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Monday December 18, 2006
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While the UMD format for movies never really took off as Sony expected, the company isn't close to pulling the plug on its PlayStation Portable video game system, which has sold nearly 20 million units world wide. The company is now looking at offering movie downloads in the New Year. GameDaily is reporting that Sony has been in talks with Amazon.com, and film download sites such as Movielink and CinemaNow to provide PSP video downloads.
Pricing of the movie downloads, and whether they're be "rentals," and watchable for a limited time, or "purchased" for life has not been announced. While no word has been mentioned on how the films will be downloaded, it's likely this will be through a connection to a PC, or possible with a connection to the PlayStation 3. Now all Sony needs to do is bring a larger screen to the table for easier mobile viewing of movies.
Post by Peter Suciu
Posted By:
Gearlog
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December 18, 2006 2:48 PM
I heard about this too! The problem is that the PSP has been selling so poorly that it's a horrible platform for this. Sony would be better off making universally downloadable movies for any portable media device, and really have the opportunity to undercut Apple at its own game. The PSP is an amazing platform, no doubt, especially for video and movies, but the trouble is that it's just too expensive and too few people really want ALL of the features (it's still aimed primarily at gamers and gamers look at the paltry game offerings and don't want it...I know I've been wrangling with the PSP v. DS debate and the PSP just lost...) and are willing to pay the price tag.
I don't know if movie downloads will make people buy a PSP, but if they re-market the PSP to more people and maybe drop the price a bit, it might be more compelling.