I am sorry but a "discounted price"? WTF?! From what I read the application validates your UMD thus ensuring that Sony knows you have a UMD version of the game. Now I can understand the fear that people will distribute UMDs and register it multiple times as I do not think that each UMD of a game has a unique identifier. However to force legitimate users to pay a second time, even a discounted price, for the game is not right.

Magius said ...

I am sorry but a "discounted price"? WTF?! From what I read the application validates your UMD thus ensuring that Sony knows you have a UMD version of the game. Now I can understand the fear that people will distribute UMDs and register it multiple times as I do not think that each UMD of a game has a unique identifier. However to force legitimate users to pay a second time, even a discounted price, for the game is not right.

Woofels said it best. Not optimal but better than nothing.

I do not think you can understand the `fear`. Its a legitimate issue that would concern every single developer. Tons of people would get their hands on free copies of PSP titles without paying a single dime for the software, which is clearly unfair to the respective developer. If anything, Sony had no leg to stand on by offering this service.

If free, developers would be miffed. Payment and original owners get miffed. Just be glad the price for transfer is not that extreme. R100 for certain games would definitely be the peak of the price I believe and clearly developers are somewhat involved in pricing, due to the differences in prices, which would prove that Sony had no option but to offer this at a pay price point.

Look at it this way: PSP games get enhanced with better controls and the resolution of the Vita means there should be little to no distortion of the title. You are paying for a digital copy with control enhancements.

Sorry Sinn, but the number of people who would pirate vs the number who legitamately would want to replay PSP games is, IMO, low. Sony could eat this loss as all this does is penalise legitimate customers. I for one would rather keep my PSP than pay for a game a second time.

Honestly not a big issue for me im buying this for PSvita games.

When i think of PSP titles i actually want across on the system it's minimal as in pretty much one title, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. That is probably the game iv played i want on my PSV.

Perhaps crisis core thats about it for my Disc release titles, all the other stuff i want is already in digital so really no issue for me.

Magius said ...

Sorry Sinn, but the number of people who would pirate vs the number who legitamately would want to replay PSP games is, IMO, low. Sony could eat this loss as all this does is penalise legitimate customers. I for one would rather keep my PSP than pay for a game a second time.

Firstly, I am not too sure why people are bringing up the issue of piracy: its got nothing to do with whether Sony puts a price on this service or not. If there was no price it would not be piracy if people just got a game PSP game for free on their PSV: that is just how the system would work.

That said, do you think developers are just going to stand by while Sony releases this service for free? Of course not. Even if Sony wanted this to be free there would be way too much pressure for it to be so. It has nothing to do with Sony `[eating] this loss`, it has to do with the countless other 3rd party devs who have put their games up for digital distribution. They may as well just make their games free on the PSN because that is what the free service would ultimately come down to.

Yes it sucks, but ltimately no one is asking you to use the service or even ditch your PSP for that matter.

When you said that tons of people would get the game wothout paying that indicated you agreed with my piracy point. The way I read it is that the app validates the UMD and then allows you to DL the digital copy. That is a measure to prevent people from DLing the game who shouldn't i.e. an anti-piracy measure.
By reducing the price How exactly do the 3rd party devs really benefit. They will get a few dollars per UMD, but if they really were opposed to digital distribution of the games they wouldn't have "allowed" Sony to do that either. Either way, to me this seems ill thougt out by Sony, whatever their intentions.

No not at all.
The issue of piracy can only come into affect if someone was able to bypass the service of validation and get the game for free. IF the service was free, then it would not be a piracy issue at all because the service would be allowing people just to get digital copies of any game for use on the vita.

Its like stores that allow you to sample some of their products for no price. Its not stealing if you use these sample because they are free. It would be stealing if you used the sample but you had to pay for it.

So again, it becomes a piracy issue if a bypass is made for hwo the current service works. Otherwise there is none at hand.

Your last comment makes no sense. Clearly developers are not opposed to digital distribution since they would not have put their games up on the PSN in the first place. Sony has already stated that various companies are on board with the service. They are not losing money because someone decides to use this system for they made their money just from the person having to buy the UMD release in the first place. Additionally the price range varies which points towards developers having input into how much they want users to pay to get certain games activated for digital release.

I agree with Sinncross Entirely.

If anything ill take the fee as he says "transfer fee". Honestly fee or no fee it wont be long till the Vita is flashed and people are playing ripped psp games anyway, those who dont wont to pay will find ways not to.

Paying R50 - R100 for the transfer of a game is not bank breaking unless of coarse you have 10+ psp games you wanting on this thing which at that point may become an issue.

Really things which are already on digital distribution should be at the cheapest possible price, to those that are not yet.

Gravity Daze, and the Goblin King Game. My 2 big launch games for PSvita, and i agree with woofels that in the sense im buying PSVita for PSvita games, not to reply my PSP games, which to be honest arent goin to hold to much to PSV, ive played persona enough, and monster hunter. And if i wanna jam them again i still own a PSP. So I'm failing to see the issue mm cake.

So. Yeah. Feels like we playing tennis with this argument why cant people be happy for the amazing psVITA?

That Wi-Fi model looks quite good and a lot cheaper than I thought at that price I would pick one up. 3G model is pointless for me as I don't have a 3G contract nor would I play online games outside of my house. Plus everywhere you go has Wi-Fi now, hotels, restaurants etc so the 3G just seems like an overpriced gimmick right now.

Only thing stopping me from getting one of these is the price of the games, same region as PS3 games, that seems a bit much to me.

I don't agree with these transfer fees. You shouldn't have to pay a fee, no matter how small for something you've already bought from them just to play it again. It would be one thing if these fees were charged for 10+ year old games that needed to be recoded in some aspect to work on the machine, but not for games which are barely old and the hardware is still fairly new.

I'm with Beeza and Woofels on this one, I'm not buying a Vita to play PSP games, I have a PSP for that. You're paying a small fee to allow support for you're old games on a new platform, if it bothers you that much, don't do it ~ no one is forcing you to play your old games. It's like getting mad at Nintendo for not including GBA support on a 3DS, they are a different generation of platform, with a different media format. Would your prefer that the consoles capabilities are reduced just to support an older format? For me personally no, I would prefer they focus that developement on new technology. Why am I buying a new console to play old games? I'm buying a new console for a new experience (and the new Uncharted ).

Again, if it bothers you so much, don't buy a Vita, just keep playing your PSP...

@ Trevor It isn't about wanting to play games on the Vita from a previous generation. Thus your 3DS/GBA comparison doesn't apply. It is about Sony getting you to pay a second time for a game for no good reason. These games are not HD remakes so people blithely accepting the extra cost makes no sense. I just find it odd that people are that willing to pay for something a second time.

The thing is this Magius... just because you bought the physical release of a game does not entitle you to a free digital copy of said game. It does not matter how much you oppose this service, this ruling still stands.

if you had the digital item in the first place then you would not need to go through this process. Its unfortunate that the Vita does not support UMD`s but the move to a cart has benefits that far outstrip the sole con.

At the end of the day, giving this service at least nets you the option. Consider the alternate: you pay full price for a digital release of a game you already own just because you want to play it on the PSV. Here you are getting it for a fraction of the price. And again, this service would have never been free, at least by the standards that other developers would not have been happy with Sony doing so. If a dev does not care then that means it would cost you nothing to use this service for that particular game. So this is not a solely Sony issue by any means.

Anyone who remotely thinks that this would have been free are just kidding themselves. There is way too much money to be lost here for all devs who have PSN games available.

@Sinn I get your point. My point is that these are not new games nor HD remakes and people who own an original should not be penalised for doing so. At the end of the day it is up to people to decide if they are willing to pay for the same thing twice. I just think that Sony are being shortsighted and will lose a fair amount of goodwill by doing this.

Magius said ...My point is that these are not new games nor HD remakes and people who own an original should not be penalized for doing so.

Sony is not taking away your PSP nor are they sending people to your house to collect your PSP games.

They are merely providing a service for people to use if they CHOOSE to or not. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you really want to play a PSP game on your Vito, why I would not know, but if you do Sony has given you an option to. They didn't need to do this just as they don't need to give the PS3 any BC support for PS2 games. The only difference is gamers now have a choice, which could be pretty cool for PS3 owners that would want to play PS2 games.

This is not a forced service nor does it make your PSP invalid, so forgive me but your point is stupid. I have PSP games and if I want to play them I'll play it on PSP if I really really want to play them all the time which isn't going to happen but go with the what if scenario, then surely I'd be happy to pay a bit extra to get on it on Vita? If I am too cheap for that take the PSP with.

^^
You will be too cheap for that ;p

Wi-Fi only model has a more palatable price tag.

What memory card is it using? Is it SD or is it some propriety BS?

So they are apparently propriety and unsurprisingly expensive. Thanks Sony.

Hopefully available at launch.

@Scottie Proprietary cards