MikeB on 31 May 2009
It is just a custom disc drive like other consoles use and used custom formats. I think UMD support has been rather good (there are even many movies available!).
As standard DVDs are much too big for a handheld console, it was either something like UMD or cartridges. Cartridges provide less storage space and are relatively expensive for mass production.
Currently internal flash drives have come down in costs and online distribution of PSP content is a lot more viable. Sony will likely continue to provide the UMD option to current PSP owners for a long time to come. I am interested in PSP Go, smaller, no discs or cartridge to take with you, remote PS3 connectivity, maybe longer battery life, I think this makes sense.
