About two weeks ago we told you about Sony’s plans to bring the UMD Passport program to North America / Europe, or lack thereof; Japan won’t be sharing the program with the likes of us.
President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Shuhei Yoshida, spoke to Wired about just that in a lengthy PlayStation Vita Q&A.
Apparently, the problem is simply that there wouldn’t be nearly as much demand for a UMD Passport here in North America as there is in Japan. Given the level success the PSP has seen in the land of the rising sun, we can easily see this being the main reason we won’t be part of the program.
“The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games,” explained Yoshida.
“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.”
Makes sense, especially when you take into account that PSP games are much cheaper here than they are in Japan, as Yoshida-san went on to explain.
“So there is a lot more demand … to introduce a program like that. 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. 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,” he said.
In my opinion, the UMD passport program isn’t something we needed, nor should it be seen as a pivotal attempt in trying to make the Vita greater success than its predecessor, the PSP – but that’s just me. Let us know what you think.
Source: Wired (thanks, Eric)