Love it or hate it, the PSP has had one of the strangest storage mediums for games seen in recent years. Physical storage will always be a popular choice with gamers hwoever, and when the PSP Go launched last year, with its download only format of games, consumers were understandably aggravated by the additional costs they would have to fork out for in order to download new games for the device.
With the PS Vita launching soon, Sony has finally jumped onto the contemporary bandwagon and ditched those bulky UMD discs for the more modern flash card format. Its still proprietary technology that’s owned by Sony, so don’t think you can stick a SD card in and jam some games.
Of course, this means that your massive library of favourite PSP games is going to gather dust, as the Vita has no optical disc format. But don’t start chucking those beloved games away just yet.
According to reports, Sony Entertainment development head Yoshio Matsumoto has been looking at ways to allow consumers to digitally back their catalogue of games onto the new PS Vita, through some sort of hardware transfer device, or through a special download service which will come at a “special price”.
For now, its unclear exactly how Sony will bring about such a service to the Vita, but the company is quite keen on allowing for backwards compatibility in some form for its next-gen handheld console.
One retailer at a Sony event reported that pamphlets were handed out, according to website Adriasang, advertising imminent news about the decision that Sony was going to take.
Chances are good that Sony will most likely offer a download service to owners of original games, but there’s going to be quite a bit of anger towards them if they decide to charge consumers extra for something that they’ve already bought.
Whether its a short-sighted gamble on Sony’s part, or a brilliant method to increase sales of the base PSP model before the Vita launches, remains to be seen.
Last Updated: October 11, 2011
