PSP's proprietary UMD media format reminds me of the pogs craze of the 90's. It didn't take them long to rise to a high threshold of popularity, but then it died off faster than a sneeze. It seems that at some point or another virtually every movie studio pledged full support for UMD.

Now, pretty much the only new movies are coming from Sony Pictures (yeah, just put two and two together). Because of the rapid decline in UMD's presence, Target has announced that they are discontinuing UMD movies, effective immediately. I can only assume that UMD music titles will also receive the same fate. Target's usually quick to pull video game items that aren't selling well, like the N-Gage and older versions of the Game Boy Advance, so it's not a huge surprise that they'd be the first to halt purchases of new UMDs. However, it is a blow to the format, and a sign that Sony did indeed create another Betamax with the "universal media disc" format.

It's unlikely that Target will immediately put their current UMD inventory on clearance, though I'd expect that it will come to that a couple months down the line, so if you're a UMD movie junkie, there may be a shining light out of this revelation.

Via Joystiq

Report Published by: Mark Raby