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Sony will offer a program in Japan making it possible for PS Vita owners to purchase reduced price digital versions of their UMD PSP games for use on Vita, but this service will not be made available in the US and Europe.
Speaking to Wired, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida explained why the service will be limited to Japan only.
“The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games,” he explained.
“When you look at the release schedule of new titles there are still lots of PSP games being released in Japan and being announced for release. Lots of people who are interested in trying Vita are also interested in playing PSP games that they might purchase before Vita comes out, and will not necessarily choose the digital version. So there is a lot more demand… to introduce a program like that.”
In addition, Yoshida was keen to stress that the UMD transfer program won’t give PS Vita gamers the digital versions for free, but will be asked to pay between $5 and $10 for each game, a price not dissimilar to regular PS Store pricing for PSP titles in Europe and the US.
“The other point is that when you look at PSP titles sold digitally in the States or Europe, games are sold for a really reasonable price. You can buy Final Fantasy Tactics for $10. That’s a great price,” he said.
“There are many, many games that are sold at an affordable price. Because people in Japan are not getting the digital copy for free, because it costs us money to develop and maintain the system so we are asking people to pay somewhere between $5 and $10 to receive the digital copy in addition to what they have on the UMD.
“When you compare that to the price of games here, PSP games in Japan are sold at a much higher price, so people see the value in spending the $5 to $10 to get the digital copy. But when the games are already sold at a lower price in the US we see less value in introducing that kind of system.”
PS Vita is out now and can be yours for as little as £210 with a free 8GB memory card from Amazon.co.uk. Add a game for only £15.
