PSP2 rumoured again

AFTER PREVIOUS rumours of an upgrade to the PSP some time ago, fresh speculation is hotting up the games world due to a feature in Playstation Magazine (PSM) which cited unnamed sources confirming the existence of a new portable Playstation.

The October edition, which is due at newsagent stands now (well, it is August after all), is considerably explicit about what we should expect from the next iteration of the PSP. The 'PSP2' will be an incremental upgrade, suggesting its basic technical specs won't change, but will incorporate a camera, 8GB of integrated flash memory and a slot-loaded UMD drive.

The declaration within the article concerning the 8GB of internal memory, comes from reports that Sony recently made a deal with Samsung to purchase 'a large amount of 8GB flash memory chips' - apparently numerous semiconductor industry reports specify the memory is to be built into the new PSP, albeit the Inq can't find any references to these 'reports'. Inclusion of a large memory pool would negate the need for the use of memory sticks that are used with the current system - at the moment only a paltry 32MB memory stick comes with the PSP Value Pack.

The camera should facilitate the use of 'Eyetoy' equipped software, which has been a considerable success on the PS2. The upgraded unit is expected to be thinner and lighter than the current PSP, which is already a very sleek piece of games technology. Although PSM has been known to get things wrong in the past ($400 PS3 anyone?), these rumours have been floating around for some time now, and it's likely there's some truth to them. µ

See also
PSP crackers allow the homebrew in
PSP mod chip has set of unlikely specs
Sony releases more PSP firmware
Sony releases anti-piracy PSP update