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Sony Working on 'Digital Games for UMDs' Program
Techtree News Staff, Jun 05, 2009 1340 hrs ISTUnder its Good-will Program
Existing Sony PlayStation Portable owners are anxious to buy freshly announced PSPgo handheld gaming console since Sony has dropped UMD support in it. What would happen to the UMDs that have been purchased worldwide? John Koller, director of hardware marketing, assured that 'a short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward'.
New PSPgo has 16GB internal flash memory and doesn't have any UMD drive for using those game discs. Potential PSPgo buyers who already own PSP (1000/2000/3000) consoles are worried about the UMD discs that have been purchased. Will those PSP owners be allowed to create digital copies of the game legally? Or will those UMDs be saved as souvenir?
Koller told 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 1000...In the past, we've seen a 20-25 percent 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 program-a short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward."
Koller further mentioned that users won't be ripping the UMDs and instead would be encouraged to sign up for their PlayStation Network's the digital distribution service. But what would happen to UMDs? Koller explained that the user experience would be similar to Portable Copy, the way Blu Ray movies are ripped from PS3 and converted to the PSP-friendly versions. Users can create portable copies for free and the distribution model is still in planning stages.
So, users may or may not be charged for converting their UMDs to Portable Copy which is free. But this program would be applicable based on "kind of games will be offered", which means not all PSP titles would be eligible for exchange or converting into digital game copy.
At this moment, one thing is sure that PSP owners will have to sign up to PlayStation Network for being eligible in 'good-will program'. Also, not all UMDs of PSP game titles would be converted to or exchanged for digital copies. Let's hope there isn't any extra charge for UMD exchange or conversion.
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New PSPgo has 16GB internal flash memory and doesn't have any UMD drive for using those game discs. Potential PSPgo buyers who already own PSP (1000/2000/3000) consoles are worried about the UMD discs that have been purchased. Will those PSP owners be allowed to create digital copies of the game legally? Or will those UMDs be saved as souvenir?
Koller told 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 1000...In the past, we've seen a 20-25 percent 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 program-a short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward."
Koller further mentioned that users won't be ripping the UMDs and instead would be encouraged to sign up for their PlayStation Network's the digital distribution service. But what would happen to UMDs? Koller explained that the user experience would be similar to Portable Copy, the way Blu Ray movies are ripped from PS3 and converted to the PSP-friendly versions. Users can create portable copies for free and the distribution model is still in planning stages.
So, users may or may not be charged for converting their UMDs to Portable Copy which is free. But this program would be applicable based on "kind of games will be offered", which means not all PSP titles would be eligible for exchange or converting into digital game copy.
At this moment, one thing is sure that PSP owners will have to sign up to PlayStation Network for being eligible in 'good-will program'. Also, not all UMDs of PSP game titles would be converted to or exchanged for digital copies. Let's hope there isn't any extra charge for UMD exchange or conversion.
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aung ye naing
,mandalay, on Jun 11, 2009 10:07 AM
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