Sony follows in Nintendo's footsteps… creates "brand new" same old PSP, only without the UMD Media.

We’ve all seen it over the years. The Gameboy, the Gameboy Color, the Gameboy Advance… followed by the DS, the DS lite and now the DSi… Well Sony has decided to follow the same suit. Instead of upping into a new, faster, better hand-held system, they decided to milk the PSP even further with the PSP Go..

Ok, so they’ve done this before with both the PlayStation 1 and 2, but this is their first hand-held so it only made sense to continue the trend. The weird part is though, that beside creating a sleeker and slimmer version of the PSP, they’ve done away with actual game media (for the PSP called UMD’s). While there is a full SD slot, there’s no way to get play your old games directly, which seems like an odd move, but is actually the wave of the future. Kudos to Sony for deciding to be the first name-brand hand-held to go nearly completely digital.

The good news for old PSP owners is that Sony plans to have a back catalog of around 300 games or more at least which will be available to owners of the original game via some download mechanic. The bad news is that it will apparently be a “short-term program” according to Engadget. They will still be selling the UMDs as well for old school PSPers who can’t afford the apparent $250 price tag on technology that’s been out on the market for years. Oh one other bummer.. while the price of manufacturing and distribution of the UMDs will be drastically lower, (since it costs next to nothing to distribute digital  media) the price for the games will be the same regardless. Booo, Sony… Boooo…. ok I forgive you. :searches online for preorders:

Props to Engadget.. holla. Visit their hands-on Gallery.. yummm