9 million PSP games, 8.2 million UMD movies sold

By Humphrey Cheung

August 31, 2005 - 10:46 EST

Hollywood (CA) - At the Entertainment Media Expo in Hollywood California, Sony executives touted the success of their Universial Media Disc (UMD), specifically movie UMDs. Millions of these 2.3 inch-diameter discs that hold either movies or games have been sold to PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners. Sony believes that movies will make more than 60 percent of UMD sales in the near future.

The UMD looks like Sony's at least in the US unpopular MiniDisc, but appearances can be deceiving. Inside the rigid shell sits a dual-layer single-sided disc that holds 1.8 GByte of information. Videostored on the media is encoded in MPEG-4 format. While some consumers have complained about the proprietary format of MiniDiscs and UMDs, the vast majority don't seem to care, as evidenced by recent sales figures.

Brits queue up for Sony PSP

Hoped to be the new iPod

By Nick Farrell: Thursday 01 September 2005, 08:01

FAD CONSCIOUS Brits queued until midnight last night in the hope of bagging Sony’s new PSP.

The PSP is being touted as the next big thing and Sony is hoping that the craze for Apple’s eyePod will have created a market for the games machine gadgets.

All its spinners are calling the device the 'new iPod' or the 'walkman for the 21st century'.

It certainly has the edge on the iPod in that it can play games, music, films access the world wide wibbly web and store pictures.

Sony aims to have flogged a million of the things by Christmas and last night it looks like it was well on their way to meet its target.

Hundreds queued outside HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street which sold more than 500 unreserved consoles to sell on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tesco, which is selling the PSP in its 133 stores, has launched an online "tracker" to help shoppers find out where the console is still on sale. It is going for £179.99.

More here. µ

PSP best selling launch of all time (UK)

Beats Nintendo's DS by almost 100,000 units

By Aaron McKenna: Tuesday 06 September 2005, 11:15

SONY EXECUTIVES ARE smiling today – despite having delayed the launch of the PlayStation Portable in the UK for half a year after it went to retail in the states and Asia, they’ve still managed to have the best-selling launch of all time in the UK.

According to Chart-Track, the PSP has sold 185,000 units in its first four days on sale in the UK, beating the previous record holder Nintendo’s DS, which had stood at 87,000 units at launch.

24 PSP games are currently available in the UK, with 20 of them entering into the All Formats Top 40 and 9 games breaking into the Top 10 All Format charts. Sony’s own Ridge Racer topped the chart, knocking Codemasters' Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 down to No. 2 and becoming not only the fastest selling PSP game but also the fastest selling Ridge Racer game across any format.

1 in 5 people who bought a PSP game bought ‘Ridge Racer,’ but it was over 6 years ago since a Ridge Racer title reached number 1 in the All Formats chart with Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1) back in 1999, according to Chart-Track.

All this despite the fact that the PSP is battling the DS which is a good £80 cheaper than the PSP, which retails at £179.99. The launch also added an estimated £50 million to UK retailers according to Eurogamer, making up for an exceptionally slow summer sales period which has been the precursor to the launch of the next-generation of consoles later this year and into 2006. µ