Npl said:
Just for curiosities sake... At what Prices do the GBA-Movies sell ? And do people buy them ?
(I really dont know
)
$20, and yes they sell reasonably well. But then the GBA has a ponderously large installed base, and the appeal is decidedly different: aiming at parents who wouldn't think it unreasonable to spend that much on cartoons to keep their kids pacified at restaurants, on long car trips, etc. (Notice they're all cartoons.) They can (and likely need to, with higher manufacturing costs as well as extra licensing that Sony wouldn't have to worry about for its own material on its own machine using its own tech) charge more, as they don't have to worry about
establishing anything--they just know there will be an audience willing to buy them. (And as such they'll start at a somewhat higher level--because why not?--and run cost projections to see how much extra sales they could expect from, say, the $15 price point. Would it be worth the cost drop?)
UMD is a new format on a new device, and Sony at least says they
want to let others use it in their own devices and actually make UMD into a potential "portable media format" for lots of people. But how on earth can they
establish something by charging more than the mainstream alternative for an unproven product with unproven appeal? They want UMD to help
drive sales of the PSP (which will in turn help drive UMD, of course), but if that's the case they have to turn it into a boon and a notably appealing feature, rather than "that thing it can also do but is too expensive."
Basically, they should use their extensive library to kick out a LOT of titles at $5-10, and the most popular ones can sit at $15 (as it's still less expensive than new DVD's) and that would actually attract attention and help both the PSP and UMD itself out. I mean, do they want to take up a shelf next to the PSP and its games with UMD movies, or do they actually want some
retail space at Wal-Mart? Without building a compelling alternative format, they're not going to build interest in the format, in other hardware manufacturers licensing it, and they
certainly won't get retail space.
Seriously, they are not in a position to command premiums on this. Perhaps later when there are 10 million+ PSP's out there, they've established retail space and have plenty of exposure, they can play with ways to make "premium UMD movies" (since they can certainly enhance their features with the PSP's capabilities) and try to grab $20+ for those, and likely they can bring out all new features at $15 and wait 6 months to lower them into the $5-10 range (for more front-end profit), but UMD movies introduced at $20-30? That would be instantly labelled "schtick" and won't serve any of their designs well.
