PSP2 probably is or isn't coming -- maybe
By Ryan Block 
posted March 13th 2007 5:25PM
posted March 13th 2007 5:25PM
Almost since its inception the PSP has been subject of relentless redesign rumors -- and why not? By most portable gaming device standards it's positively ginormous. Blame it on the UMD, that beautifully massive 4.3-inch screen, or its lack of internal memory, but a thinner, trimmed down PSP is just what the doctor ordered. And while Sony has repeatedly (and expectedly) denied the prospect of an overhaul, SCE UK managing director Ray Maguire recently stated that a "smaller, lighter" PSP was in the wings; of course, that was immediately rebuked by an SCE UK statement that "There are no immediate changes planned for PSP." Look, the PSP isn't going to be like this forever -- either they introduce a new model, or they redesign the current one, but pretending like neither is happening is just silly. We're on to your little game, Sony!
give them hell engadget , defender of all psp watchers.
I'm still waiting for my portable Xbox w/ a solid state drive.
If they make the screen smaller then what would be the point of choosing a psp over a cellphone if you wanted movies and games. Make it thinner, keep the screen.
I say design it like the DS (yes, bite it off whole; try not to get sued, but clamshell is the One True Portable Design), keeping the screen size the same. Have it take up the whole top half, like a laptop screen, and put dual analog nubbins in the "usual" (PS2/PS3) locations on the bottom half. I would shell out another 200 bucks for one of those, even if it didn't add any other new features (provided, of course, that somebody hacked it so I could downgrade it and run homebrew, which they would).
Maybe if Sony won't do it for me, Ben Heck would...
EWWWWW Noo... That's not the point of the PSP. Sony wanted a device that could play games and be used as a media player. The clamshell-split screen design of the DS is what I personally find to be a drawback.
It may work for the game design philosophy of Nintendo, but that wouldn't work from a game design philosophy standpoint with regards to Sony (or Microsoft as well)
Just my .02
The PSP will never have a screen change.
It was originally designed to be compatable with the PS3 and with widescreen movies. This was backed up by the creator of the PSP Shin'ichi Ogasawara.
Heres what I want Sony...
Thinner, better controls, and Internal memory (maybe 20 - 30 GB)
C'mon Sony make me buy this freakin thing!
I mean, the third option is they could just lay down and admit defeat by Nintendo and stop producing PSPs altogether.
"Positively ginormous"? I find the PSP does a great job of cramming all that hardware into a package that size. Open it up, see for yourself. Very little space is wasted. I think the size is OK. Not quite pocket-friendly, but neither was the first DS.
I think Nintendo has made us think that it's OK to buy something you already have over and over because it's a different shape. Don't call me a fanboy here, I have a DS Lite, but I think the PSP has yet to show us its true potential. It's a powerful little device, so let's see some awesome games before we get new hardware or a redesign. What they could do instead is quietly improve little things, like the refresh rate on the screen (ghosting is a big problem in certain games, like GTA) on
the newer units. Also, allowing for homebrew (instead of impeding it with every firmware update) would cause a huge jump in sales.
I love my PSP, but I'm afraid Sony is in a bad way these days. They're unlikely to listen to what anyone wants at this point...
My guess is the screen /keyboard arrangement on the Mylo is the way Sony might go for a PSP2. My preference though would be though as James suggested.... the same size screen as today in a thin clamshell design (20% of total thickness for the screen / top half) that covers a pair of analog nubs.
its funny that the psp and the ps3 are really heavily criticised seeing as you get a whole lot more than you pay for with these devices whereas normally sony charge a premium , just because its by sony.
i think that they will begin to start doubting themselves soon unless they really wow the hell out of people with the ps3, which i'm sure they can do.
if and when the ps3 gets the vote of the general public they could eclipse sales of the ps2 because the ps3 has some seriously badass shit in thier, you just have to lok at motorstorm and you can tell.
but it all depends if they get it right . it might be just a mirror of the ds/psp . nintendo really got thier game right at the moment , but i cant resist the serious stuff in the ps3 so i'm going for that when the prices drop a little.
There are a lot of good ideas here, but in all honestly Sony has not grabbed the handheld market like it did with the PS1 and PS2 in the console market. I used to work at a EB Games, and I can tell you we sold more GBA-SP's and DS' than we did PSPs. The big drawback is price... While I agree with the above post in terms of price (You'll be paying more than the average price for an LCD TV if it has a Sony brand name), I can't in any way agree that it is the correct price for a handheld device. Because the PSP is not competitively priced against its competition, it will never be able to compete with Nintendo's sales numbers. Also, the PSP is marketed to the wrong demographic for handhelds. Nintendo primarily sells well for younger audiences as well as older ones. Sony, on the other hand has marketed their hardware to the same market thats buying PS2's and PS3's.
Sony had a great run in the gaming industry, but they need to start finding something unique and pleasing to everyone if they are going to continue to compete with Nintendo and Microsoft. But with the announcement of the new additions to their online service for the PS3, my hopes for that are starting to fall. From what I've heard it's like The Sims Online. I have even less hope for Sony's future in the gaming industry now after reading Jack Tretton's interview in EGM.
>I used to work at a EB Games, and I can tell you we sold more GBA-SP's and DS' than we did PSPs.
is that really a shock? Handheld market had been exclusively owned by Nintendo before PSP showed up. Not only they had to break in, they had to compete with DS, which is backward compa. with hundreds of game.
with God of War and Final Fantasy Crisis Core coming out this year, I don't see why Sony want to come up with a new machine. Those 2 games will sell PSP by themsevles.
I hear Apple's not designing any more iPods either. They're done, 's all good.
Widescreen clamshell (no stupid touchpad) would reduce the PSP size significantly (controls on bottom and screen on top) and removing the lame UMD and putting games on some kind of encrypted, read-only MS-ProDuo card (2 MS-ProDuo slots please) would really make it lighter.
There is no reason to introduce a new PSP. There are only 2 good games for it; Daxter and Lumines. Not only that, but they did such a bad job cramming it all in there in the first place (the whole soft button and cracking of the screen due to bad button placement) and then sony defending the product saying it was a work of art and they had no intentions on changing it to fix the issue. That's right, cracked LCD screens on a portable gaming console is an artistic feature, not a problem!
Wow Paul.
Gotta give it to ya. So much bias in such a short post. I didn't think it was possible.
Daxter and Lumines is what YOU like. Doesn't mean that the rest is bad. Also, they've been applauded a whole lot because of how well they crammed all that tech in there.
The buttons are placed next to the screen, yes. But that's not why the screens crack. Apparently people like pushing those buttons with their trusty hammers.
I only really care about one design issue on the psp. Dual sticks. As a fps fan, control is a serious, frustrating issue. The lack of two sticks just boggles my mind, especially if their target market isn't the young and old. The only other thing that bothers me is the inability to use an external keyboard. Seems like a glaring miss given some of it's capabilities. But overall I think it's a cool media/gaming device that just hasn't had the support from developers.
I pretty my stick to my DS for everything other than fps. I enjoy the origianl, creative games for the DS (elite beat and trauma center come to mind).
Actually, if SONY would listen. They should keep the PSP screen size because it is just beautiful but if they include a harddrive of 30 or 60gbs, hell even an 8gb flash drive at least something. They could really have the PSP take off. Games, music, movies all in one nice package. Then I believe they would put a dent into Apple sales because you would have a bigger better screen. C'mon Sony quite being greedy and give us what we want.
Agree with many of the above comments, esp. about getting rid of UMD. Normally, Sony, when part of an organism dies, the doctor cuts it off. It's not healthy to let necrotic tissue fester.
As for dual-stick control for FPS... well, it's not an FPS per se but I think Ratchet and Clank did an excellent job working around the missing right-hand nub. You can use the nub to run in an absolute direction (e.g. relative to the camera), or you can use the + pad to strafe and the shoulder buttons to turn. I found that it worked really well, and was almost as intuitive as the console version. Of course, this still doesn't let you aim up and down effectively, but a little bit of auto-aim (think Doom) helps immensely with that. You're never going to get headshots in Battlefield without a second stick, but with Ratchet they did a good job with what they had.
O.k guys we all should know that sony has just announced a new camcorder that records 1080 they don't say whether it is 1080p or 1080i most likely it is 1080i and thats why they don't state it. But anyhow the camcorder will be including an outstanding 8 gb memory card! that allows for up to 4 hours of HD RECORDING TIME! So I don't think it would be to farfetched to imagine a redesigned PSP 2 with a built in Camera and 8gb Memory Card which by the way would be faster than an internal HDD or how about forget the UMD format and come in with MINI BLU-RAY MOVIES if DVD size disk hold 50 gb then mini's should be able to hold at least 12 gb alot more than you need for the resolution for the size of that screen! Hey I've always said if your going to dream might as well dream it BIG!!! Let me know what you guys think of my theories! thank you....
Dan A.