Sony PSP2 rumors debunked, probably not for the last time
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Dec 17th 2008 5:10PM
posted Dec 17th 2008 5:10PM
OK, guys and gals, we hate to break it to you -- John Koller, Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing has said it in plain English: "no plans for a PSP2 are underway." Apparently, the company is pushing developers towards the PlayStation store for their primary point of sale, a move that some people have taken to mean that the companies have been secretly developing games for some sort of new platform. Of course, in the light of some similarly "cryptic" statements we reported yesterday, some folks might continue to be gullible skeptical. Which is fine, as long as nobody asks us when the device pictured above will be released. 'Cos it won't be. Evar.
After which he immediately thought to himself, "Whew! Dodged a bullet there. At least they don't suspect anything about the upcoming PS2P!"
Dual Analog Sticks
SSD rather than UMD
Games sold on 4GB memory sticks - uploadable to the SSD drive
Games sold online - downloadable to the SSD (redownloadable with proof of original purchase)
PSP SDK for downloadable APPS on PSP website, digitaly certified by SONY after testing (think App Store)
Bluetooth w/ A2DP and OBEX
SKYPE
Opera web browser
Touchscreen with hideaway touch keyboard
FTFW !!!
@ flashpoint....go ahead and hold your breath until ANY of that happens. PSP=MASSIVE PHAILURE, no need to try again.
All I want:
- Touch Screen
- 2 Analog sticks
- motion sensors like SIXAXIS
You forgot WiFi Flashpoint :Oo !!
All I want is a awesome screen and great battery life for travelling.
Obviously they're going to make a PSP2. Otherwise Apple will keep getting away with calling the iPhone a gaming platform.
No interlacing problems...
I think if it had A2DP Id do bad bad things to get my hands on one immediately......
If they made it like in that pic, I would buy it.
The actual PSP2 better have widescreen dual touchscreens and swappable gamepads.
or, at least that's what you want it to have
Sounds more like what the DS2 would have to me...
Look at my user name ^
The PS3 and the PSP looked to have failed miserably this year. I was kind of hoping that because of that they would try and make a major comeback with the PSP. So many ideas for the PSP but sony don't seem to care. The PSP is a great device but lacked Quality games so I ditched it bought a DS and don't like that either.
We are lacking a solid Handheld gaming device. Hopefully there is a PSP on the way. Cause lets face it the DS Isn't that much better.
Exactly! My DS is just a really expensive alarm clock right now.
and weirdly, my alarm clock now plays dual screen mario games...
and oddly, my alarm clock now plays dual screen mario games
Kris,
I gotta agree with you there. The PSP could have been great if they actually listened to users (2nd analog stick, anyone?)
It did have a couple decent games. I had fun with crisis core and God of War, and I picked up Mortal Kombat on the cheap just because I've always loved MK. Other than that, I used it for music for a while before i picked up a sandisk player. Now, All I really use the PSP for is MAYBE some web browsing from the couch, but most of all, i use the visualizer while me and my friends smoke hookah. Expensive visualizer is just about as bad as expensive alarm clock, and seeing as the PSP doesn't even have a damn alarm clock, I feel a bit shortchanged.
I'll admit the PSP has a fairly bad selection, but I highly disagree with your comment on the PS3. Just because the system didn't match the 360 in sales does not mean it failed at all. It has plenty of good games on it now and more coming. So I really have to disagree there.
But as for the PSP, I still have it, dunno why. I had both PSP and DS Lite, got rid of the DS towards Rock Band, never looked back. I might look to get rid of my PSP too if I ever get Killzone back and finish it. KZ is by far my favorite PSP game.
failed? not really. ps3 dominated in software but lacked in hardware, and psp dominated in hardware but lacked in software.
Yeah, I agree.
It would be wise for Sony to ditch the "Playstation" moniker after this generation. They seemed to have destroyed its image (I'm not saying they suck, I'm just saying consumers aren't grabbing them up just because it's "Playstation"). It's for good reason why Nintendo doesn't stick to one name outside of "Nintendo - whatever" They even changed their red logo to gray to make it more attractive to casual and older gamers.
So while I fully expect that Sony will release a portable gaming platform in the next year or two; I highly doubt it'll be anything named "PSP" or the like. They've spent too much money and resources to ditch everything altogether. They'll just, hopefully, learn from their mistakes and over-ambition.
There is a solid portable gaming device. It's called the iPhone and iPod touch. Sure, hardcore gamers might regret the lack of physical buttons, but its not hardcore gamers that pad the profits of console makers, its the casual gamer. Why do you think the Wii far outsells both the PS3 and Xbox 360, and Nintendo makes a real profit. For the casual gamer, the iPhone and iPod touch are perfect.
Aww damn it. I voted Ashwin up, and then I realized he wasn't being sarcastic!
Unfortunately, hindsight is 20-20. Making a powerful handheld gaming device is a great concept and you’d think it would be wildly successful but it comes with some inherent problems. The hardware is highly coveted because it is so powerful and multifunctional. Unfortunately the development cost and time to make quality games is too high and the return is just not worth it from a business standpoint. A lot of the good developers have abandoned it in favor of the more powerful home consoles. When it comes to mass market appeal, what sells is top of the line games for home consoles and quick, easy and simple games for the portable consoles. Until the development time for games can be cut down to a couple of months, the PSP is going to have trouble getting a lot of quality games. A brand new, even more powerful PSP would likely have the same exact problems that the original had at its launch. The hacker community would love it for sure but it wouldn’t have the commercial success that Sony is looking for. They’d be better off just slapping an extra analog nub and a touch-screen on the current PSP just to make people happy. You can’t continue to lose money on hardware sales that aren’t being made up by software sales. Sony is in a good place right now since they aren’t losing money on PSP sales anymore. I doubt that they want to go down that road again anytime soon.
Shocker.
I totally expected Sony to confirm they are planning a PSP2 right before Christmas week. D-UH.
that's a good plan for them though, seeing as everything else they try (not much) fails. do something really dumb and get lucky ;)
I think you'll find he was being sarcastic, they're not going to announce a new PTP just before one of their, if not their busiest time for sales! It would be a commercial blunder of epic proportions.
I don't doubt a PSP2 is in development, given the lead time on this products, if we want to see one before 2012, it should be in development!
maybe its gonna be a new mylo ......
or maybe not...
well i hope its a hybrid mylo/ psp
.....MSP :D :D
i pretty much just want the one in the picture...sorry sony, but the bar is set high
I think Sony's R&D team should hire whoever made that mockup.
Levi,
Are you Levi Buchanan? The same Levi from IGN who wrote possibly the ONLY negative review for the iPhone version of Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes? The vast majority of reviewers and users love the game and find it incredibly impressive and fun to play. The vast majority of people also find the touch screen controls very usable after bit of practice. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but since your opinion of this particular game happens to conflict with almost everybody else's, you should contemplate the discrepancy. Your employers at IGN should also note that they are paying a reviewer who is either too uncoordinated or too lazy to master the controls of a game that most casual users have had no problems with.
Then again, maybe you are different Levi. It is, after all, the 135th most popular boys name in the U.S. (as of 2006)
@rufusryker
Dude, wrong thread.
Ash, good sales don't make a gaming platform the best. The Wii outsells the 360 and the PS3 because it appeals to people who aren't gamers. Nintendo said it themselves... in fact, it was the core subject of pretty much every keynote from the first 2 years of the console's life.
The App Store is filled with crap. The ratio of crap to good is so incredibly small compared to even the Wii, that it would just completely fail if it were on the shelves of EB. If it was JUST a gaming system, the DS would completely destroy its sales. If it was PRIMARILY a gaming device, with secondary features allowing the playback of some music and meticulously formatted video and the worst web browser in history, the PSP would destroy it as well.
The only reason games are selling well on it is because people bought the Touch or iPhone for other reasons, and they are very easy to buy. Hell, I've wasted a lot of money on the games there because I WANT to like them.
dammit, wrong thread :( Damn you, Joystiq comment system!!
I meant to reply to this one too though. I'm not that reviewer. I also think you should reconsider your thoughts on reviews from paid sources. I think a good unbiased YouTube review is usually a pretty good place to get some feedback on a game you want to try out.
My thoughts on Brothers In Arms on the iPhone is that it is impressive, and a step in the right direction, but the game just isn't fun. It's a completely watered down game riddled with bad 3D collision and hit detection. It can be entertaining I suppose. Yeah, it's my opinion, and my opinion is often different from the norm. I don't like Halo, thought Mario Galaxy was not as good as Mario 64, and think the Zelda franchise went to crap after it turned 3D. I can come up with great reasoning behind all of that, but it is just a matter of opinion.
Lastly, I have to say that I meant to criticize the couple positive reviews of the game more than the game itself. The reviews I saw claimed that it was every bit as good as a full fledged game on the PSP or DS, which is just not true. BIA's graphics are very sub par, even by DS standards. The game's length is not sufficient. The movement engine is not nearly polished as comparable games on the other platforms. It offers far simpler gameplay. All of which are to be expected, as it is still technically a cellphone game, but don't compare BIA on the iPhone to games like Medal of Honor on the PSP or Metroid Prime on the DS. They are far better products.
That's all. :)
You do realise that any fool can make a mockup that doesnt account for real world restraints, and the reason why most faked mockups look better then the actual end products is because they couldn't actually be made.
I don't care what you all say. That mockup is an absolute thing of beauty.
Who cares, the iPod touch/ iPhone is a better gaming device than the psp could ever be.
Yes, a complete lack of physical gaming controls is definitely better......
you, sir, are the new clak.
FUCK OFF
you know he might have been being sarcastic there. (directed at the people who ranked him low)
http://psp.ign.com/articles/698/698710p1.html
vs
http://wireless.ign.com/articles/938/938584p1.html
THANK YOU!! I know! Right! Those buttons suck! They just get sticky, and stop working right. The fact that the ipod/ iPhone don't have buttons bake them WAY better. I can just wipe the screne/controls off, and keep going.
FINALLY, someone who reads engadget who has a head on their shoulders!
I think it's not a good idea to try to be sarcastic without /sarcasm these days.. People around here tend to be too offensive/defensive for some reason.. unless its really obvious that it's sarcasm, but looking at that guys posts, I highly doubt it..
@ giant balls
I own the psp , ds and ipod touch and each one has pros / cons for gaming (the ipod touch is the worst)
but give me that device with multi touch and 16/32gb (and maybe linux dual boot) included and it will replace them all...
I still don't believe in iPod Touch / iPhone gaming. I own a iPod Touch, and most games on the device are fun for maybe a few days, but you can't really get into them. It might just be that there aren't that many good games on the iPod/iPhone platform, but I think touch screen acts as a huge limitation for games. Playing racing games, like MotoChaser, on the touch can be awkward at times, because when you kind of have to turn your head to follow the screen as you're turning the device to steer. And also, I can't imagine playing good FPS games on the touch, due to lack of physical buttons.
Now, if PSP2 ditched the UMD, thought of a way to sync games from your PS3 or PC to the PSP2, and get touch screen + accelometer - while keeping the physical buttons -, that would truly be the ruler of all handheld gaming devices.
I think Sony will try very hard to come up with something that will boost the sales of PlayStation platform, because PS3 is tanking right now.
You have written 41 comments since you came to being on December 8th, not one of them useful in any way other then making yourself look like an idiot;is there something wrong with you or do you take pleasure in being low ranked?
I hope you're joking
Brothers In Arms for the iPhone/Touch is the best example of how the platform will never compete with the PSP as far as quality games are concerned. Because people pirate the crap out of PSP games and developers have backed off, App Store games might sell better. But holy crap, the games suck so badly.
So when exactly will the device pictured be released?
worldwide release on doomsday
wait ps2p...
screw that.
i want a ps3p...
agreed
I really wish Sony could hire that guy who made that picture.. It looks really awesome.. have it closed for movies and stuff, open for gaming.. make it touchscreen and it will be totally awesome!
I agree wholeheartedly! That "mock up" is truly amazing, and a great example of how their next iteration ought to be...
"cryptic" is engadget's new favorite word
looks great but hum i think we need to have a phone in there somewhere before this gaming thing going to catch on for real..
so why not just put a simpel phone in there, bluetooth then i am good with this..
I want that mockup to be a realup
Is the game on the screen a real game? Because it looks like one I want to play. I see a T-Rex: I am sold.
The game is Monster Hunter Freedom.
And yes, that mockup is amazing... even if it is impossible
ZOMG!!! the PSP2 looks awesome!!!!!! I can't wait!!
When's it coming out??!!!!!
"'Cos it won't be. Evar."
This is sad. Would have been my first handheld console since the original big, fat, gray GameBoy.
The pictured device won't ever be released... like I'm gullible enough to believe that.
;-)
My man in Japan informs me that the next PSP2 (BTW it will be called iPSPII) will sport double capacitive touchscreens, voice command, accelerometer, altimeter, digital compass,A-GPS,WIFI, mobile broadband, pico projector, BT, IR,8megapixel videocam, youtube, a choice of browsers, VOIP, DTV-B, DTV-S, 8in1 card reader,7.1surround sound,DAB/FM,push e-mail, MMS, 32GB SSD, and the model in pink will have an extensible vibrator too;
The light blue model instead will come with an inflatable doll.
Its price will be disclosed at CES.
dont get the nerds too excited ;)
We prefer the term "geek."
Pfft... 32gb SSD, weak.
http://www.slashgear.com/bitmicro-updates-worlds-largest-ssd-to-16tb-0510095/
It must be done.
I'm gonna have to agree with that, whoever created that picture did an amazing job. Since Sony already said it wouldn't be happening, maybe Microsoft should take that idea and make a 360Portable.
Although this in an interesting, and old, idea submitted by who knows who, it reminds me of a Sony DLP tv.
I KNOW it's just a fake render, and I KNOW it's been used a thousand times before,
but seriously, if the PSP2 looks like that and isn't a buggy mess, I'm buying one.
Toss at least 480p OLED (I wish 720p, but that's folly I'm sure) on that thing and they'll kick the DS ass if it's not ridiculously expensive.
While I'm at it,
Start porting lots of PS2 games with next gen hardware,
720p OLED
Wireless HDMI so you can hook it up to your home A/V and use the PSP2 as a controller
ability to load android/linux/whatever like on PS3, but not F*)#IN crippled. Pretty please?
^^Yeah, that'll probably never happen... but tell me you wouldn't buy one of those.
Hmmm...
The only OLED TV on the market is made by Sony and is $2500 (it's 11 inches, but the technology is still expensive)
Wireless HDMI is scarce, but costs around $300-$500
PS2 ports have been DISCOURAGED by Sony already, and re-instating them would look bad
"Ability to load Android/Linux/Whatever" - Android is for PHONES, Linux requires a larger level of computing power
Congratulations, you just made a PSP that goes against what Sony stands for and costs well over $3000
Not all OLED technology is super expensive right now. AMOLED screens are used in some phones, and they are far less than the Sonly TV when you compare the prices in a ratio.
Android's original intention was for phones, but it has the potential to be just as good of a media OS or PDA OS. Look at the iPod touch... the iPhone OS works great without the phone capabilities.
But yeah, I do agree that the list is a bit ambitious. Sony would never make something that expensive after all the pirating that goes on in the PSP community. :(
that mockup isnt very conducive to shoulder buttons. at best you can have just the 2 shoulder buttons on that little angle before the unit thins out. but even that would be uncomfortable when gaming.
I have a DS Lite and a PSP 2000. In my opinion, the DS has a better catalog of games simply due to the more usable controls. The one analog stick makes ANY type of game awkward to play, especially FPS and 3rd person action games. This is unfortunate of a platform that largely seems to be designed for this genre.
There is room for a second analog stick on the PSP now, Sony just needs to add it. Also, SD/Memory Stick games or downloadable games would be much better than UMDs (which suck). A touch screen would not be as important, as it would kind of be copying the DS and not fit well with many of the games that are intended for the PSP (FPS, action, etc.). Internal storage would be nice, but also not required.
Many of these are minor changes that would make it INFINITELY better. While the mockup above would be awesome, Sony should really get on adding a second analog stick.
When will the device pictured above will be released? :P
I am sure one day they will make a second PSP or some other similar device, I would not say never, where did that mock up come from anyway?
I like the design but the down side to this design is where will the top trigger buttons go? Sony would have to carve out a wide enough section and place the L and R buttons in that section to fit general sized index fingers. But since it wont come into reality. good to dream i guess.
well duh?!
if the director did say that psp2 is in the works..
its like they are saying dont buy a psp cause psp2 will be out soon..
Too bad it will never come out, that thing is HOT!
It would certainly beat the iphone and the dsi if it had all that Flashpoint mentioned plus a full querty keyboard, 3G and retrocompability with psp games and some way of buying games straight in digital media from the PSN to be downloaded straight to the internal memory that way it would hit the ground with a pretty big library of real games.