Any Truth To PSP Revision Rumours ?

Team Purple writes "Kotaku seems to be convinced a new revision of Sony's PlayStation Portable will be hitting by the end of the year. Yesterday, they posted a rumor that the system would arrive sometime this year, and would feature, among other things, faster load times, 8 GB of built-in flash memory, and the possibility of a touch screen and a built in camera. Today, GamesIndustry.biz has a story highlighting a speech by SCE UK bigwig Ray Maguire, saying that a new 'smaller, lighter' PSP was in the works. Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs seems less than convinced, and CVG reports other Sony officials say Maguire's comments were blown out of proportion." For whatever it's worth, at the Sony blogger event last week the PSP folks onhand were adamant that there wouldn't be a hardware revision any time soon.

the touchscreen seems least likely

[drinkypoo]

They're not going to add a major input device to the system this late in its lifetime. Period. And there's little reason to revise the PSP, which is already quite tightly packed in. It has to be a certain minimum size to support a sizable screen, and a smaller screen ain't going to fly, especially not at PSP prices. I think the whole thing is a bunch of crap :) With that said, how far off can the PSP's successor be?

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[Aladrin]

While I tend to agree they they won't add the touch-screen (too bad, it'd be nice), I disagree about the screen size. The 4.3 inch screen (their marketing worked, I remember the screen size) has been one of the major features, but I really don't notice the difference between playing that and playing a DS, which has a much smaller screen.

Why? It's a hand-held. You hold it close when you play it. It doesn't need a monster screen.

If they reworked the controls to give it a better analog stick (instead of a

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[Nerdfest]

The touch screen would be especially nice for non-game software, such as the built in browser. One of the Archos devices has it, and I can't imagine using the browser without it.

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[benzapp]

It's funny, I hear these complaints about PSP games all the time. I'm a busy guy and don't have much time for a console, I got a PSP to play on the subway mostly. Here in NYC, I'd say I see at least 10-20 times as many PSP's as I do DSs.

I got maybe 6 months ago. So far, I've gotten 10 really great games that constantly amaze me. Ace Combat X is a great flight sim with impressive graphics, the GTA games are just plain fun, Wipeout Pure is what F-zero could have been - it's awesome. Lumines II is a great

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[AvitarX]

I can say that 2 screens are nice, the stylus sucks for me so far. The only game I play with it is Meteos. Most other games don't use it or are annoying with it (Age of Empires for example).

I really like haveing 2 screens though. I find it much easier to keep track of 2 things on the 2 screens than on one big one (I also use 2 17 LCD's instead of one big widescreen so it may just be me).

How much did Sony pay you?

[LKM]

the GTA games are just plain fun, Wipeout Pure is what F-zero could have been - it's awesome (...) I don't know, slashdot is just filled with PSP FUD - I just don't get it. There isn't a single DS game that interests me, and the graphics are just terrible. Small screens and jagged edges just suck. (...) It is an accessory to their uber-game filled life, and maybe the novelty is a big bonus.

As an owner of both consoles, I think you're full of it.

Having played GTA on both the PS2 and the PC, it's obvious that control on the PSP is simply broken. Wipeout may be a fun game, but "what F-Zero could have been"? Give me a break. Both franchises are great, and they aren't that similar to begin with. And yes, I own both the first GTA and Wipeout for the PSP.

There is not a single game on the DS that interests you? Really? This is a console that sports games such as Mario Kart DS, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Meteos (you like Lumines - which is great, by the way - but not Meteos? Huh?), Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Tetris DS, two Super Mario jump-n-runs, Metroid Prime: Hunters, a non-crappy Sonic game, a whole bunch of great adventure games (Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory) and tons of other awesome games. And you don't like a single one of them?

So, how much did Sony pay you?

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[benzapp]

Full of it? I've been paid off?

Listen, slashdot is total shit these days. Sony is not going to waste their time astroturfing this place. I think your response is fanatical.

I don't argue with fanatics. You're just some loser kid who can't appreciate an opinion that contradicts your religious devotion to Nintendo. Enjoy your pathetic life.

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[thebdj]

Fanatical? He actually provided more counterpoints and claims then your abusive response to him. First, you insult slashdot and call it "total shit". Then you label him "fanatical" because he likes the Nintendo better then the PSP? I too have played both (both my younger brothers own PSPs, I own a DS) and I much prefer the DS. I think the games are more entertaining, there are fewer re-hashes (PSP has been said to have a lot of poor PS1 and PS2 clones) and the re-hashes are actually pretty good re-hash

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[benzapp]

I am by no means a kid, I am actually in my late 20s and have a college degree. I live in a metropolitan area (with a lower CoL then NYC, thank god), and I make a fairly handy sum of cash (enough that public transit ain't my option).

Yeah, well you're still a loser. I could barely even bring myself to read the miserable drivel you just wrote prior to this snippet. My god, have you ever gotten LAID? This is a really pathetic redirection of your sexual desire.

As for cash, I actually make $250K a year and l

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[toolie]

Oddly enough, anybody that thinks the stuff they serve in first class as 'fine wine' is the same kind of poser that cares more about being hip and trendy than somebody who knows anything about what they are talking. Kind of like one of the parent posts mentioned.

The stuff in first class is definately better than cattle class, but holy christ, man. Go try some non-suck wine before calling it 'fine'.

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[benzapp]

Actually, the FIRST service on British Airways is much better than you think - International flights have business class which is more similar to typical 1st class on domestic American flights.

But anyway, for cretins such as yourself, I'll give you a bit of insight into American wine neologisms. Technically, any wine with a classification of Appellation d'Origine Contrôlé or AOC is fine wine. True connoisseurs use the term to differentiate wine made in accordance with such high standards with ta

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[ZorbaTHut]

Geez dude. Way to lose all credibility on your previous points.

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[benzapp]

Why don't you read my posts again. I could give a flaming fuck what you or anyone else thinks. You miserable wretches are sources of cheap entertainment.

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[Ant P.]

Wow, and to think I was going to buy a PSP just this weekend...

No thanks, I'd rather not be lumped in the same group as self-conceited wankers like you.

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[brkello]

Meh, yeah, he went too far. But he is kinda right in the sense that I think Slashdot is going downhill. You can't come on Slashdot for an intelligent debate on games/consoles. This place is over run by Nintendo zealots at this point. Someone could list why they like the PSP and why they despite the DS and they would get modded down. Do the reverse, and you get modded up.

As an intelligent person with a degree, you should be able to step out of your semi-Nintendo fanboyism and see why he is frustrated.

More on the PSP and DS

[LKM]

(Finally an answer worthy of a response :-) - turns out gp was just a sad Troll who posts on /. claiming to be a rich connoisseur of fine wine or something. I now regret answering his flamebait, frankly)

Not really sure what your objection to my post is. I never claimed there were no good PSP games (in fact, I quite enjoy a few of them, such as the new Ghosts N'Goblins). I most certainly did not claim that nobody could possibly like the PSP. I like it. I have to admit that I use it mainly to watch 24, Lost

As a fellow commuter I agree with you

[hudsonhawk]

I can see why the PSP might not appeal to some, but it's a great system for commuters. I spend about 80 minutes commuting each day. I literally have more time for gaming on the train than I do at home.

I've owned a DS since launch and using it at that kind of volume, it wears thin. There's a lot of great games but the vast majority of the library is simple games meant for short, quick gaming sessions. Again, I'm not saying there aren't great games - believe me, there are - and I played them all. But at a

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[DrXym]

They're not going to add a major input device to the system this late in its lifetime. Period. And there's little reason to revise the PSP, which is already quite tightly packed in. It has to be a certain minimum size to support a sizable screen, and a smaller screen ain't going to fly, especially not at PSP prices. I think the whole thing is a bunch of crap :) With that said, how far off can the PSP's successor be?

I think a PSP with a detachable or separate UMD would be an enormous improvement . Allow us

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[iamhassi]

"With that said, how far off can the PSP's successor be?"

The PSP has been out what, 2 years now? We're 11 days away from the 2 year anniversary of the US release [wikipedia.org] of the PSP. While this would be about the half way mark for a home console the Gameboy sold practically unchange for 12 years [wikipedia.org] before the Gameboy Advance, and some could argue the DS was only released as a competitor to the PSP because the DS came out only 4 months before the PSP [wikipedia.org].

Since Nintendo and Sony are both battling for the same market

Awesome

[Godai]

Apparently they'll just post anything anything now.

I've got some hot news! Apparently I heard a rumour about someone I don't know told some guy that Microsoft was releasing an X Box 720! It'll have robotic legs and kick you in the ass whenever you fail at something!

You heard it here first!

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[Dr. Manhattan]

Apparently I heard a rumour about someone I don't know told some guy that Microsoft was releasing an X Box 720! It'll have robotic legs and kick you in the ass whenever you fail at something!

Well, there are worse possibilities [penny-arcade.com].

Short answer

[gentimjs]

No.

Yes, kind of.

[TheThiefMaster]

The whole "touch screen", "built-in camera", "8GB of flash memory" stuff is likely pure rumour. However I wouldn't be surprised if Sony revised the PSP design into one slightly smaller and a lot cheaper, much like how Nintendo released the DS lite.

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[Macthorpe]

much like how Nintendo released the DS lite

...and Sony themselves released the PSOne and slim PS2 :)

They don't want to undermine sales

[fistfullast33l]

I bet they're going to revise it too, but they won't officially comment because people will stop buying in anticipation of the new release later this year. I don't think they'll make it too much smaller, and I'm not exactly sure how they'd get the load times faster unless they revise the UMD drive somehow. However, I bet they might upgrade the wireless card to handle the anticipated release of their video/music platform and HOME for the PSP in the fall. The wireless is okay right now, but it's range is l

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[HappySqurriel]

With using an 8cm optical disc they have limited how small the PSP can actually get (essentially they can't make it as small as the Gameboy Micro got) ... with that said, if they moved to a 65nm process (like the PS3/XBox 360) they could reduce the power-consumption and move to a much slimmer design which would make it more portable.

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[Vokkyt]

They won't officially comment because the more natural hype that builds, the better the system will sell.

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[geminidomino]

Bah, no way. The new system will likely make running homebrew and PSX games that much harder...

I'll stick with my old one, thanks.

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[bWareiWare.co.uk]

However I wouldn't be surprised if Sony revised the PSP design into one slightly smaller and a lot more expensive, exactly like how Nintendo released the DS lite.

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[TheThiefMaster]

I meant cheaper to produce, not necessarily cheaper in the shops.

Good Changes

[Nerdfest]

These would make it very attractive device, providing Sony stops stops trying to cripple the software running on them.

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[Applekid]

"These would make it very attractive device, providing Sony stops stops trying to cripple the software running on them."

Now that's a cheap shot. Any console/handheld maker should reserve the right to protect their system from running homebrew anything. Homebrew advances hand-in-hand with piracy, reduces publishers' confidence in the platform, and ultimately costs the manufacturer money. If you want to develop for it, don't you think it's reasonable for Sony to ask you to buy a developer kit?

Obviously this w

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[H3lldr0p]

If you want to develop for it, don't you think it's reasonable for Sony to ask you to buy a developer kit?

Actually, no I don't. If I have the time and talent and the capital to buy up one or two of these things to figure out how to do it all on my own, then I should be able to reap the rewards of that labor. Such has even been supported by the courts via decisions against Nintendo and Atari in the past. Sony is simply wasting money attempting to stop this sort of thing which could be spent on endevours which may actually be profitable, like, I don't know, putting out good first party games for the device that

Sega v. Accolade

[tepples]

Any console/handheld maker should reserve the right to protect their system from running homebrew anything.

Then which handheld platform should microstudios develop for? Console makers historically haven't been friendly to microstudios.

Bung was the biggest manufacturer of original Game Boy homebrew kits. N sued them out of existance.

Bung was also a single source. There hasn't been a single-source situation on Nintendo handhelds since EZ-FLASH started competing with Visoly.

Homebrew flash for Game Boy Advance requires a "boot sector" of sorts. When you turn it on, that little Nintendo logo under the Game Boy logo comes from the cartridge. The BIOS displays that on the screen and if its checksum matches what the Nintendo logo checksum is, it runs. Meaning: if you want to boot a non-genuine cartridge, that cartridge has to contain a digitally identical copy of a picture, so even carts for homebrew use are violating copyright.

No they aren't. The copying of the logo data is fair use under United States copyright law, if Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade Inc. and Lexmark International Inc. v. Static Control Components Inc. can be relied upon.

The DS flaunts all over the documentation that games are signed with RSA. IANAL, but now beyond just copyright now you've got patent violations to worry about.

DS Download Play is

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[Mr2001]

When you turn it on, that little Nintendo logo under the Game Boy logo comes from the cartridge. The BIOS displays that on the screen and if its checksum matches what the Nintendo logo checksum is, it runs. Meaning: if you want to boot a non-genuine cartridge, that cartridge has to contain a digitally identical copy of a picture, so even carts for homebrew use are violating copyright.

Not true. If a particular sequence of bytes is required to make the game boot, then copying it isn't an infringement - the sequence is effectively a key in that scenario, not a creative work. This came up in one of the printer cartridge lawsuits, and it's similar to what Sega tried to do with trademarks.

Doubt it

[toleraen]

There will no doubt be a successor to the PSP some day, but they better not be adding features and calling it the same thing. Making it lighter or other cosmetic changes (ala DS Lite) is fine, but I already have to deal with a crap selection of games. If they add new features such as a touch screen, developers will start catering to that system, and then I'm really SOL.

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[skorch]

Don't worry. If they did add a touchscreen then you could play all the ports of fantastic DS games on your new PS Lite.

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[lundqvist]

I was browsing earlier and saw a report that its just cosmetics, making it more slimline and lighter.

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[lundqvist]

There ya go found the link on The Register.. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/13/sony_to_sh rink_psp/ [reghardware.co.uk]

How about...?

[Scutter]

Personally, I'd rather see some new games (or *any* games for that matter) rather than wave after wave of warmed over PS1 ports. Give me a reason to not regret having bought my rev. 1 PSP.

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[iainl]

Use the recent, easy peasy to install homebrew firmware to run actual PS1 games instead of warmed-over ports of them. Gran Turismo 2 has me utterly hooked all over again, and I'd forgotten just how great Tempest X is, too.

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[Scutter]

Use the recent, easy peasy to install homebrew firmware to run actual PS1 games instead of warmed-over ports of them.

I think you must have missed both the text and the point of my comment.

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[iainl]

Fair enough, then. I just feel that now we've got ACTUAL PS1 games, rather than just overpriced remakes, I'm massively more pleased with my little machine.

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[Nekalsa_of_Drow]

I don't necessarily agree. Any item is what you make of it. By choosing to install homebrew to your PSP, you increase your happiness with the item by investing more time in playing a wider variety of games.

New Machine?

[AlphaBlox]

They have only just started putting more focus into games where sony is having trouble with. They had no problems on the ps2, after 2 years surely the psp should start getting more games. Thankfully the last 6 months has been good with daxter etc. and the newly announced god of war for psp. The psp is still good for a few more years yet and hasn't reached its full potential. P.S. I am a nintendo fanboy but I think sony have got a nice kicking up the bum for the psp.

Scrap the UMD

[shunnicutt]

Personally, I'd love for them to drop the UMD and pop in a couple of memory stick slots there. I know it won't happen, but games could be sold on read-only memory sticks.

I use the PSP's web browser to view offline pages that I've saved on my desktop computer and transferred over for reading while I'm commuting. I've ripped DVDs to watch while commuting. I play games too, but the web browser, music, photos and video makes it a much more versatile device. Accommodating more than one memory stick would be grea

One way to tell...

[goodenoughnickname]

Kotaku again, huh? Well, if they get blackballed [slashdot.org] then we'll know it's true.