PSP Why is there this difference between UMD cases?

[ThunderBoy]

Why do some UMDs have "UMD Universal Media Disc" printed on them and others don't?
Just a white circle?

Does it depend on the date?

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

The difference in UMD disc labeling where some have "UMD Universal Media Disc" printed on them and others just show a plain white circle, mostly comes down to publisher design choices and the timing of the release. Early UMDs, especially those launched around the time of the PSP’s debut in 2004, often featured the full branding prominently. As the format matured and eventually declined, many publishers opted for simpler, more cost-effective designs, sometimes omitting the logo entirely. There wasn’t a strict standard enforced by Sony, so the appearance of UMDs varied depending on the studio, region, and whether the disc was a game, movie, or budget reprint. While the presence or absence of the logo loosely correlates with the release date, it’s not a hard rule, just a reflection of shifting priorities and branding decisions over time.

 

[qw90700]

UMD wasn't know In the early stage of PSP and Sony have policy to make customers informed on proper information about stuff to make this "informing customers" thing a standard. That's why for example before saving a PlayStation game there is a standard text that developers have to put and many other stuff like proper and obvious indications that game saving with great exceptions. This is all part of the standard policy of Sony, so this UMD thing seems like it.

But then as you said after a later date people already learned what is UMD so they wouldn't mix it up as a DVD and even a PS2 disc or something. Another aspect is advertizing this UMD technology too to make society familiar with it. Naturally when people saw it for the first time they would wanna know "what's its name" but it already obviously says it's "UMD" and "Universal Multimedia Disc" which is itself a way to advertize the product to society and thus build a possible business agreement with other companies who may think UMD and related technology can be a good investment. But after society already learned what is UMD it would be smart to reduce cost and time of producing these games by not printing UMD label later on. Naturally companies start from "what we have to do to sell" and wanna optimize their operations by removing what is really not needed, which not even printing that UMD label significantly saves time and money. This is for example why Sony eventually release "same console with less features" versions to optimize their products for profit to reduce cost.

Another thing is Sony and how they used different type of discs to advertize each PlayStation product until PS4. PS1 was advertized as "it using CD-ROM disc yo", and PS2 as "it using DVD-ROM" yo, and PSP "UMD yo" and PS3 "Blu-ray yo" and so on. This can be thought of in the context of as how Sega used "our consoles have 16-bits to" Sony used the different disc technologies they used to advertise this technology and advertrize these products to have an edge. But it's also a way for a company to use their capability like it's part of their "CV". It's what Sony cared about by using what they really can do to make society reminde what Sony can do which is different than how Sega and Nintendo released consoles. After all Sony is a technology company, not just a video game company. So in this context even the "UMD" label was part of a "CV" as a pride of a company that after it got popular there was no further need to advertize it to reduce cost and time during manufacturing.

 

[Segadude113]

Why do some UMDs have "UMD Universal Media Disc" printed on them and others don't?
Just a white circle?

Does it depend on the date?

all of mine said UMD, most likely the blank ones are replacement cases. I had one used copy of the Genesis collection and it was cracked. I never fixed it, but i assume it happens a lot. The disc inside is always protected. You could probably take them out and put them in new cases.