Rumorama: Patapon 2 To Be UMD-Less (US) Release Only
While this is likely to make a lot of people angry, a new rumor that makes me semi-happy has surfaced. The rumor? Pataton 2 will be launching in the US as a download only title. This news comes from a "very reliable" mole that feeds ars technica insider information. Trixy bunch, that.
The mole has stated that the game will be made available on PSN for $15. Once the game launches, a select group of retailers will also receive empty boxes containing a download voucher for $20. No UMD to be found with either purchase.
Why does this make me happy? The UMD is a battery suck, and Patapon is awesome.
New Sony PSP trend? Retail Patapon 2 rumored to be UMD-free [Ars Technica]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 13 April 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: patapon, psp, sony entertainment, umd
...while I'm still quite shaky about the whole "UMD-less" concept (since flash IS still so expensive as a storage medium, and ESPECIALLY for memory sticks), Patapon 2's UMD (Euro version) is only like 400MB, so it's a pretty good candidate to test with. But honestly? I don't get the point of the "voucher" thing. The only logical purpose of doing this would be preordering, and only if there were epic bonus swag to be gotten from doing so. I'd probably preorder that way if I got an not-ugly poster or plushie out of it. (omg patapon plushie do want.)
I rip my own UMDs. Works (only) with hacked firmware, doesn't require PSN store (which doesn't work with Macs, but at least they're making it work directly with (unhacked) PSPs), no DRM, good battery life, delete and re-copy as I please... in short, I like UMDs, but for the same reasons Sony doesn't. They just offer no copy prevention. Also: agreed with above. If Sony wants us to store all our games on Flash, they can make the PSP work with SD cards or charge a competitive rate/GB for memory sticks. I've only got 2 GB to work with. I need maximum flexibility, not flash-only "authorized content."