Sony director of hardware marketing John Koller mentioned shortly after the E3 announcement of the PSP Go that the company was considering a “good will program,” which would allow UMD owners to trade in their physical games for digital versions. However, yesterday at the Tokyo Game Show, an SCEA spokesperson told news site Kotaku, “We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time.”  The $250 PSP Go has no UMD drive, instead relying fully on an Internet connection to purchase, download and install games onto the system’s harddrive or removable memory.

This is a giant letdown for many American PSP owners with large libraries of  UMD titles looking to upgrade to a PSP Go, (not to mention that it will surely lead to many buyers to cancel there orders for there new system) a blow significantly worsened by the European ”PSP Go Rewards” initiative, which grants three free games to PSP Go purchasers who register for the promotion using an older PSP model. This same promotion will not be coming to the US. “SCEA region will not offer a UMD rewards program at this time,” due to the fact that the Sony has a “dual-platform strategy,” an SCEA spokesperson has explained to IndustryGamers.

[Via Joystiq]