UMD price drop leads to sales jump in Japan
While the news probably doesn't come as any surprise to you, it has
apparently taken the execs behind the UMD movie scene quite some time
to pinpoint price as the primary culprit of the lagging sales. The
higher-ups at Warner Home Video reported that its UMD films
weren't selling well awhile back -- presumably to no one's surprise but their own -- and even Wal-Mart has been teetering on
dropping the slow-selling discs
from its precious shelf space. In a less-than-revolutionary
announcement, it seems implementing a "permanent sale" on UMD movies in
Japan has increased sales nearly tenfold; pricing 22 (and counting)
titles at ¥980 (about $8.46) has prompted PSP owners to snatch these up
in unprecedented quantities, which is somewhat telling of where these
things should've been priced at from the start. While we aren't exactly
sure if this indefinite sale will make the jump to US shores, this
"discovery" is a rare step forward for the flailing format, and we can
only hope this reduction becomes the norm on all UMD flicks.
Darren Murph
September 7, 2006
Source:
engadget