Despite the fact that the platform hasn’t quite taken off like Sony was hoping it would the company is still asserting that UMDs are going strong. In the face of the medium not becoming a hot spot for movies as originally planned, the PSP running a distant second in the handheld market, and the fact that Sony itself has released a form of the PSP that doesn’t need to use a UMD at all the company says that UMDs are still where it is at.
At a session for independent developers at GDC the company described the format as “alive and well.” Further elaborating, they said that they had absolutely no plans to stop supporting the strangely shaped disc/cartridge hybrids and will of course be continuing to ship the physical UMDs to retailers as well as distribute games digitally.
I suppose as long as the platform is there to support it UMDs will always be “alive and well,” and with Sony saying that there are 17 million PSPs in North America and 60 million worldwide it doesn’t look like it will be “dying” any time soon. Can we really think that this is where Sony wanted the UMD to be when they launched the PSP, though? Maybe “alive and slightly disappointing” might be a more apt description.
UMD “alive and well,” says Sony [CVG]
