Sony may re-release PSP games on NGP cards

The PSPgo gave dissenters plenty of reasons to call Sony stupid, and high among those reasons was the lack of support for UMD.

Of course, the UMD format is itself fairly stupid in the eyes of many, but not as stupid as alienating PSP consumers who'd amassed UMD libraries that, in effect, precluded them from investing in the PSPgo.

The NGP (nee PSP 2) doesn't have UMD, but this isn't as big as issue as with PSPgo since it belongs to a new generation of hardware and isn't obliged by the current code of console conduct to support backward compatibility. Even so, Sony may be reaching out to current generation PSP owners.

Speaking to Japanese website Gigazine, Sony has revealed that it plans to release old PSP games via the NGP's card format, as well as continuing to release them on the PlayStation Store. Rights issues may keep some PSP titles off the NGP forever, but Sony hopes to bring as many games to its latest device as it can.

On the subject of whether those who've invested in a collection of UMD games will be have to re-buy their games, Sony is currently exploring possibilities. It doesn't have anything to announce.

The NGP, which boasts a quad-core processor, rear touch panel, and dual analogue sticks, will be out before the end of 2011.