Major Publishers Absent From Sony's Vita Backward-Compatibility Platform

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan today revealed the list of games initially compatible with its recently announced UMD Passport program, with only select publishers showing support for the new program. The UMD Passport program enables PlayStation Vita backward compatibility by allowing users to register their existing UMD collection, after which they can purchase digital copies of their games at a discounted price. Siliconera reports that the current list [Japanese Language] for supported games includes 262 of the 606 titles available on the Japanese PlayStation Store, featuring games from Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Acquire, Tecmo Koei, SNK Playmore, and Cyberfront. Conspicuously missing are major publishers such as Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami, and Capcom, which publishes the PSP's enormously popular Monster Hunter titles. Sony has not confirmed whether these publishers will support the UMD Passport program at a later date. So far, the UMD Passport program has only been announced for Japan; Sony has yet to announce its plans for PlayStation Vita backwards compatibility in other regions.