E3 09: Sony is trying to make UMDs work with PSP Go @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on June 05, 2009

News: We don't know all the details, but some PSP-to-digital copy service is in the planning stages.

While Sony hopes that the announcement of the PSP Go, a new version of the PSP will a sliding screen, smaller form factor and no UMD drive, will make the PSP userbase grow, they're also not forgetting that a lot of people who already own a ton of PSP games on UMD will buy one. And don't worry, they are working on a solution to make those UMD games work with the UMD-less PSP Go.

John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony, talked about Sony's solution with Gizmodo:

"We're in the midst of putting together a good will program. We'll be unveiling that soon [because] we actually think there's a significant group that will be upgrading from the [PSP] 1000... In the past, we've seen a 20-25% trade-up factor, and I assume that's going to be the case here. We've modeled that. So we're looking at a good-will programЧa short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward."

The Gizmodo article goes on to say that Sony has no plans to create any kind of UMD ripping device and that the UMD-to-PSP Go transfer will probably work similar to the planned Blu-ray-to-PSP "Portable Copy" plan.

Finally, Koller said "We're looking at what kind of games will be offered." So it seems likely that this service will not apply to every PSP game. While that's understandable, it's ridiculous that someone may not be able to play their favorite PSP game on Sony's latest revision of the hardware because their favorite is not popular enough.

We'll have more soon.