Handheld Movies = DVD-style pricing

By Guy Cocker on 13 July 2005, 12:12pm

While Sony PSP games look set to be about £5 more expensive in the UK than in the US and Japan, movies are the complete opposite. In Japan, film fans have to stump up around ¥3,700 (around £20) per disc, whereas Internet distributor Play.com has added a hefty selection of titles for £9.99. The newest titles, including Robots and Hitch, cost £14.99, although the RRP is £19.99 -- quite a wedge for a disc that's devoid of extra features.

The irony is that the website has listed the DVD versions of most films on the same page as the UMD, and quite often they are much cheaper -- who would pay £14.99 for Dodgeball when the extras-packed DVD version is £5.99? Having said that, we've been pleased with the quality of movies on the PSP -- our Canadian model came bundled with Spider-Man 2 and Sony did an excellent encoding job. With titles such as Desperately Sexy Housewives available, however, we're not sure if picture quality will be the first priority for some people.

Sony's PSP will go on sale on 1 September for £179.99, and you can see our video review here. The first UK buyers will get the UMD version of Spider-Man 2 when they register the console. -GC