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No UMD Conversion Plan For PSPgo “At This Time”

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

September 25, 2009

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Sony Computer Entertainment America has cited legal and technical issues as barriers to the introduction of a UMD conversion plan that would allow PSPgo buyers to trade in disc-based games for digital versions.

"We were evaluating a UMD conversion programme, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the programme at this time," an SCEA spokesperson told Kotaku.

The upcoming PSPgo doesn’t have a UMD drive, meaning owners of existing models that support disc-based games won’t be able to play their old titles on the new handheld.

While SCEE has moved to announce a European reward scheme enabling PSP owners upgrading to the new model to download three free titles, SCEA isn't currently planning on rolling out the promotion in the US, according to IGN.

mentor07825's picture
On September 26th mentor07825 said:

Initiate major facepalm now!

*Initiates major facepalm*

....
...
..

*WHACK*

Ow!

Mystakill's picture
On September 25th Mystakill said:

Let's review, shall we?

  • Higher price: check
  • No UMD drive, thereby invalidating all previous UMD purchases: check
  • Still no second stick, when there's plenty of space wasted on huge start/select buttons which could be moved up in that vast expanse of empty plastic just above: check
  • Smaller screen: check

So, exactly which consumers and retailers were clamoring for this particular piece of garbage? Multiple heads should roll at Sony over this upcoming fiasco. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Sony pulled the even more bonehead move of pulling the PSP-3000 in an attempt to increase PSPgo sales; that would be the final nail in the PSP's coffin.

I don't buy the "technical issues" claim. Ripped UMDs have been running off of memory sticks for quite some time with hacked firmware. Sony could easily replicate this, while adding the obligatory DRM checks.

Legal issues should be covered by their royalty program, which all of the publishers have to funnel their content through before it can be commercially released. Publishers would be stupid to contest this, as it means happy current (and, thereby, potential future) customers.

Top_Dollar's picture
On September 28th Top_Dollar said:


Still no second stick

You do know that you can play all the PSP games via Dual Shock 3 via bluetooth as it supports SIXAXIS.

Mystakill's picture
On October 2nd Mystakill said:

That sounds pretty uncomfortable. How do you hold the PSP while you're holding the DS3 & how far away is that tiny little screen going to get in the process?

My dual-stick complaint still stands; they had the room for it and chose not to add it after years of clamoring by both consumers and developers. The start & select buttons could easily have been made smaller and moved up in the center of that big area of wasted space, thereby freeing up plenty of room for the second stick.

edshot's picture
On September 28th edshot said:

Nice, I don't have a PSP so I didn't know that. However, I thought the point of the PSP is that it's portable. Surely lugging around a sixaxis controller defeats the object, somewhat.

Barla Von's picture
On September 25th Barla Von said:


"We were evaluating a UMD conversion programme, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the programme at this time,"

Can't? Bollocks to can't.

What is it with Sony? All they need to do is release an external UMD drive that connects to the PSPGO. Plus it would be cheap as tinned beans to produce.

Fuck me...it's not rocket science.