Rumor: Sony Survey Hints At Plans For New PSP?

[wraggster]

via kotaku

Right about now, I think a revamped PSP is the only thing that can truly save Sony's handheld ambitions in the long-term. They need to give the PSP a clean break, take stock of the lessons learned from the original then come back and improve on it.

Sony sent around a survey last night that, from this weary writer's point of view at least, looks like they may well be thinking of doing just that. They threw a bunch of questions at PSP owners about what they'd like to see improved or added to the console, some good (hard drive, GPS), some not so good (book reader) and some sadly absent (decent games), but most telling was this question:

Would you buy another PSP system if it included a hard drive and/or video out?

It's very suspicious that the single-most desirable add-on mentioned (the HDD) is repeated in a further question that specifically asks whether you'd go out and buy another PSP for it. Very suspicious indeed.

[yoshinatsu]

OOooooooooooh...
I can see it comin'...
I'd also like a D-Pad fix if they are to do it. And a bit lighter. Mmmm... something for the style... Changeable face/back plates maybe?
Ohhh... And homebrew...

[disturbed19]

You know what would be really cool?

if we could play our ps2 games on our psp. i thought about this beofre the psp was released. maybe it would be a bit bigger, but it would be fricken awesome! does anythone think this would be possible?

[F9zDark]

I would, if said PSP ALSO had another analog nub.

Come on Sony, you never threw 1 analog stick at us when you made the the Dual Shock...

[erix2006]

If they would put analog stick like in ps1 or ps2 that would be sick, and also if you could take it off.
Yea I would buy another psp just cause of the hard drive and/or video out.

[808]

HDD, video out, allowing homebrew, better screen (less ghosting), new analog stick, better range of games, better laser diode to speed up the reading of UMDS (is that possible?) and you're sorted I think

[Veskgar]

Sure an internal HDD would be nice. Video Out would be kinda cool but not used that much. A second analog nub with an improved design would be very good. But one thing will be missing....

HOMEBREW!

I don't think any PSP would be the same without homebrew. This could partially be SONY's way of admitting defeat in the battle against homebrew and just coming out with a new PSP altogether because any new PSP will probably be very hard to exploit for homebrew.

And we have talk about an internal HDD but what about the 32GB memory stick that SONY/SanDisk are working on? I'd prefer a 32GB memory stick in my current PSP than in internal HDD on a new PSP.

What will probably happen is the homebrew scene will continue to evolve and dominate the current PSP hardware version. Hopefully with new downgraders, custom firmwares, etc. etc.

Then as long as the new PSP is backward compatible I'd consider getting it to play commercial games, connect to the PS3, etc. etc.

I really do like the look and feel of the current PSP. Sure there could be some improvements. I just hope SONY doesn't screw it up.

[.:}<3\/!}\{:.]

HMMM....just make it better and if it is good enought and supports HOMBREW i might get one....just make it good!!!

[Jonesyxxiv]

Im taking the survey now.
What do you believe is the biggest benefit of owning a PSP system? Other Specify: Homebrew

[F9zDark]

Sony will need a Harddrive to combat the likes of the iPod. My friend got a 30 gb ipod video for 256 USD. It has 2 features that the PSP has, yet comes with 30 gb of space and is less money than a PSP capable of the same thing (figuring, a PSP + 4 gig stick).

Not to mention, the benefit of having a harddrive outweigh that of memory sticks. For instance, developers of homebrew apps with the current PSP are limited to a small amount of memory and the fact that memory sticks have a certain amount of read/writes per sector makes using physical space on a memory stick as memory risky business. This is not the case with a harddrive and memory $#@! applications will then be possible.

Not to mention, it will be at least another year before we see a 32 gb stick and what price? Right now 4 gig sticks from Sandisk are approximately 100 USD, a 32 gb stick would be 8x that cost in a perfect world; however I predict that if a 32 gb stick came out right now it would be closer to 1000 USD because the manufacturing process of making that much space available in the same physical dimensions would be alot more difficult than producing 4 gb sticks.

I just hope that PSP Mk 2 uses standard hard-drive technology and not something thats proprietary.