Sony Abandons UMD Transfer Program For PSP Go

74 Comments Posted September 25, 2009 - By Jake Gaskill

PSP Firmware 6.0 Coming Soon, Not A Major Update

It’s been a long time coming, but Sony has finally revealed its plans for allowing PSP owners to digitally transfer their UMD games onto to their new PSP Go’s. And the plans are thus: there are no plans to support such a service.

Sony 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.” Considering that Sony has been rather tight lipped about this whole thing for a while now, this latest news doesn’t come as that big of a shock. Although, I would imagine that quite a few PSP owners will have some strong words for Sony on this one.

In the hopes of quelling potential frustrations, Sony has also announced that it will be offering PSP owners in the UK looking to upgrade to a PSP Go three free digitally transferred games of their choice.

As Eurogamer reports, PSP owners can sign on to the PlayStation Network and will be eligible to receive a voucher via email that will be good for any three of the following games:

Like I said, this deal is currently only planned for the UK, but it seems unlikely that it won't land stateside in the near future.

What do you think of Sony abandoning its plans for a UMD transfer service? Will that influence your decision to purchase a PSP Go? Do three free games make up for not (eventually) being able to covert your current PSP library onto your PSP Go?

Source. Source.

Tags: PlayStation Portable, Videogames

Comments

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EvanFavreau

Big mistake.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:20 AM | Reply | Report

+33 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
Shockwave562

I can understand how in legal ways this is out of Sony's hands but at the same time this will further hurt the PSP go, which is expensive to boot.

Will UMDs of new games still be available for previous owners or is everyone forced to switch to DD?

doesn't sound like there is any incentive for a current user to upgrade

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Report

+7 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
jamesarc

Sounds like they should just abandon the psp go

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Report

+14 thumbs up thumbs down

2 Replies
Zero_Slayer01

Fail. just epic fail. Pretty stupid in my opinion. :/

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Report

+9 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
ChrisTilton

It's pretty unacceptable that Sony thought they could launch a Digital Download only device, but not have any way of transferring the current library of games to the digital system. There's also the fact that the PSP go is cheaper and smaller, yet its price to consumers is almost the cost of a PS3, and more than an XBox 360. Ridiculous.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Report

+28 thumbs up thumbs down

4 Replies
GStylez80

For the first time, I can honestly say that Sony really let me down. The only thing standing in my way from upgrading from a PSP-1000 to a PSPgo was them not having announced a transfer service for the UMDs. Sorry, Sony...you've just lost a potential customer...

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Report

+16 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
ZyloWolfBane

Good luck selling that waste of hardware then, thats all I can say.

Theres ZERO incentive for people to buy this system when a PSP 3000 and a large memory card is MUCH cheaper.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Report

+3 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
tokz_21

This is pretty lame Sony! This is why i don't have a PSP to begin with.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply | Report

0 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
Kouper

There's absolutely no reason for me to buy the go then. Im not worried about the price, but if I have to repurchase all the PSP games I've purchased thus far.... it suddenly gets stupid expensive. Especially for something thats not even an actual upgrade to the 3000.....

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply | Report

+3 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
LarcenousLaugh

Yeah that is a system built to fail. It won't right away, not unless there is a tremendous outcry from the very beginning from everyone, but there is no way that the system is out longer then a month before they get that figured out. I understand system upgrades, but when you are talking about a sidegrade at best, that is just out of the question.

One of the few times I will say this, but WTF Sony? WTFBBQLAMESAUCE?

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:44 AM | Reply | Report

0 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
mikemill

This is somewhat disappointing. I definately still plan on upgrading to the PSP Go however, because I really want to take my PSP around without having to take UMD's with me.

Realistically I only have 2 or 3 of my old UMD's that I would have put on my new Go's hard drive so it's not that big of a deal for me personally. A little disappointing but certainly not a deal breaker.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:44 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
JohnnyBuku

So are new games going to come UMD and DD both, or are we going to see the new stuff all in DD?

Don't really care since i don't own or plan to own a psp, but just curious...

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:45 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
brujula17

Sony should have figured this out before comming up with a new form factor for the PSP!

Sony's Dev. Team: Legal, can we come up with a transfer system for UMD's to a digital only devide?

Sony's Legal Dept.: Um, let us check.

**Two dasy later**

Sony's Legal Dept.: Nope! That's a negative on changing media for software already purchased by customers.

Sony' Dev. Team: OK, thanks! Let's scratch this idea and wait for PSP 2 and make THAT one digital only and not backwards compatible.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:47 AM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

2 Replies
Bruce_Lee2099

another big loss for SONY, what else is new. lol

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Report

-5 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
Greibach

F--- them. I love sony, and their products, but to release a new version of the same system, and not have any facility to use your current products is completely retarded bull----. It would be like the PS3 slim not being able to play PS3 fat games.... This is really pretty sad and stupid; "Legal reasons"? BS again. There is no excuse for this.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Report

+4 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
__Monkey__ Show Hide(1 Reply)

__Monkey__'s comment is abusive and has been removed.

Posted: September 25, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Report

-22 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
ash1300

That's great news.

I was debating whether or not to buy the PSP Go, but now Sony has made the decision easy AND saved me some money.

Posted: September 25, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Report

+11 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
creelnib

I dont use my PSP as is but this is LAME! The DS is just far and away the best mobile gaming device out there and sony will be lucky to break even with all this nonsense

Posted: September 25, 2009 11:10 AM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
Khronicol

Someone else said it best: "PSPGo will be the Atari Jaguar of the Portable gaming industry"
If it wasn't true before this puts the last nail in the coffin.
Asking for something from Sony is like wishing for something from the Devil.
There's always some evil twist they put on it that makes it totally useless.
We ask to be able to transfer our games from UMD to memory so we don't need to carry UMDs, and Sony gives a gimmick BS "all digital hand held" and says that's what we asked for.
We ask for a more comfortable hand held and they make a smaller version of what we already have and put a slide on it and say Ooh. Aahh look at our pretty new system.
We ask for Dual Analog and we get ... ... ... ... ... ...
Quite bluntly touchscreen is quickly becoming a standard on hand helds and mobile phones but it seems Sony didn't even consider this as a reasonable interface on PSP.
Now that they are giving us this new smaller version, (that is no longer compatible with the media) they wont let you transfer your old games, tell us it's some proprietary licensing reason and then give you 3 free garbage older games you can get at EB on UMD for under $20.
That is supposed to get me - a loyal Sony customer to spend $250 on a new system. No thanks!
And on top of all that the only way to get your 3 free DL's is to keep your current PSP, screwing over everyone who wanted to trade up by trading in their old PSP, and it's got a new memory format, so the $40ish mem stick duo may now be an $80 M2 of the same size.
If they want me to spend my money give me something worth it, don't just polish a turd and say its shiny and new.
IMO Sony should take the Dualshock3 controller and put a screen on it, right where the Wireless keyboard sits now. Then make it spin, flip, slide, tilt, whatever Sony would need to do to make it work, look pretty and full of gimmicks as Sony seems to love these 2 points more than listening to their fanbase.
Then it would basically a PS3 controller with a screen that plays PSP format software on the go.
The potential for cross platform play would be astronomical, and make Resistance connect look like a dinosaur. (Not that it was any good in the first place.) That kind of hand held, dare I say, I would be willing to spend upwards of $300-400 on.
In a sentence, "Sony scrap the PSPgo and step up to the PSP2, give us something we want."
There's my rant thanks for reading!

Posted: September 25, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Report

+10 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
PRoPAiN

I'd bet they're doing this for the same reason they didn't put in backward compatibility in the PS3 Slim: to make you re-purchase the games you already have on disc as downloads. The only way they make money off the hardware is with NEW software sales. Sony's always had great hardware, but they're not so smart when it come to customer relations...

Posted: September 25, 2009 11:12 AM | Reply | Report

+8 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply