There's no doubt that Sony made quite the splash during their 2009 E3 conference while announcing the PSP Go, but apart from the sticker-shock pricing of $249, many questions regarding the new unit's compatibility - or lack thereof - with the millions of existing UMD discs went relatively unanswered. In speaking with tech-blog Gizmondo, it seems the reason there wasn't mention of this is because...even Sony doesn't know yet. Says John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony:
"We're in the midst of putting together a good will program. We'll be unveiling that soon [because] we actually think there's a significant group that will be upgrading from the 1000...In the past, we've seen a 20-25% trade-up factor, and I assume that's going to be the case here. We've modeled that. So we're looking at a good-will program-a short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward."
Short Term that lasts for years? Gizmondo intimated that Koller also speculated the company will model their UMD-to-PSP Go model on their current Portable Copy system, in which Blu-ray films can be ripped to watch on the portable platform. Unfortunately, Koller also mentioned the company is "looking at what kind of games will be offered" when allowing users to actually play the discs they purchased.
Are we looking at selective-play (i.e. Xbox 360-style backwards-compatibility) for the PSP Go? It certainly sounds like it, which means those looking to invest in the new portable unit when it ships to retailers October 1st may want to rethink stocking up on current PSP UMD titles. Either way, for such a substantial mid-cycle hardware refresh coming so soon, it's curious that Sony wouldn't have a working model in place at this stage.
Thanks to Gizmondo!
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