Sony has confirmed that the new PSP Go will not feature UMD conversion, despite a company executive indicating that it was a priority earlier this year. With no way of transferring your UMD games to a PSP Go, existing PSP owners are out of luck if they plan on buying the download-only PSP Go, which does not feature a UMD drive.
There is one caveat, at least in Europe. If you own even a single UMD game for the PSP, Sony will exchange it for three free downloads. Which leads to another caveat: you are limited to a selection of 17 titles (all of them Sony properties), including LocoRoco, Killzone: Liberation, and WipeOut Pure, among others. This certainly won’t satisfy users with large existing library of games looking to buy the Go.
American gamers are getting the shaft altogether. Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed to GameSpot today that it does not plan on offering the PSP Go Rewards program, as it is being called, in the United States. “SCEA will not offer a UMD rewards program at this time,” a representative for Sony said. The PSP Go is launching on October 1, 2009 at a price of $250.
