Sony Announces UMD-to-Vita Trade-in Plan for Japan

14 Nov, 2011

UPDATE: Andriasang reports that UMDs can only be transferred to the same account the disc was registered under.

IndustryGamers reports that Sony has announced a plan that will Japanese Vita users to register an UMD-title to their Playstation Network accounts and then download these games to their Playstation Vita at a heavilly discounted price. There is currently no information indicating that this offer, dubbed the ‘UMD Passport Program’, will also make its way to North America or Europe. The games that are currently confirmed for the program are included below the break, and acquiring a digital copy of these games after already owning the UMD version will cost users between ¥500 and ¥2400, or approximately $6.50 and $30 respectively.

  • Guilty Gear Judgment (Arc System Works) 500 yen
  • Carnage Heart Exa (Artdink) 500 yen
  • Pachipara Slot: Pachislot Super Sea Story in Okinawa (Irem) 1000 yen
  • Akiba’s Trip (Acquire) 1000 yen
  • Last Promise Story (Image Epoch) 1000 yen
  • Persona 3 Portable (Atlus) 1500 yen
  • Metal Slug Complete (SNK Playmore) 500 yen
  • Higurashi Daybreak Portable Me, Mega Edition (Create) 500 yen
  • Atelier Viorate: Alchemist of Gramnad 2 (Gust) 1000 yen
  • Shutokou Battle (Genki) 1000 yen
  • Dynasty Warriors (Koei-Tecmo) 500 yen
  • Dead or Alive Paradise (Koei-Tecmo) 1000 yen
  • Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) 1000 yen
  • Ever17: the out of infinity (Cyberfront) 500 yen
  • Nanatama: Chronicle of Dungeon Maker (Gae) 500 yen
  • Ginsei Shogi Portable (Silver Star Japan) 1000 yen
  • Kuru-kuru Chameleon (Starfish SD) 500 yen
  • Hot Shots Golf Portable 2 (Sony) 500 yen
  • Patapon 3 (Sony) 1000 yen
  • Gran Turismo PSP (Sony) 1000 yen
  • Nano Diver (Takara-Tomy) 1000 yen
  • Princess Days Portable (Takuyo) 740 yen
  • Secret Room Sacrifice (D3 Publisher) 1000 yen
  • Promise This Blue Sky: Paradise in Hand (TGR) 100 yen
  • Everybody Read: Masterpiece & Mystery & Horror & Literature (Dorasu) 500 yen
  • Disgaea 2 Portable (NIS) 500 yen
  • Phantom Kingdom Portable (NIS) 1000 yen
  • Tsuyokisu 2 Semester Portable (Netrevo) 500 yen
  • Pachislot Simulator, Secret Treasure Edition: Sealed Goddess Portable (Paon) 2400 yen
  • The Convenience Store Portable (Hamster) 1000 yen
  • Unchain Blaze Rex (FuRyu) 1050 yen
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion Battle Orchestra Portable (Broccoli) 1000 yen
  • Kanon (Prototype) 1000 yen
  • I Conquer the Path I Believe In (From Software) TBA
  • Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl (Marvelous AQL) 500 yen
  • Maikomi Best: Mahjong Champion Portable: Mahjong Club Battle (My Navi) 530 yen
  • Memories Off (5pb.) 500 yen
  • Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Ubisoft) 1000 yen
  • Tenshin Ranman: Happy-Go-Lucky!! (Russel) 1000 yen

4 comments

About the author

Robin Meijer

Missed out on most of the "Golden Age of Gaming" due to not being born until 1988. Been catching up on what I've missed out since I began writing for Elder Geek in 2009. For some reason, continuously mistaken for being Belgian, despite being Dutch.

Related Posts

4 Comments

  1. Johny47
    Johny47
    November 14, 2011

    I hope when Sony release it in other regions they do this there aswell, nice idea but I think it’ll be much better and simpler if there’s just a UMD adapter for it.

    Looking forward to Vita, I was thinking of it today in break time in college, I heard a boy playing a wild west game on his phone and had a random thought of playing Red Dead Redemption on Vita, just my imagination going off again =)

    Things have been quite quiet on Elder Geek lately, I can just imagine how busy you are with the massive Elder Scrolls V review, Uncharted 3 and even the c**p of duty 3 review(I’ll still watch it, as I said before, I just like your reviews =P).

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up Thumb down +1

    reply
  2. Keck282
    Keck282
    November 15, 2011

    I understand why Sony wants to charge for the UMD conversion, but it doesn’t sit well with consumers. The reason they are charging is; 1. To get more money, but more importantly 2. use that money to pay licensing rights back to the IP holders who are putting the game on the digital service.

    I hate double dipping, but I see why they are doing it. It also thwarts people from picking up a bunch of used games and then putting in that code for a free digital copy of said game.

    Just wish they would have released that UMD conversion kit where you would effectively rip the game from the UMD onto your PC where you would have it forever (then again, there would be the problem of people buying used copies, ripping them, and then selling the used games back, or just copying friends’ games).

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up Thumb down +2

    reply
    • Johny47
      Johny47
      November 16, 2011

      Yeah and I have a idea how to stop the ‘borrowing your friends’ games to get it for Vita’ problem, every big shop that sells games should have a machine or something that when you bring a UMD disc in they can give you a download code or transfer the game onto your Vita but then there’s a flipside, it would be the law for them to destroy that UMD so that no one else can use it =/

      Might be a good idea especially for the main big game shops, just have to make it work, sure Sony wouldn’t mind giving game shops the software for them to do this for people.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up Thumb down 0

      reply
      • Keck282
        Keck282
        November 16, 2011

        I would see that as the only way the conversion system could work if it was a one-time get the code free deal. Otherwise Sony will have to charge consumers so there won’t be an abuse of the conversion program.

        Though it is bad for those with Japanese only games, as they won’t be able to download those games. Granted people can create a Japanese PSN account and pay for them that way.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up Thumb down 0

        reply