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Sony America scraps UMD-to-PSP Go conversion plans
Sony director of hardware marketing John Koller mentioned shortly after the E3 "reveal" of the PSP Go that the company was considering a "good will program," which would allow UMD owners to trade in their physical games for digital versions. However, yesterday at the Tokyo Game Show, an SCEA spokesperson told Kotaku, "We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time."
That's quite a blow to the base of American PSP owners with large libraries of UMD titles looking to upgrade to a PSP Go -- a blow significantly worsened by the European "PSP Go Rewards" initiative, which grants three free games to PSP Go purchasers who register for the promotion using an older PSP model. This same promotion will not be coming to the US. "SCEA region will not offer a UMD rewards program at this time," due to the fact that the company has a "dual-platform strategy," an SCEA spokesperson has explained to IndustryGamers.
Ironically enough, we have a "we'd rather not purchase our PSP games again to play them on a new version of your handheld" strategy going for us. It's working out pretty well so far.
