Sony: PSP Go 'planned from the start'

Sony has said that it wanted a digital distribution model for the PSP from the start.

SCE’s product planning manager Naoya Matsui revealed that the firm has been waiting for the right technology and infrastructure.

"We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," Develop quotes him as saying.

"But if we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferral of content with the PS3 and PSN."

He affirmed that existing PSP models that feature a UMD drive still have a place on the market.

"We wanted to release it when the delivery of digital content was on par with the delivery of physical media," he said. "We'll be selling the PSP Go alongside the existing PSP models, because it's a product targeted at those people who are more accustomed to digital content."

The PSP Go, which launches with 16GB of built-in storage to replace the UMD Drive, will be released on October 1.