Leave no UMD behind: Sony PSP Go offers UMD amnesty

By Rich Trenholm on 05 June 2009, 11:24am

It seems like only yesterday -- mainly because it was -- that your humble Crave team discussed the obsolescence of Sony's Universal Media Disc (UMD) format in our weekly Crave Podcast. Since the recording of pod 138, Engadget has this morning revealed that Sony will not be abandoning your UMD collection now that the discless PSP Go is on the way.

Sony's John Koller hinted at a "goodwill" programme, by which you will be able to get a digital copy of some of your UMDs to play on your new PSP Go. From the admittedly sketchy details we have so far it doesn't sound like there's much goodwill involved: it appears that this will be a temporary amnesty rather than an ongoing option, including only a limited number of titles.

At least Sony isn't abandoning the older format altogether, which has been the case with every manufacturer's new games system in the past, but that was in the era of technological barriers to transferring your games. Digital copies remove those barriers.

Full details and pricing are yet to be confirmed. While we'd be inclined to argue that the digital copy should be free, we doubt it'll happen. Let us know what you think in the comments. Are you a PSP owner? Did you wholeheartedly buy into UMD? Will you be going crazy for the PSP Go?