PSP2 Concept. Credit: Joe Thomas and Rocco Devenanzio
The computer gaming industry is certainly no stranger to rumor and one of the most recent, and juicy, involves speculation on the PSP2. Keep in mind, none of this information has been mentioned or confirmed by Sony. It’s a rumor, remember?
Anyway, Acclaim developer, David Perry, started this whole thing off with a message he made on his Facebook and Twitter accounts that Kotaku picked up and repeated, and now I will do the same. His quote,
“I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!,”
has people running ragged questioning what Sony will do. Will they go with an all flash based system, presumably Memory-Stick Pro Duo (Quad Singulo Disco Ipso Facto …), and direct download and if so, how will they support backward compatibility? Or will this “new” PSP be another revision giving us the PSP-4000 (since we’re on the PSP-3000 now)?
Well you know what, when I see a rumor saying that Sony will can the UMD all I can say is, “no sh*t, it’s way over due.” Other speculation is that Sony will announce the PSP2 officially at this years E3 in June and if they are planning to release one any time soon, that would be the time to mention it. Hopefully in June we can lay to rest yet another failed proprietary Sony format (no one is weeping for you MiniDisc).
#1 by Opius on February 28, 2009 - 11:26 am
Now a flash based, direct download portable actually sounds like a good idea. Of course without game cartridges, many stores may not carry them… as places like Gamestop make all their cash via game sales.
Also… thank god that UMD is dead. What a crap idea that was. Lets release a new video format with smaller discs… but make them cost exactly the same as dvds… thats smart!
#2 by Raiven on February 28, 2009 - 1:13 pm
Keep in mind it is just a rumor but the flash based would mean flash cards as well as a embedded flash memory on the devise. So if they sold games on Memory Sticks instead of UMD’s then the Gamestops of the world could still keep a retail item. It might work. I doubt they would truly want to abandon the physical media completely just yet. It’s coming for sure, but I don’t think we’re ready for that.