not at amazon or something.
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/06 @ 16:20

  • Gastrian #21 6 years ago

    Um Tenma, you seem to have misread the article, the prices quoted are WHOLESALE, thats the price Sony sells them to stores. Now add on tax, shipping and the stores profit margin and you could add 50-100% onto that for the retail price which is what we pay.
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/06 @ 17:34

  • YourMessageHere #22 6 years ago

    I bought one film UMD, just to see if it would be worthwhile, on the basis that it was only £13 and I love the film. It was Ghost In The Shell, which if you don't know it is anime. The UMD has:

    - No original Japanese language track, naff english dub only
    - No subtitles
    - a peculiar aspect ratio forcing me to play it in zoomed mode to get the full picture (probably just a lazy re-encode of the lazily encoded first release DVD)
    - a pornographic menu screen (despite the film not being pornographic) which caused me embarrasment with a train conductress when I stopped it to buy a ticket on the train.

    No more UMDs for me, at least until they sort out these BASIC problems and make them about a tenner, maximum.

  • tenma #23 6 years ago

    Um Tenma, you seem to have misread the article, the prices quoted are WHOLESALE, thats the price Sony sells them to stores. Now add on tax, shipping and the stores profit margin and you could add 50-100% onto that for the retail price which is what we pay.

    Woah, thanks for pointing that out. I must have skipped over the 'wholesale' part.


    Well then,

    I guess that sucks, huh?

  • Captain-nippon #24 6 years ago

    you people are complete idiots. Sony UMD marketing are flawless, merging the UMD and DVD is a ONE TWO punch.

    This is a great idea...Here's a little fact about UMD, it sold over 100 000 units in a few months, the same amount took DVD a whole full year when the DVD was launch in 1997.

    A DVD and UMD cost about $50.00 USD separately, but bundle cost $28.99 USD and you anti sony are talking shit.

    You're saving over $20.00 USD on the bundle....

    The people the Europe are so stupid...

  • Royal Fool #25 6 years ago

    I'd rather point out to you how you're stupid because you're basically paying for the same movie twice.

    But I won't do that. I'm too nice.

  • Drakron #26 6 years ago

    Now ... now ...

    Lets be fair, its not like DVDs players costed a arm and a leg and everyone was still using CDs for data storage and music and VHS for movies ... oh wait ...

    Captain-nippon you cannot compare DVDs to UMDs, the DVD sold less because DVD players were expensive not to mention DVD burners.

    It taken time before people drop from VHS format and start to use DVD, games and music still use the CD format (its always funny when the americans complain about PC games being on DVD only, they still do not adapted to DVD players as we had in europe).

    Apples and Oranges ... also people buy DVD movie versions because its a superior storage device that VHS.

    Also I bet DVD sold a lot more that 100,000 units in the first months ... and sould I go with the fact the PS2 could play DVD without any special equipment?

    Can I use UMDs in anything other the PSP?

    I rest my case ...

  • YourMessageHere #27 6 years ago

    "Quality of marketing" is emphatically not the same as "quality of product being marketed". See also: iPod.

    Plus, for about the price of two full-price UMDs, you can buy a 1Gb memory stick, rip your DVDs to it in perfectly adequate quality to display on a 480x272 screen, and reuse it ad infinitum.