PSP games, which come on the Universal Media Disk (UMD), cannot be copied because UMD is a read only format. Although you can't copy PSP game files, you can download other games from the internet and even participate in playing a game that you don't even own. If you are much of a gamer, you're going to want to invest in the new 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo due out in July 2006.

Get The "Gameshare Version"

You can share your game with your friend if you have the "Gameshare version" of the PSP software. This can be for a multiplayer game but it doesn't have to be. Your friend in another location has to have the PSP of course, but not the particular game you are sharing. Although your friend can copy PSP game files through this avenue, he still can't play the game without having to physically have it because the UMD disk is read only. While your friend could copy the game to his Memory Stick there would be no way to load it for gameplay.

As far as the gameshare option, games do take longer to load when they are being shared and bonus features usually aren't available but it is a viable option.

An Alternative is PSPBlender.com

You can also download and copy PSP game files to your Memory Stick from online gaming sites. One such site, pspblender.com has games and videos you can download for a one-time lifetime membership fee. You download the games to your PC and then on to your PSP using a USB cable and your Memory Stick. They also have a selection of movies and music and the site insists these are legal downloads.

One thing that we can hope for with the PSP is upgrades. The firmware, which is the operating system for the PSP has already been upgraded several times and the updates are free to PSP owners. New features have been added to the PSP with at least the last two upgrades. The capacity for internet connectivity was one such feature added on a recent upgrade. Maybe there will come a time when Sony will come out with a rewriteable UMD disk thus allowing us to copy PSP game files with ease.

Until then, we'll have to rely on other methods to copy PSP game files. However, the PSP has so much more to offer other than games that we'll be busy for some time to come just exploring everything it does do.