I haven’t bought any new games since the Sony PSP came out but did finally buy my first UMD: Starship Troopers. The price was right ($14.99), which is about the max price I’d want to pay for these DVD-wannabes, but that sleek PSP screen is ripe for viewing movies.

Apparently, I’m not the only PSP owner who has been seduced by UMD movies:

Sony’s half-dollar-sized Universal Media Disc, which can be used to play movies on the company’s PlayStation Portable. To the surprise of tech pundits everywhere, UMD movies have been selling splendidly since the first discs came out in April—American consumers have purchased more than 500,000 so far, according to one industry estimate. The DVD, by comparison, took a full year to ship half a million units in the United States after its 1997 debut.

1/2 million UMDs? In some respects I’m not surprised because these UMDs have collector’s item written all over them (not literally). For collector’s they might be a short lived phenomenon so I wonder how many of these early UMD purchases are for those folks who are thinking of selling them at a premium on eBay someday? Whatever the case, we’ll continue to see many more UMDs and perhaps even more back titles. Got my eye on Tron when the price dips beneath the current $20 USD price tag.