Sony earlier this month confirmed that it would not be bringing transfer options to PSP gamers for the Vita, and now the manufacturer is elaborating on the decision.
Speaking with Sony worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, Wired was able to get a bit more information on why the U.S. would not be getting the same options as Japan. “I’m sorry we are not doing it in the States, but there are two factors that contributed to the decision as I understand it,” said Yoshida.
“I’m not in a position to make that kind of business decision. The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games. 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.”
He also points out that sale prices for many popular games are very reasonable, and that demand for such a program in the U.S. was not too heavy, nor would it have been cost effective for Sony to do.
“There are many, many games that are sold at an affordable price,” he continued. “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. The combination of the new titles available, or the lack of, and the price difference, the company decided to do that.”
