PSP2 to be announced?

Publishers significantly ramp up marketing plans for Sony handheld for this Q4


We already have a fair idea what to expect at next month’s E3 – plenty of into about Move, Natal and the 3DS (and Vitality Sensor) for instance – but Sony could perhaps be saving the biggest surprise of all.

MCV has been informed of a significant increase in marketing spend at two key publishers for Q4 2010. At a time when the PSP is languishing in Western markets – and its most recent iteration, the PSPgo, is falling flat – it is being speculated that publishers are laying the ground for an offensive on a brand new iteration of Sony’s handheld.

Another publisher has also told MCV that it is waiting on a specific announcement from the platform holder before it can reveal of its future PSP plans until, though it did allude to the ongoing development of several unnamed titles behind closed doors.

The PSP is currently in its sixth year on the market, and despite having undergone a number of revisions remains largely unchanged from its initial launch.

The exception, of course, is the PSPgo. Sony has never released sales data for the device, though the machine has struggled at retail and the numbers are widely known to be alarmingly low across every major market.

Nintendo will this year launch the successor to the DS, a machine that is also in its sixth year.

Though the PSP has sold better overall than it has ever been credited for, it faces stiffer competition now than at any point in its history. The growing market importance of Apple and its iPhone and iPod Touch has asked serious questions of PSPs multimedia credentials.

A new machine could be the only answer to this challenge.

Note, though, that this story is based on speculation from a senior industry source. As far as we're aware, there's been no official sighting of a new device. When asked by MCV, a Sony spokesperson was very clear in stating that there are no imminent plans to launch a new PSP.



If it does exist, however, don’t expect any news on the device prior to E3 as Sony will be doing everything it possibly can to prevent the sort of leak that soured last year’s PSPgo reveal.

Sauce.

 Conceptual design

I'd cream all over my pants if this was true.

This is pretty old (at least, to me). Not sure if those pictures are actually from Sony though. Console looks difficult to use LR, let alone carrying it around with you. I'll most likely purchase it if it's affordable, that and I sorta want to play MH3G whenever it comes out.

I know it's old you silly goose, but there's a lot more info on it now. It's supposed to emulate the PS2 and to have the functionality of the Dreamcast, you know, online gaming, HDD and stuff.

If it's true that it will have the functionality of a DC, I will definitely buy it. DC was my baby back in the days when LOLFREEINTERNET existed, and I could connect to EU servers to play MMOs. As long as it doesn't require sh`itty PS3s to connect2online, I'm satisfied. But having a actual HDD within the console helps too. As long as there are mem slots to expand storage, or a way to get a bigger HDD.

Can't wait.. if this is true.

I don't know man. I can't wait. If this baby has PS2 and PSP backwards compatibility... Damn, I have PSP until the day I die mang. I wonder if they'll be able to open it to the Scene for Homebrews and modding :/

Not saying that someone won't find a way, but it'll be a lot harder. Because the PSP-3000 can't be modded like it's two predecessors, so I'm under the assumption that this upcoming PSP will be even harder to crack than that. I might wait like around half a year or a full year before I purchase it though, just to see if there are any glitches, exploits, or whether it's mod-able or what.

I was reading, that possibly the PSP2 could have the Cell processor like the PS3, but in a 4-cell version. That'd be freaking awesome mang.

I really don't like that design. Rest of it looks sweet though.