Sony is ixnay on the UMD upgrade for PSPgo purchasers

[Queasy]

Kotaku has the sure to be disappointing and rage-causing story for existing PSP owners that Sony will not be offering UMD conversion/upgrades for PSPgo purchasers.

"We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time," a Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesman told Kotaku.

The $250 PSPgo has no UMD drive, instead relying fully on an Internet connection to purchase, download and install games onto the system's harddrive or removable memory.

 

[viivo]

I think Sony is just trying to beat the Ngage for the biggest failure of a handheld. I know they can do it.

edit: My thread now!

 

[fatpat268]

It's almost as-if sony wants this to fail.

The PSP Go is fine for someone who's never had a PSP before, but for those who would "upgrade,' why on earth would they get this when they have a UMD collection. Sony definitely botched this.

 

[Qbah]

I wonder if they couldn't create something that would check your UMD drive for a game when you're repurchasing it on the store? Push firmware updates every two weeks and require the newest one to connect to the Store so no hacks or homebrews allowed? You'd have to re-download the game anyway, but it would cost 0$ (or very little, like 0.99$?). Doesn't really sound that impossible...

Really looks like they're trying really hard to push the PSPGo into oblivion. Well, my PSP-3000 serves me well the rare occasion when I turn it on


EDIT: Strike that. Since the UMDs aren't unique this could be VERY easily abused. Seems the trade-in programme is the best option, if it ever launches...

 

[DaveSimmons]

"legal"? I don't think so.

I could see them needing to negotiate with third parties and even pay a fee per UMD or per title. If they needed to they could always offer a partial list of titles where they'd reached agreement. The fee could be passed on to the customer. You mail in some discs and payment, you get back some download codes.

"technical"? I don't think so.
Translation: we were too lazy to do any work at all to offer an upgrade path. Ha ha your games will become worthless, sucker.

Now give us our two hundred and forty-nine dollars!

 

[hans030390]

You forgot a very important part of what also went along with those articles (this quote is from Gizmodo):

"Sony is developing a sort of UMD trade-in program in which you'll be able to swap an old UMD for a digital copy of the same game."

They also said they're "not offering it at this time", but are looking into it. That doesn't mean it will never happen.

 

[R Nilla]

Originally posted by: hans030390
"Sony is developing a sort of UMD trade-in program in which you'll be able to swap an old UMD for a digital copy of the same game."

Seems like the logical solution to me. I don't know how you could do it any other way without avoiding the risk of piracy or abuse. Of course, people won't like this either because they'll have to surrender their physical copies.

 

[mugs]

Yeah it sounds like it's still possible that they might have some sort of exchange program, maybe a mail-in exchange. Though with the PSP Go launching soon, that's the sort of thing that they should have definite plans for by now.

 

[waggy]

if they don't do something for UMD no way in heck would i upgrade.