GameTavern - IGN gets excited over playing MP3's

Waa waa waa...people are pointing out that the UMD format won't get a lot of support...damnit, they are so tiresome! We need enthusiasm! ENTHUSIASM!!!

Look, guys, if you enjoy it and want it, I'm not going to stop you. I'm not so self-centered that I want people to actually have a bad time and waste their money. But if you expect me to just not notice that Sony is trying to shovel a new format down our throats when a perfectly workable and widely accepted alternative already exists, you've got another thing coming.

Anyway, I could point out here that subtitles will get tiresome to read on the PSP's small screen which also incidentally has a lower resolution than a TV. But hey, maybe you'll like it. I could also point out that the prospect of seeing Ace Ventura several years after it's gone by and faded into pop culture history doesn't exactly light my viscera on fire. I guess that leaves The Bourne Supremacy which is a decent movie (if perhaps a little too shaky with the camera). Will it cause PSP movie playback functionality to skyrocket in popularity? Only time will tell, but I'm guessing not.

Now I exaggerated a little bit when I said that Advent Children will be the only movie released on UMD. I have no doubt that a few movies will come out on UMD initially. But it will also peter ou. Why should any production company put their movies on UMD format, which will reach an audience of maybe 5 million people within the next two or three years, when they can just put it out on DVD and reach hundreds of millions of people with DVD players? Yeah, the PSP is portable, but people don't watch full length movies on the go all that much. Those who do have portable DVD players of some sort (maybe in their laptops). Either that or they rent the DVD player (I've been saying rental stations at airports a lot lately). If you know anything at all about the electronics and media business, you know that UMD is just going to be a speed bump for DVD to roll over.

Now if you want to talk about the PSP games, I'm all for it. As Perfect Stu points out, that's what it was made to do. And if you want to talk about how you're excited about this or that new function, go right ahead. It's your opinion. I don't begrudge it. But in my opinion, PSP's multimedia functions suck. And I have no doubt that within five years, if the PSP makes it that far, people will just be talking about its games and nobody will care about its movie or mp3 playback. Kind of like nobody cares about GBA connectivity for the GameCube.

And hey, if you're tired of posts like these...well, don't read them.