Sony announces UMD to Digital License Transfer for PS Vita

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Well, it's certainly nothing to celebrate. It's not like consumers demanded that the Vita not come with a UMD drive. They are already charging $250 or more for the thing and requiring that you buy a proprietary and expensive memory card and this is just another means of gouging us.

There are not massive legal or financial complexities standing in the way of making this happen. If Sony was serious about doing something for their loyal customers, they could simply have established a registration program before the PSP Go was released where you registered your games on-line or via postcard and then you are entitled to download the digital version either free or for a very nominal amount (a buck or two to cover bandwidth/server space to get you the digital version). Many other media companies bundle digital and physical media all the time including vinyl albums that come with a free digital download of the full album, DVD/Blu Ray/Digital bundles, etc...It's simply a matter of getting those rights from the developer and publisher which is done every single day.

Instead, they are viewing this as another opportunity to charge almost full price for the same thing we already paid full price to purchase once before. The point is, this is of zero benefit to consumers and it really is just another example of an old line company holding on to outdated ways of doing business just like they did as the music industry collapsed. It's sad, but as much as I hate to admit it, we may actually be nearing the end of the console and dedicated handheld business if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft keep focusing on the same outdated gimmicks to squeeze every penny from consumers. Apple, Google and other more nimble competitors will continue swooping in and literally drive them from the market.

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

This was simply not ever going to happen free-of-charge through some kind of "honor system". Sony can't tell all of the developers and publishers that made games for PSP that they're going to be giving away free digital copies of their games to anybody who claims to be an owner because there's simply no way for anybody to "prove" ownership of anything. Even if it required plugging your PSP into the computer and going through the same steps involved with this - the software has no unique encoded properties. We could all pass around the same copy of Lumines and nobody would be the wiser.

Devs and Publishers are most likely the ones getting paid out in this program.

And as far as being something to celebrate, being a PSP Go owner that has faced several years of no legal option to transfer games, I DO celebrate the opportunity to now make a personal choice about using the transfer program to selectively choose games to transfer that fit what I believe to be an acceptable price.

And for the record, I'm not going to pay more than $10 on the high end to transfer anything that I already have in my collection. So everybody scoffing at/insulting my open-mindedness to this concept should know that I have plenty of personal lines drawn on the subject.

And, to that point, prices haven't even been formally announced for the US, so who knows, we may see nothing even remotely close to $30, that may just be for some specific unique or brand new Japanese game release.

If the prices are nominal, I'm fine with it where my own personal usage of the program is concerned. That's all I have to say on the subject.

[Leo_A]

How is a discounted price for a digital version of owned, registered software a bad thing?

Ignore them, you're talking to a bunch of people that seem to think taking a picture of Super Mario Brothers for the NES should entitle them to being able to have free access to that game on any other platform it's ever made available for.

So I'm glad it's available, although I doubt there will be more than a few games that I'll take advantage of this with since I've already been heavily buying PSP downloads (Gran Turismo and Gradius Collection are two likely candidates for this program that I have on UMD that I don't already have in download form but would like to be able to play on a Vita).

[Mianrtcv]

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
If the prices are nominal, I'm fine with it where my own personal usage of the program is concerned. That's all I have to say on the subject.

Ditto. In a perfect world things could be different. It's not perfect so we have what we have.

[Bojay1997]

Can I have some of your money? You apparently have too much of it to be ok with this.

Why yes, I would love to rebuy something to use it on your new system. What a brilliant idea that no one has ever done before. Man, why didn't Nintendo think of that. Oh, that's right. They didn't need to. We didn't need an option. The GBC/GBA/DS/3DS already had me covered.

The VC is different and not part of this discussion. We're talking old system/new system, not much older system/new system where games are scarce on a mainstream level. As the Wii, for most of its lifecycle, could play Cube games out of the box.

Sony wants to offer me downloads of my UMDs at the cost of bandwidth/site maintenance, fine. Anything more, eat my shit.

Agree fully. What's really shocking to me is that Nintendo and Microsoft have both offered almost total backward compatibility with their previous systems this generation and Sony was the first to abandon it on the PS3 and now is looking to screw us over again and expects that we are all gonna be ok with it. If this was a truly different piece of hardware that required some work on Sony's part to make the older stuff work, I might be more swayed, but the hardware is completely backwards compatible so they are punishing me for being stupid enough to buy a bunch of games at MSRP over the past six years and on top of it, they want to charge me $10 or more to buy what I already own. Totally ridiculous.

[RP2A03]

Or, I could just keep my PSP and play the UMDs on that instead.

This. Seriously. I fail to see what everyone is so upset about. It's not like Sony is going to repossess your UMDs or nuke them.

[swlovinist]

Will just play on my UMD games on the PSP instead. Like others have said I will just wait for the UMDs to be traded into stores, and then buy them used. For the past couple of months, I have totally scored on used UMD PSP games. I dont have a problem with the Vita offering this service, I just prefer to not have to pay twice to play my videogames.

[Bojay1997]

This. Seriously. I fail to see what everyone is so upset about. It's not like Sony is going to repossess your UMDs or nuke them.

I think it's the fact that Sony has implied on numerous occasions including leading up to the release of the PSPGo that it would offer a solution to allow UMD owners to play games on the PSPGo and Vita digitally at no additional charge. I believe there was also talk of an external UMD drive at one point. In any event, those things never happened and rather than planning for this in an organized way (like handing out unique codes for digital registration with each UMD purchased for example), Sony just took the opportunity to announce a new scheme to charge people for the same stuff. I'm just tired of it and disappointed in Sony as it seems like all they know how to do recently is charge for the same content we already own with their various HD collections, dumping PS3 backward compatibility, etc.... I will be keeping my PSP, but it just makes the Vita less valuable to me because it means I will have to have two systems in active use when I should only need one.

[Leo_A]

Agree fully. What's really shocking to me is that Nintendo and Microsoft have both offered almost total backward compatibility with their previous systems this generation and Sony was the first to abandon it on the PS3 and now is looking to screw us over again and expects that we are all gonna be ok with it.

I wouldn't call 50% or so of the Xbox library being backwards compatible, with only 10% of that 50% actually running close to 100%, as almost total backwards compatibility.

I'm glad it's there and I've enjoyed playing several Xbox games on it that run well and benefit from upscaling, but lets not exagerrate here.

And Sony isn't hurting us in the slightest. They're providing a way to turn UMD's into downloads at a small fee to play them on a successor. They could've easily had done nothing and we still wouldn't of had any legitimate room to complain.

I think it's the fact that Sony has implied on numerous occasions including leading up to the release of the PSPGo that it would offer a solution to allow UMD owners to play games on the PSPGo and Vita digitally at no additional charge.

We didn't even know about the Vita at that point. So how could they of implied that? All I've seen since we started getting details was a mention from Sony that they were investigating allowing people to transfer at least some of their UMD's to the Vita.

And they've done just that.

I believe there was also talk of an external UMD drive at one point. In any event, those things never happened and rather than planning for this in an organized way (like handing out unique codes for digital registration with each UMD purchased for example),

Then you'd be complaining that 90% of the UMD's out there were sold before things like the PSP Go and Vita appeared and lacked this transfer code.

Sony just took the opportunity to announce a new scheme to charge people for the same stuff. I'm just tired of it and disappointed in Sony as it seems like all they know how to do recently is charge for the same content we already own with their various HD collections, dumping PS3 backward compatibility, etc.... I will be keeping my PSP, but it just makes the Vita less valuable to me because it means I will have to have two systems in active use when I should only need one.

You're really reaching here.

[Bojay1997]

I wouldn't call 50% or so of the Xbox library being backwards compatible, with only 10% of that 50% actually running close to 100%, as almost total backwards compatibility.

I'm glad it's there and I've enjoyed playing several Xbox games on it that run well and benefit from upscaling, but lets not exagerrate here.

And Sony isn't hurting us in the slightest. They're providing a way to turn UMD's into downloads at a small fee to play them on a successor. They could've easily had done nothing and we still wouldn't of had any legitimate room to complain.



We didn't even know about the Vita at that point. So how could they of implied that? All I've seen since we started getting details was a mention from Sony that they were investigating allowing people to transfer at least some of their UMD's to the Vita.

And they've done just that.



Then you'd be complaining that 90% of the UMD's out there were sold before things like the PSP Go and Vita appeared and lacked this transfer code.



You're really reaching here.

Are you serious? I have a launch 360 and I have played a pretty decent chunk of my Xbox library on it and the vast majority of the games play as well as they did on my Xbox. Sure, there are some games that aren't supported and some that have significant glitches, but it's certainly most of the major releases that are supported and they didn't charge me for the backwards compatibility. In fact, on several occasions they added more games to the library which required some time and expense on their part as the hardware is not 100% compatible and yet charged nothing for the added titles.

The Wii is 100% backwards compatible with Gamecube also at zero additional cost to consumers. Now admittedly, the new version of the Wii just arriving in stores is not backwards compatible, but it's also years after launch and Gamecube games aren't even still sold at mainstream retail anymore.

I've actually been at various press events for Sony including all but one of the last 10 E3 shows. Both at the PSPGo unveiling and the Vita unveiling, there were press materials and representatives that indicated owners of UMDs would be provided with a solution to using their games on the new platforms. Now, admittedly, they never said it would be totally free, but for the PSPGo, they never even bothered to provide anything and for Vita, it appears it will cost in some cases almost as much as just buying the game digitally to begin with.

I'm sorry, but the world has moved on from people willingly paying for the same thing multiple times on new formats. That's why DVD and Blu Ray sales are tanking and why the music industry has collapsed. People expect to be able to use their media purchases across multiple devices and not for a significant fee each time technology changes slightly. The reality is that people aren't going to pay for this service and once the A games dry up like they did on the PSP, people will move on to Apple or Google or whatever the smart and sleek new non-game specific platform happens to be in a few years. It's unfortunate, but Sony is trying to play by old rules in a game that is rapidly outrunning their ability to control it.

[kupomogli]

All I see is most people bitching about having to purchase PSP games that they have UMD format because the Vita doesn't support the format. Sony's already seen what a mistake it was to include a disc drive on a portable console so the Vita is a fix to that.

Other than a few, the people against Sony are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites(unless they bitched about Nintendo as well.) Everyone didn't bitch when Nintendo started to release NES games for $5, SNES games for $8, and N64 games for $12 on the Wii. The 3DS has Gameboy games but also NES games that you will have to purchase again, despite the fact that you already have them(the NES games) on your Wii. The ambassador program also shows that there will be GBA games, so first you could play GBA games on the DS, removed from later revisions, and later you're going to have to purchase them to play on the 3DS.

It doesn't matter if the Nintendo is almost 30 years old. It's a different console. Just like the Vita is a different console. Atleast Sony is giving users the ability to reduce costs of UMDs that already own.

I'm not really a fan of digital downloads regardless, so only a few of my absolute favorites are going to be repurchased, more if most of them are closer to $1.29.

The only thing that I thinks sucks is the games not availalbe on UMD and imports. I own eight or more imports between PAL and Japanese games. I probably won't be able to get them on the Vita without having three seperate accounts.

*edit*

Also. About the devices being a different console. It's that it uses a completely different format. The Wii having NES, SNES, and N64 slots just like the Vita having PSP and PSX slots is just unrealistic. With the 360 and PS2, backwards compatibility was software based, mainly emulated. With the PS3 to PS2 and Wii to GC it's mostly hardware based, so the backwards compatibility was removed to cut costs. So up top is only about completely different formats.

[portnoyd]

Kupo, you do know your entire argument was invalidated on page 1, right?

[Icarus Moonsight]

Whoever charges over the minimum is a fucking douche.

Fixed

Whatevs. Welcome to capitalism.

I'll reserve saying that until the Vita is hacked open.

[kupomogli]

Kupo, you do know your entire argument was invalidated on page 1, right?

Doesn't matter the age of the product, it's a different format. So the Vita and Wii are doing the same. They're both releasing digital content of games from older devices.

I'm sure Sony has realized that the UMD format was a poor choice. The UMD drive is probably the major reason for PSP failure. I've had two PSPs where the UMD drive just stopped reading discs, but everything else worked fine.

Maybe they're release a Vita with a UMD drive also on the device for people who want to complain.

[Ryudo]

Don't do Digital Downoads anyway. I will get a vita for Vita games and keep my PSP for PSP games. So no loss for me

[Amon_Re]

I'll reserve saying that until the Vita is hacked open.

That could take anything between one week and one decade. I'm assuming they'll use different keys then those of the PSP & PS3.

[Gameguy]

Doesn't matter the age of the product, it's a different format.

If it's a different format they really shouldn't offer any sort of discount or ability to transfer a license between the two products. You couldn't transfer a license between buying a cassette tape and upgrading to a CD, nobody really minded being expected to buy it again for a different format if you wanted it. The way Sony did this just doesn't come across so well, it's very poorly marketed.

Nobody felt bad having to pay for the various Genesis collections when those came out because they were for a different format, same with buying the Intellivision Lives compilation or those new Virtual Console games. Even with having to buy Tetris for both the NES and Gameboy nobody minded since they were for different systems, though those actually were different versions of the game.

The problem with this is that it really comes across that you're paying to use the same game meant for the same hardware but just with a different method of storage. With PC games think of Telltale games, you can buy a physical copy of the game but you'll also have access to digital copies so you won't have to wait for the games to arrive with shipping. That's what people are expecting now. It comes across badly with the PSP because the games and systems come across the same way like the Nintendo DS and 3DS, they come across as a slight upgrade to what you already have(like buying a newer Ipod with more storage space). Yet the newest 3DS can still play the original DS games just fine, you don't have to pay anything extra to do it either.

A company doesn't have to offer backwards compatibility at all, but if it's done it shouldn't be the way that Sony has with charging for each game to be transfered. It just comes across badly. Having a device to transfer the games yourself would be better, to play SMS games on the Genesis you needed to buy a piece of hardware to do it. It was a one time purchase and that was it, that's what should be done for this new PSP.

If Sony offered to send you a download code if you mailed in a receipt for each game to be transfered it would have come across better, even if it would have cost more in postage and having to buy envelopes it would be more friendly from a consumer's perspective. People would think that Sony is still letting them play the games for free, even if it cost more in postage and envelopes to do it. Plus with insisting on requiring a receipt, it would exclude used games from being allowable without really coming across as being against used sales. That would be better marketing.

[Bojay1997]

Doesn't matter the age of the product, it's a different format. So the Vita and Wii are doing the same. They're both releasing digital content of games from older devices.

I'm sure Sony has realized that the UMD format was a poor choice. The UMD drive is probably the major reason for PSP failure. I've had two PSPs where the UMD drive just stopped reading discs, but everything else worked fine.

Maybe they're release a Vita with a UMD drive also on the device for people who want to complain.

Of course the age of the content is relevant. The Vita is 100% backwards compatible. The only thing preventing anyone from playing PSP games on the Vita is a lack of a means of loading from UMD to the Vita. If Nintendo decides tomorrow to start selling Gamecube games on the newly non-backwards compatible Wii, you can bet there will be outrage, just like there is here. It's simple, if you want to maintain your loyal customers, you reward that loyalty by providing a low or no cost alternative to rebuying the entire catalog of games you already own. Anything else is just plain greed and completely out of touch with the economic realities of today and the way people consume media.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

...Anything else is just plain greed and completely out of touch with the economic realities of today and the way people consume media.

Video games ain't charity.

It's a capitalist, materialist, consumerist industry and the "economic reality" is that even if it's not the way that it's always been/that we're used to we've moved into an era where publishers expect continued compensation for the continued distribution of their product via digital channels.

Now, once this transfer project goes live, I think that there should be a healthy expectation that new UMD games should come with a one-time single use transfer code in-box at no extra cost, but the expectation that Sony and developers should be able to come to some kind of terms that mulit-year-old existing UMD product that was never intended to be legally transferred from one media format to another (on a next-gen system no less) is unrealistic.

I acknowledge your position and it's your right to have that position.

I simply disagree with the notion that we should expect Sony and devs to just give us a pass on everything for free (though I do note that one or two of the list of japanese transfer pricing do say "free"), because as much as it sucks for the frugal/miserly consumer to pay for a transfer, free-to-play backwards compatibility as an industry standard has always relied on the means to play the existing physical media. Any downloadable past previous gen software available on any console/portable system (Wii, XBOX360, PS3, PSP, DSi, 3DS, etc.) has been a pay-to-play option. If we need to cite existing last-gen games - XBOX games of the last generation have been available on 360 for quite some time and PS2 Classics are recently available on the PSN both for cash monies with no massive public outrage to be heard.

If they're not giving us a snap-on UMD drive, then I never expected this to be a charitable venture.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Too bad Sony can't invent a patent-able proprietary digital data format... Who owns the copyrights to zero and one again? Someone is owed a shitload from everyone.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Too bad Sony can't invent a patent-able proprietary digital data format... Who owns the copyrights to zero and one again? Someone is owed a shitload from everyone.

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mic...es-zeroes,599/