UMD Free PSP 2 is real

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 26 February 2009 03:05

Your IT - Entertainment

Perry seems to have thought this through, discussing the more far reaching ramifications of removing UMD from the PSP design.

The ultimate goal, he says, is for the Playstation Portabel to go 100 percent digital. Not only would that allow Sony to have a more direct connection with their customers and get a larger piece of the sales pie, it would essentially kill the used game sales market.

As a stop gap to keep retailers like GameStop interested in selling the Playstation Portable 2, which they make little to no money on, Perry thinks that Sony would at least initially sell games for the device on Memory Sticks, as they currently do with some movies, or with pre-paid cards.

As for backwards compatibility, it stands to reason, Perry says, that all current PSP titles would show up on Playstation's online store.

With the competing Nintendo DSi offering a digital download interface, and the iPod Touch/iPhone entering the portable gaming fray, Sony will need to stay ahead of the technology curve to offer consumers a slick sexy device as well as the content to back it up.

Add in Play TV and further integration with PlayStation 3 titles, and Sony have the potential, like Apple pretty much already do, to give the consumer a total Sony hardware and software home entertainment package. 

According to the Perry, the new PSP 2 could hit markets as early as this [northern] Autumn.

If this news, which is essentially still rumour, proves to transition from fiction to fact, Sony could well be on the right rails for a PSP revitalisation.