PlayStation Vita's UMD Passport program was not perfect from day one. As a concept, it offered users nothing more than an option to pay money to re-purchase the games they already own; and as implementation, only second rate publishers participated in it. Adding insult to injury, the program has now been cancelled before its North American launch.
The main advantage of the UMD Passport program is that it allows PSP owners to transfer their games to PS Vita - after paying a "reasonable" fee - so that they won't have to carry two handheld consoles in their pockets.
But this is not the first time Western PSP owners have got treated like that. A similar program that would have allowed PSP owners to transfer their UMD games to PSP GO's digital downloads has also been cancelled ahead of the PSP GO launch. At the time, European customers were compensated by 3 free games while North American customers were given nothing.
The UMD Passport program is already working in Japan with transfer fees ranging from $6.5 to $31. The program will not be cancelled there.