Buena Vista Home Ent. has announced it will release eight additional UMD titles on June 21, 2005, including two day-and-date with the standard DVD release. UMD is the mini-DVD format that plays on Sonys new PSP. The releases include KING ARTHUR: THE DIRECTORS CUT, TRON, KILL BILL: VOL. 2, GONE IN 60 SECONDS: UNRATED DIRECTORS CUT, ARMAGEDDON, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, HOSTAGE and CURSED. The later two titles are the day-and-date releases.
BVHE exec director new business development Dan Silverberg plans to release multiple titles on the UMD format including SIN CITY and THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
"These make sense for what the user base is now," Silverberg said. "We're cognizant of who it is that buys that first million PSPs, and a lot of it is down to lifestyle. We think at this point, it is 18-34 males, people who spend a lot of their income on entertainment."
Silverberg added, "Our strategy is absolutely to put bonus features on this disc as much as possible. If the category got to the point, it would be great to add interactivity features, too. We can't invest that kind of development right now, but that could happen, and it's something the PSP can do."
UMDs have a capacity of up to 1.8 GB of digital data whereas DVDs have 9.7 GB.
The PSP unit features a 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD that displays full color (16.77 million colors) on a 480x272-pixel high-resolution screen with stereo sound.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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