“What the hell is a UMD?” you might be asking yourself. “Is it a power converter? A TV network? A new type of birth control?” No, no and no. It stands for Universal Media Disc, and it’s the eensy-weensy digital disc format developed by Sony for use on its mega-hot video game system of the moment, the also eensy-weensy Playstation Portable (PSP). And as it does with any new system of delivery, the porn world is lining up to appropriate it.
The UMD is about the size of a silver dollar and is used as a storage medium for music, movies and games. Mainstream movie studios have leapt onto the UMD bandwagon, releasing catalog titles as rapidly as possible for the format, and putting out new titles on it simultaneously with the DVD release.
So what does this mean for adult, other than nakedness the size of two postage stamps? Well, first and foremost, it means a previously unmatched portability and discretion. But there are, of course, hurdles. The first of which is that UMD is proprietary to and can only be replicated by Sony, a company not exactly chomping at the bit to proliferate pornography.
However, Bouncy Pictures, for one adult firm, has made it past the Sony gatekeepers, having released Virtual Lap Dances on UMD Dec. 15. According to Bouncy President Ty Endicott, the company’s success to that end has a lot to do with its clean image.
“We have been in talks with Sony for probably a solid month or two,” Endicott told AVN.com. “A lot of it has to do with Bouncy. It’s a really clean company. If you look at our box design, a lot of our covers have girls wearing clothes. We’re a very tech-forward company, and a virtual, interactive company. I think it’s a really good mix. Our titles are already interactive, usually, and that works really well on these devices.”
Endicott said that in order to receive approval from Sony for Virtual Lap Dances, the title had to be labeled as “mature rated,” which debatably reflects its hardcore content.
“You can see explicit nudity, and the girls do hardcore,” Endicott explained. “The girls strip our of their clothes and tease you, and they take the dick out and put it inside and ride it cowgirl, but you don’t see penetration, and there is no cumshot. Keeping it [with no penetration] has huge ramifications for distribution levels. It gives us a broader range.”
Interestingly, that range is being sub-segmented in the case of Virtual Lap Dances, which is being released only on UMD, so as not to compete with a similar DVD, said Endicott.
“That makes it more special. It’s a high retail item. It may be the most expensive wholesale title ever.”
Endicott noted that UMDs contain a parental control lock that allows adults to encode them to “Parental Level 10,” which prevents them from being played without a four-digit access code. Endicott added that a few adult-themed UMDs have been released in Japan, but that in those cases, close-up shots of genitalia are pixelated.
And therein lies the second big hurdle for adult on UMD: Given the nature of the format — one made exclusively for playing on a video game system — adult companies that wish to release content on the discs face a major challenge in assuring child protection groups that they aren’t targeting minors.
Vivid Entertainment Group CEO Steven Hirsch was quoted in a November Washington Post article on the subject as saying that, ultimately, this shouldn’t hamper the emergence of adult material on the format.
“I don’t think the carriers [Sony, in this case] see themselves as censors,” Hirsch said. “I think they see themselves as content providers. I don’t see why they’d be opposed to it.”
Still, UMD porn faces major competition in the form of that being made for the explosively popular Apple iPod (“Pod Porn,” as they’re calling it), and the question remains as to whether people even want to watch porn on such a tiny screen at all.
In the same Post article, former Library of Congress curator Ralph Whittington (who the article said was known as “the king of porn” for his carefully catalogued collection of adult magazines, videos and DVDs) was quoted as saying, “I can’t see anybody wanting to watch while they’re sitting at the airport. I just don’t see how it’s going to be all that popular.”
Ty Endicott and other adult producers may beg to differ. But only time, as they say, will tell.
