Who truly knows whether Sony is planning on dropping UMDs for the next version of the PSP? Only Sony (and David Perry). Certainly not God of War: Chains of Olympus developer Ready At Dawn.

"I really have no clue what Sony's plans are," Ready At Dawn CEO Didier Malenfant told Edge Online, despite being a top notch PSP developer and a trusted second-party. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't like to see the rumored PSP-4000 go the digital distribution route, sloughing off the UMD format. In fact, he'd probably love it.

"I'd love to see anything that can help distribution move quicker toward a 100 percent online model," Malefant said. "It's not piracy but used games that are killing us." And, you know, it's pretty tough to trade in the games one buys from the PlayStation Store.

Ready At Dawn is rumored to be hard at work on a follow-up to Chains of Olympus, a title that would likely generate interest in a new PSP if it were offered as a digital download alongside a hard copy.

We're hoping that if Sony does opt to push for more digital distribution, the most recent management shuffle at the company means the PlayStation Store on the PS3 and PC, combined with some nice iTunes-style games management software, will make the medicine go down easier.

Ready At Dawn's Two Cents on PSP Rumors [Edge Online]

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