Rumor: Sony To Let You Play Your PSP Games On Vita?

Sony's Vita handheld doesn't use UMD discs like the PSP does, which means your PSP library will go to waste if you pick up the new platform. Or does it? Sony may have something in the works to solve that problem.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation, Sony Computer Entertainment development head Yoshio Matsumoto apparently hints that the company is looking at a way to allow gamers to play their existing PSP titles on the Vita for a small price. There is also a separate report that a retailer at a Sony sales briefing saw a pamphlet describing how PSP owners could utilize their games catalog with the Vita, and that all would be revealed soon.

That all sounds great, but lets not forget – such functionality with the PSP's UMD-based games was initially teased by Sony before the download-only PSP Go came out, but the company axed that due to what it said were legal and technical reasons. Furthermore, U.S. PSP owners never got to participate in the subsequent PSP Go Rewards program, either. This let PSP owners choose three game downloads if they already owned a PSP game.

Is this going to all end in tears once again, or will PSP owners finally get the backwards compatibility (of sorts) that they crave?

The Vita comes out in Japan on December 17, and is expected to come out before March in the U.S.

[via Andriasang]