Sony informed Kotaku today that the UMD Passport program, first instituted in Japan, would not be available for North American users.

This program allowed gamers to put UMD games in their PSPs to register them, then download them at a discount on the Vita.

Unfortunately, this means that when Vita launches in North America, you’ll have no way to play the UMD games you’ve collected over the PSP’s lifespan — and you’ll have to keep your PSP if you ever intend to play those games again. Any PSP games you’ve downloaded/purchased digitally will still be available.

No reason has been given (as of yet) for not offering the program. It’s possible that, for some reason, it’s just not popular and therefore not worth offering in the U.S. and Canada.

Does this change your opinion of the device? I’d say I was bummed out, but I never owned a PSP, so it doesn’t really affect me that much.

But there are a few more changes in the ToS that you’ll want to keep an eye on. Here they are, provided by Sony in convenient list form.

• New terms for parents of minor, subaccount holders regarding the limitations of chat parental controls. Your reacceptance of the Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy affirms your consent to the sharing of your child’s data that may occur if your child utilizes certain communication functionalities on PlayStation devices such as PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems.
• New terms that explain the location-based services offered through the PlayStation Vita system. For parents of minor, subaccount holders your reacceptance of the Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy affirms your consent to your subaccount holder’s user of these services on the PlayStation Vita system.
• A description of our “What’s New” section, which provides topical information about our services and advertisements.
• Information about pre-ordering content.
• The name of your “PlayStation Network account” is changing to a “Sony Entertainment Network account.”

Sony emphasized that this is truly a change in name only — you’ll get a quick software update that will change the names used on the PS3 and PS Vita. (PSP? Not getting an update “at this time.”) PlayStation Network will continue to be a part of SEN.

Stringer and the board have been discussing succession plans for three years.

“Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature,” said Stringer. “I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead.”

Bunsen Honeydew’s gotten his hands on some things that will make LittleBigPlanet 2 just a little bit stickier, looks like.

Next week, a premium level kit based on The Muppets is on the way, which includes five levels, two minigames, and two new gadgets — the Attract-O-Gel (which lets Sackboy walk on walls and ceilings) and Attract-O-Tweak (which lets you make any material sticky). And, of course, the level kit also comes with everything inside those levels, like decorations, music, objects and voices. As a bonus, you also get a Rowlf costume for your Sackperson. No clue whether or not a piano is provided.

This kit will be available starting January 24 for £4.79 / €5.99 / US $5.99 / AUS $ 9.95 / NZD $11.50.

Check out the video below for a quick peek:

Last week, Sony invited GamingAngels to visit the new launch of the Vita Social Club. I visited the Los Angeles location. The Vita Social Club is the coolest way to experience the PS Vita for yourself before you buy.

The Vita Social Club is in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, New York City, Boston, Chicago and Austin. You can check out the official site to get more information on dates and address.

At the event, go with friends or alone, you’ll get some serious one on one time with the PS Vita. You’ll get to choose from a menu of games to try like SoundShapes, UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet, Little Deviants, WipEout 2048, ModNation Racers, Reality Fighters, and Hot Shots Golf.

I’ll be heading back this weekend to get more time with the PS Vita. I wanted to take one home with me at the event, but just so you know, the security is pretty good there. I’ll have another article about my experience playing the games, but until then, visit the Vita Social club and check the PS Vita out for yourself!

There has been recent concern that with the adoption of tablets and smartphones that handheld gaming was a thing of the past. Initial slow 3DS sales seemed to support that fact, but picked up toward the end of the year. International Data Corporation (IDC) announced today in their video game forecasting that handheld sales are going to be very strong over the next few years.

“Especially given the 3DS price drop in mid-2011 and in light of respectable initial demand for Vita in Japan this past December, it appears that 2012 is shaping up to be a rebound year for dedicated handhelds,” says Lewis Ward, IDC’s research manager for gaming. “It’s absolutely true that a mind-boggling number of games have been downloaded to iOS- and Android-powered devices in the past year, but only a fraction of those games were paid for and most of those were of the $1 to $3 variety.”

But IDC believes that the rebound of handhelds will be attributed to premium-priced hardware and software sales with 3DS and Vita. As more developers have access to creating on these platforms in an efficient manner, then the software will assist in keeping the hard ware alive.

“An interesting piece of this story is what’s happening demographically,” adds Ward. “The penetration rate of paying gamers is much higher in the child and teen segment for dedicated handhelds than it is for cell phone or media tablet gamers. As long as dedicated handheld OEMs and physical format portable game developers/publishers can hold serve in the demographic niches where they currently have a substantial advantage, I expect their revenue opportunities moving forward to remain substantial.”

The forecast in terms of numbers for handheld, cell phone and tablet gaming is set to see a rise from $14.7 billion in 2012 to little over $20 billion in 2015. And that is why everyone is scrambling to make games on these platforms.

Remember Sorcery? It was a personal highlight of Sony’s E3 2010 press conference, and my reason for buying PlayStation Move. Except for the fact that the game kind of disappeared after that event.

But now, thankfully, the game is back as of a couple of months ago. In this trailer, you can get a glimpse inside what Santa Monica Studios have done with this title over the past year and a half.

Still looks good to me, but what do you think?

Sony kicked off CES 2012 with a celeb filled event. Sony was all about the PS Vita when earlier today AT&T confirmed pricing for the Vita’s 3G SKU, with subscription-free data plans starting at $15 a month.

Sony spoke about an “integrated world”. In this world all devices can connect and have unlimited video and music. All because the information is in the Cloud.

Then Kaz announces that Music Unlimited and Netflix will be available on the PS Vita. He announced Play Memories Online, a way to photos and videos to the cloud. Cellphones and Bloggie Live will connect through wifi to this service.

I love the specs on the Bloggie Live. It makes covering events so easy! It has built in WiFi, films in 1080p and can livestream to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube using Qik. The livestreams are limited to 480×270. The pure amount of content you could create with this blows my mind. The Bloggie Live is priced at $250 and is available in January after CES. Want!

Sony brought out the big celebs in Will Smith and American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson.

Watch the CES Presser here:

Tuesday CES 2012 kicks off. I used to cover the event for GamingAngels every year, but this year I can’t go. We will have coverage from other editors and we’ll be trying to keep up with the flood of information coming in. We can then ooh and ahh at all the gadget pretties we want.

The video below is my predictions for what we’ll see at CES 2012. Let us know what you are interested in hearing about.

• Escape Plan (PSN Only)
• Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
• Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
• Little Deviants
• ModNation Racers: Road Trip
• Super StarDust Delta (PSN only)
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• wipEout 2048
• Army Corps of Hell – Square Enix
• Asphalt Injection – Ubisoft
• Ben10 Galactic Racing – D3 Publisher of America
• Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND – Aksys Games
• Dungeon Hunter Alliance – Ubisoft, Inc.
• Dynasty Warriors Next – Tecmo Koei
• F1 2011 – Codemasters
• EA Sports FIFA Soccer – Electronic Arts
• Lumines Electronic Symphony – Ubisoft
• Michael Jackson The Experience – Ubisoft
• Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only) – Sony Online Entertainment
• Rayman Origins – Ubisoft
• Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen – Namco Bandai
• Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only) – Drinkbox Studios
• Touch My Katamari – Namco Bandai
• Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 – Capcom
• Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition – Sega of America

Other games are due within a “launch window”:

• Gravity Rush
• MLB 12 The Show
• Reality Fighters
• Unit 13
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention – NIS America
• NINJA GAIDEN ∑ PLUS – Tecmo Koei
• Ridge Racer – Namco Bandai
• Silent Hill Book of Memories – Konami
• Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted – 505 Games

Which of these games are you looking forward to? I’m personally craving Touch My Katamari, so I’m glad it will be a launch title.

(Info from GameTrailers.)