Sony To Not Have North American Version of UMD Passport Program
A new report claims that Sony will not be bringing the UMD Passport Program — which allows owners of UMD PSP games to download their old games for a discounted price — to North America.
Kotaku reports that Sony has told them that there will be no North American version of the program. The report does note that Vita owners will still be able to access any PSP games that they had purchased via PSN.
Andriasang had reported that the UMD Passport Program — which is available in Japan — had support for around 200 titles from 40 companies, according to Sony. A list of 40 titles supported by the program had been available, which ranged in price from 500 yen (currently somewhere around $6.50 USD) to 1500 yen (around $19.50 USD). Players had to download UMD Registration Applications and register their UMD discs on the PSN so that digital versions of the game would be available for download on their PlayStation Vitas.
What do you think about the UMD Passport Program not coming to North America? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
22 Responses to “Sony To Not Have North American Version of UMD Passport Program”
I’m going to write a book about Sony’s handling of the PS Vita called “Foot, Meet Bullet.”
When your done, can I read it?
Shafted.
I would like to say I am sorely disappointed, but the UMD games I wanted to keep the most are DJ Max games, and I doubted they would have been included in the passport program, so I was going to keep my PSP anyway.
The PSP isn’t as popular is North America as in Japan, so this is kind of sensible.
How is it sensible? It would be easy to include and they piss off a group of people– however small – by not doing it. Just because PSP games don’t sell as well NOW doesn’t mean no one ever bought PSP games and no one has any. RPG fans in particular seem to have plenty.
I mean look at your own post “Meh, it probably wouldn’t have been included anyway.” Yeah. Both are cases of half-assed service. This sit-back-and-take-it mentality of consumers is ruining gaming, dude =/
If you have umd games then you would have a psp that plays them? I mean your buying a vita to play vita games not psp games even though vita plays psp digital games. So yeah vita does psp games just not umds also they never said this program would come here. So yeah, keep your psp to play your umd games ?
That’s what *I* plan to do (I have 3 PSPs and like the PSP way more than the Vita), I just like options. It seems strange for it to be available in one place but not the other.
The exception for this house, my wife and I want to play, tactical RPGs like Valkyria Chronicles 2 against each other and were counting on being able to do so with 1 UMD and the UMD passport program, but indeed we’ll have to buy a second disc for that to be possible, which we won’t be doing.
In business, little things like this add up. It’s frustrating to see the options and possibilities snipped away one by one. I know, I know, asking the mainstream to “understand someone else’s lifestyle” is a tall order, but the fact is certain people want certain things. Cutting options makes no business sense.
Did they ever plan on bringing it here? For it to be cut it would have to have been planed on coming here. I don’t think it was ever coming here. I can understand why youd want them but it’s not happening just imo though.
How many good psp games are for download anyways? The only people who should be upset are pspGo owners, not only do they get less than half the psp game library with no discount, they have no alternative format to choose from.
People are getting upset by this, thats rediculous. I dont see anyone upset about not being able to register ps1 games and get a discount for those. Wheres all the rage about nintendo selling old games on wiiware but not having a registration/discount service? Of course since this is sony its going to be blown way out of proportion.
“I dont see anyone upset about not being able to register ps1 games and get a discount for those”
^ Those weren’t originally portables and never was there *already a program in place for them to do so. There was never a a program in place for them to do so. Never did Sony say “And now you can download PS1 games that you already own at a DISCOUNT,” and then turn around for another region and say “Actually no, YOU guys can’t.”
“Wheres all the rage about nintendo selling old games on wiiware but not having a registration/discount service?”
^ Not comparable at all.
Never did Nintendo say “And you get a discount if you already own it” only to say to another region “No discount,” even though we have the model and interface in place for it.
Never did they say this program was ever coming to the states it was only announced for Japan and people assumed it would come here too with no word from Sony.
Ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, there are other circumstances surrounding the now fact it’s not happening here? You know, things like licensing issues? Which is typically the case in instances like this one. I can understand your anger, i can’t do it either. But, oh well. I still have my psp for those games i can’t transfer to my psv.
You cant compare the japanese region to the american one either, as the prices there are way higher then the west. If they did do a discount it would have been much less then what japan got, that too would have caused an uproar. To say japan got something americans didnt shouldnt surprise people by now. Think about the legal issues they had just getting Final Fantasy 7-9 on the american ps store, now imagine them trying to talk with publishers to work out a deal like this.
America doesnt get all the deals japan does, japan doesnt get all the deals america does.
Did sony promise we are guaranteed to get a discount if we own the physical copy? I think that would be misleading and fall under some form of lawsuit. Im pretty sure like with the Go, they only said they would look into it.
I’m not saying there can’t be other circumstances around it; if there are, it’d be interesting to know what they are, though.
Never did I say I was angry. I’m disappointed and proxy frustrated, but that’s different than anger
I also didn’t claim that Sony told North America is was coming. I said they told a group that it was, and it is. It just seems silly to not do it or something similar.
Not that big of a deal. I never had a PSP (hated single analog), so i am not affected in the least bit here. You had to re-buy the games anyway, albeit- at a discount but still, screw that! Biggest issue though, God of War games are like 9gig to download for PSP- that’s insane! That means i have to buy a minimum 16gig Vita card just to play it on Vita!
This didn’t surprise me. I’m just glad that I am keeping my 3000 and the few titles that I’ve kept over the years without giving them away or trading them in towards a different title. A friend called me earlier because he was, much more, curious about this than me.
For the library of downloadable games from the SEN (Sony Entertainment Network), I’m not certain how many are available to download, I’m only really interested in downloading Monster Hunter Freedom Unite so that I can re-map the camera to the right analog stick and possibly re-map traps and such to the touchscreen. I think that’s a pretty sweet thing.
In the end it doesn’t matter what we think at all in the hands of any developers (hardware and software, both) and that’s not going to change any time soon.
Here we go again.
First, Sony bring or talk about a new feature. People get hyped and proudly stand behind it. The second thing you know, Sony remove the said feature and people still stand behind Sony with the classic argument “Whatever, I didn’t need or used it anyway”. This is pure and simple bullshit.
Reminds me of:
- No PSP Go UMDs;
- No more sharing of a PSN account with friends up to 5 PS3;
- No more Other OS on Fat;
- No more firmware updates with free and usefull new features (except for PS+);
“Alienate”, Verb, Cause (someone) to become unsympathetic or hostile: “Sony alienate me”.
Being awfully selective on that memorizing right there. If you’d like i can dismiss everything you just grumbled about.
“Grumble grumble”
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/fangface2/zelda_grumble_grumble_food.png
Someone looks hungry
Let’s do that shit!
So you’re telling me I was right when I adopted the PSPgo rather than the original PSP format when I joined the party right…I mean, I know a lot of you still think the system itself isn’t as good…but for all those that told me I made the wrong choice before this my time to rub it in your face! I get to keep my entire library while being able to trade in my PSPgo!
Well, now that I had my fun this really does stink for those adopters of UMD drive PSPs. I chose the “go” for no other reason than the ultimate portability of not needing to carry around UMDs ever. I was essentially just lucky that it worked out this way because they could have just as easily went the PS3 to PS2 route and made Vita users have to buy all of the PSP games all over again. The craziest thing about this for me is that Sony would have made more money by re-selling downloaded copies, even at discounted prices, of older games anyway, so why not do it??
I feel like they would have made more money with the passport system than asking original PSP adopters to buy every game at full price. Rather than re-buying all of your games I would assume most of you will now just keep your PSP since it would cost way more than you could get for your PSP on trade.
That’s my plan, Stan. XD
I wanted to get a go model, but everywhere I went to buy one was sold out of the white models. I did not want a black one. Then I was given a huge discount on a brand new 3000 model, came with the silly camera and invisamals for around $90 usd, and the cloudy with a chance of meatballs umd. Got a couple 4gig cards and a couple more umd games, then went digital. Just happy I did not buy 3rd birthday on umd.