Sony UK Exec Says No to Smaller, Lighter PSP

[wraggster]

news from Daily tech

Earlier this month, word of a smaller, lighter PlayStation Portable slipped the lips of Sony UK boss Ray Maguire. Specifically, Maguire said that the current PSP is just the “first iteration” of the handheld, and that an improved version will eventually follow.

Now, just two weeks after his initial comments, Maguire is taking it all back. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, he says, “As we sit here today, there is no next iteration of the PSP.”

“If you're referring to what was reported some weeks ago, I was referring to the fact that that's what we do as a company,” said Maguire. “We R&D everything. You only have to look at PlayStation and PlayStation 2 to see that's always in our mind.”

The PSP is constantly compared with the handheld market’s current leader, the Nintendo DS. Consumers may be expecting a revised PSP because Nintendo revised the original DS to the DS Lite, a smaller, lighter version of the original. Following Nintendo’s slick redesign, sales of the DS Lite skyrocketed, gaining the acceptance from even casual gamers.

Maguire speaks on the constant comparisons between PSP and DS Lite, saying, “They are two different devices for two different markets. It's comparing apples and oranges again, but because they are both portable it's probably a natural thing to do. The marketplace that we need to get into is the PS3 connectivity market.”

He continues, “From a PSP situation we have a wider split of third-party versus first-party than our competitors do, who are very much first-party developers. We've been putting quite a lot of energy behind PS3, now we'll be able to split some of those resources and go back to the PSP to make sure we've got some compelling games coming. As a criticism, yes, perhaps part of that is true. But we have a solution in place.”

[Shrygue]

So...no PSP 2 to be made? Astounding...

[Veskgar]

So...no PSP 2 to be made? Astounding...

Not yet anyway. SONY just doesn't want early rumors making the buzz over a refined PSP hardware model stale.

Its inevitable I would think that another version of the PSP will eventually be created. You can only take the current PSP so far with firmware updates. Thankfully, us in the homebrew scene get immense use out of the PSP.

The Playstation and Playstation 2 have seen incredible lifespans. We all still crave PSX games on our PSP via POPS and the PS2 is far from dead.

My point is that the PSP is barely 2 years old (in North America) and SONY will try to squeeze at least another 1 1/2 years.

I think out of all things, the fast pace of advanced portable multimdedia devices being released by other electronics giants will force SONY to release another PSP. One with built in high-capacity storage and other enhancements.

Another thing to keep in mind is that by the time a 2nd revision of the PSP is released, the current PSP will have such a large user base (20+ million) that SONY will likely still come out with firmware updates ensuring, or at least making it probable that the SONY vs. homebrew tug-of-war will not die down completely.

[acn010]

sucks... anyways ill wait for one... hope it has a slick and blutooth technology

[Basil Zero]

Not to mention that both the PS1 and PS2 had revised versions of themselves.

And besides, kinda glad there isnt one in the works as of NOW, cause i would feel bad for having the old psp..and not the new one...than again maybe not...

but still, regardless, psp's doing alot better than it was 1 year ago, and it will get better since alot of good games have been announced.

[Buddy4point0]

yea psp is deffinatly selling more than ever.
but no psp2 soon. what a bumer

[burrito]

No PSP2....


































April Fools!!

[Cokemusic]

$ony are money hungry liars the PSP2 is probably already in development , they're just saying this so that PSP sales are damaged.

I wouldn't belive sony even if they admited they were lying.

[benn]

$ony are money hungry liars the PSP2 is probably already in development , they're just saying this so that PSP sales are damaged.

I wouldn't belive sony even if they admited they were lying.

lmao :rofl: u got the wrong company dude. if this was MS PSP then we would already be on the second one lol.
this is Sony. they wont make another PSP until either Nintendo make another DS or MS enter the handheld market properly.

look how long it took them to make PS2 and then PS3 was even longer.

[Psyberjock]

I think it might happen. MS also said there would be no HDMI on the 360 and here it is.

Just because this is Sony's first handheld, there is no reason to believe they would give up their past marketing patterns. The PS1 and PS2 both had newer slimer versions and I bet the PSP will too. Although I don't want it to change too much (how much slimmer do we need to go?). But a few operational changes could be made to make it a better piece of hardware.

Even now there are changes to the hardware. New motherboards, different LCDs. I don't expect a lot of new features, but I think we'll see something that is noticably different and not just new colors.