Sony are skipping their UMD format entirely for the upcoming Next Generation Portable. Instead, they're going with another proprietary game delivery system that utilizes specifically made flash media cards.
That's not to say NGP owners won't have a chance to play some of its predecessor's classic games, however, as Gigazine found out.
One avenue of approach, of course, is through Sony's online game download service. The problem is that most PSP games remain UMD-only. To that end, Sony are still in deep negotiations with developers and publishers to release key titles on the PlayStation Store.
One other approach that Sony are taking is actual re-releases of UMD-only games on the NGP's proprietary memory stick format. This is the first time Sony have confirmed such a thing as it was not among the many NGP-related details Sony revealed last week.
Don't be too quick to celebrate, however. The Gigazine report notes that although Sony are planning to push forward with the re-releases, the gaming giant admitted that rights issues may still keep some games from ever appearing on the NGP.
It's a good thing if you already happen to own a lot of downloadable PSP titles since you can probably move those to the NGP with minimal hassle. If your collection leans more towards physical media, however, then you'll just have to repurchase the games you want to play on the new handheld if and when they become available.
This is pretty much the same situation Sony faced with the PSP Go. Gamers and even a few industry insiders decried the lack of a UMD drive on that device which effectively cut down its game library by a large margin.
The number of downloadable PSP games available on the PlayStation Store has increased in the past couple of years, but it still hasn't come close to matching the number of games available only through retail on UMDs.
A UMD reader attachment seems to be the wise solution, but so far Sony have not made one available even for the PSP Go. There was some talk about Logitech possibly making such an attachment a year ago but that didn't pan out.