For a limited time beginning October 1st, all launch PSPgo units will come with a PSN voucher to download Rock Band Unplugged Lite, a free version of Rock Band Unplugged featuring five full songs. What’s also cool about the “Lite” version is its expandability. Once you have the app downloaded and installed, you will be able to personalize your own version of the game by purchasing new tracks from the Rock Band music store, if you so desire.

I think this is a really neat idea for a game of this type, and a format that could work out great for future games on the PSPgo. It’s not nearly as nice a bonus as the free copy of Gran Turismo early European PSPgo adopters are getting, but it’s still free. And who knows, the GT PSP freebie hasn’t been ruled out for North America, so we could very well get it here too.

Rock Band Unplugged On the PSPgo [PlayStation.Blog]

In what is hopefully an indicator of how most, if not all, PSP titles will be released moving forward, Atlus has confirmed that on September 22nd SMT: Persona will be launching digitally via the PSN store simultaneously with the UMD retail version we’ve already known about. The PSP go doesn’t come out until October, but with the launches fairly close together this clearly seems to be a move on Atlus’ part to be one of the first publishers to please current PSP owners and early adopters of Sony’s digital-download-only device. Atlus always aims to please, after all.

There is one small caveat to this plan, though. When the game launches, the PSN version will carry the exact same $40 price as the UMD version. A UMD, might I remind you, that comes in a Collector’s Edition box set containing a 2-CD soundtrack.

Don’t know about you, but to me $40 seems a tad pricey for the PSN version — if you won’t get the collectible packaging and soundtrack it doesn’t seem fair to pay the same price. When NIS made Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! a PSN-only release the original $30 retail price was cut down to $20, and I would’ve expected something similar here (and in other future releases). If PSN versions are going to sell at the same price as boxed retail copies like this I’m not sure how much of an audience the PSP go is going to attract. Of course, by the time the go launches, Persona will probably be out of stock at most stores and consumers will be stuck with having to find a used copy or settle for the PSN version.

Another positive aftereffect of the new PSP Go is that it seems to have finally forced Sony into making more PS1 classics available for download on the PlayStation Store for both PSP and PS3 users to enjoy. Owners of both platforms have been vehemently demanding more downloadable PS1 titles for a while now, and have angrily watched PlayStation Store updates go by week after week with rarely a PS1 game to be found. But now there are no more excuses, and Sony knows it.

By the end of 2009, Sony says over 60 PS1 classics will be added to the PSN storefront. I haven’t checked the current tally, but I know there haven’t been 60 PS1 classics released on PSN since the service started in 2007 (at least not in the US). Now we’re going to get over that amount in half a year’s time!

This PS1 push has already begun, too, with two titles being added to the PS1 classic library as of Tuesday evening. Those games are, drum roll, please…Final Fantasy VII and the original Medal of Honor! FFVII is priced at $9.99, MoH even cheaper at $5.99. Great prices for two true classics.

What’s more, Sony has also put a lofty number on the quantity of PSP games that will be available digitally for use on the PSP Go. Beginning this fall, somewhere around 300 PSP games will be available via PSN for on-the-go gaming enthusiasts to choose from. That number will include brand new games that launch later this year on UMD and PSN, and presumably a wide selection of older UMD titles made PSN-ready.

So whether you choose to adopt the PSP Go or stick with your trusty PSP-1000/2000/3000 (or use neither and simply crave more PS1 classics for your PS3), you’re in for a digital content boom over the coming months and beyond.