Sony To Release Hybrid Movie/Game UMD

With the sale of UMD movies for Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld continuing to swell, Sony has announced a first-ever hybrid movie/game demo release on UMD, in the form of summer movie Stealth alongside the mini-game WipEout Pure: Stealth Edition, for a $39.95 recommended price point. Realizing, perhaps, that the UMD version of summer Sony Pictures box-office disappointment Stealth is unlikely to prove a blockbuster on its own, Sony will include a truncated version of the popular WipEout Pure futuristic racer alongside the film, which launches on UMD and DVD on November 15th. More expansive than the single-level Wipeout Pure demo included with other SCEE launch titles on European PSP release, the Stealth Edition will include three playable tracks from the original game, and a fourth exclusive to the Stealth UMD, with the planes from the movie exclusively playable in the game. However, a version of the UMD minus the WipEout Pure: Stealth Edition will retail for a $29.95 RRP, giving consumers a choice. This is not the first such mixture of games and other media that Sony has attempted, with the release of P.O.D.'s "Payable Upon Death” music album on CD containing a second PlayStation 2-compatible disc entitled 'Space'. This bonus disc also included an exclusive game demo, this time of music title Amplitude, utilizing a previously unavailable in-game music track from P.O.D.