The Smidgen

Big old rumor alert here so grab that chunk of salt you keep laying around for just such an occasion.  It seems that SquareEnix head, Yoichi Wada, is predicting that Nintendo will unleash a Wii HD with graphic capabilities similar to the current PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

This of course would not be the first time for such a rumor but it is the first one I know of coming from the head of a major game development studio.

An HD Wii that supports HDMI and 1080p with actual current gen graphics would go a long way toward swinging my attention back to the big N.  Of course playing catchup in 2011 is all fine and dandy until the next Xbox releases in 2012 (another rumor, that one).

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).