Sony is Dropping UMD Format for Patapon 2

In a strange move by Sony, they’ve announced that they will be releasing Patapon 2 on the PSN and in retail, but not on UMD. The retail copies of the games will include a card which will enable the user to download the game from the internet or their internet enabled PS3.

I don’t think this a good move for a few reasons:

- The PSP is not the PSP 2. It still needs to rely on UMD media.

- Some users may not have high speed internet connections to download the game.

- Most users will probably not have a Memory Stick large enough to store the game, and the PSP has no internal storage for games or game saves.

Still Patapon 2 is not a big release and this may be the most cost effective way to release the game, but it’s incredibly strange of Sony to start releasing games like this when the PSP 2 is just around the corner.

This is obviously foreshadowing how game distribution on the PSP 2 will work, but they’ll need some brick and morter retail presence if they want to have successful game sales.