Serves you right for not buying PSP games! Yes, you know who you are. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony WWS has mentioned that–the main reason why the UMD transfer program isn’t available in the west is due to the fact that there is less demand in those regions.
I don’t know how much resources it takes to provide a simple program for other countries, but hey, what do I know? Yoshida revealed this piece of info in an interview with Wired.
“The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games,” he said.
“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. So there is a lot more demand… to introduce a program like that.”
He also mentioned that the prices of UMD PSP games are cheaper in the west, so it’s futile offering the program here, as you can just buy a new one!
“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,” he said.
“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. But when the games are already sold at a lower price in the U.S. we see less value in introducing that kind of system.”
Do you agree with his justification? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.