This article is based of the recent FAQ that Sony put up regarding the Playstation Vita, in it Sony stated that it is considering a UMD transfer system though there aren’t any plans yet. Sony needs to come up with something.
The PSP Go was a resounding failure, it had potential but even in PSP crazy Japan the system struggles to sell more than 300 units per week while the PSP 3000 regularly beats every other system in terms of sales. Ignoring the other downsides to the PSP Go, I believe that the reason the adoption rate is so low is because people have a stack of UMDs that they have accumulated over six years that they simply don’t want to get rid of, or can’t because of the financial implications involved with replacing all of those games.
Take the launch of the PS3 as an example, the fact that it essentially had a PS2 built into it made the $600 price tag a lot easier to swallow because people already had a stack of games to play on it regardless of what the PS3 launch games were.
Certain PSP games may even have support on Vita for twin analogue sticks making the jump to a PS Vita not dissimilar to the HD up-scaling of PS2 games on the PS3.
So if people have a big collection of UMD based games that will be enhanced by Vita when played on it why wouldn’t somebody consider a UMD transfer program as a HUGE incentive to buying one at launch, particularly if Sony made it very clear that it was a limited time offer.
This isn’t me thinking “Crap I have a ton of soon to be useless UMD games” because I don’t. I got a PSP, for the second time, after Vita was announced so I have been careful to buy all my games digitally and I would only like my UMD copy of Final Fantasy IV to be playable on the Vita. If Sony were to announce that all UMD games can be swapped for a digital copy within three months of Vita being released then I would be much more liable to buy a Vita at launch in order to transfer over my one game. Imagine the millions of people with 10+ UMD games that are looking for that added incentive to buy a PS Vita.
