Good news, potential PlayStation Vita buyers! Sony’s new handheld will be backwards compatible with PSP games. The bad news? It has no UMD slot. So how exactly does one go about playing all the UMD games they own on the new handheld? Don’t worry, guys, Sony’s got you covered: You just have to buy the game again!
Siliconera reports that Sony Entertainment of Japan’s solution to the backwards compatibility problem is for users to register their UMD games and then purchase a discounted, digital version of the game to play on the Vita. The service currently offers 262 games, but several big publishers aren’t on board with the system yet.
The discount plan is currently supported by Atlus, Tecmo Koei, SNK, Acquire and Cyberfront, but it’s missing huge names such as Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami, and Capcom – developer of one of the PSP’s biggest games, Monster Hunter. Games on the service range from 500 yen (About $6 US) to 1500 yen(About $19 US).
It’s worth nothing that this system is currently Japan only. Neither Sony Computer Entertainment of America nor Europe have announced the plan for those territories.
