Just recently, we gave you the news that Sony is launching the new PC Store for the PSN as well as PSP functionality and downloads. With gamers now able to download PSP games straight from the Internet, would this spell the end for the UMD format?
Darren Cairns, the head of online marketing for SCEE, believes that the UMD format still has a strong purpose in this industry:
"The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market."
The possibility of the PC Store turning into an universal media outlet featuring film trailers, music, and other videos, Cairns chimed in with his answer:
"The PC Store is very much targeted at getting lots of really good game content at the start for the millions of PSP users that we've got. Longer term, the PlayStation Store is predominantly for game content for day one and we're working on the plans to build that out after.
One thing worthy of mention is that not all downloads will contain all of the content available on the UMD counterpart of a particular title. Either way, the new PC Store is only beneficial because it creates another outlet for gamers to take usage of their PSP and PlayStation 3 extra features. This definitely does not mean the end of UMD, at least for now.
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