Leaked vid shows redesigned PSP, but will fans be pleased?

by Mike Smith

A leaked video showing a redesigned PSP with a sliding screen and no UMD optical drive appears to confirm months of speculation in the video games community, reports Reuters.


Watch the Youtube video
Named the PSP Go, the new machine is smaller than the current PSP and conceals its control buttons with a sliding panel. It sports a 3.8" screen, 16 GB of on-board memory, and Bluetooth connectivity, and is substantially lighter than the current model.

But perhaps the biggest change is the removal of the PSP's much-criticized UMD optical drive, which added bulk to the system and reduced battery life. Instead of buying games on disk from stores, PSP Go owners will download them straight to the machine's internal memory, in a manner very similar to the iPhone's App Store.

Although there's no confirmation from Sony that the video is genuine, it's pretty much certain. It's apparently footage from an upcoming episode of Qore, a Sony-endorsed video magazine that's published on the official Playstation web site. If it's not real, it's the best-produced fake we've ever seen.

For current PSP owners, the new machine seems like a tough sell. Although Sony's addressed many of the issues with the current platform, if you already own PSP games on disk there's apparently no way to play them on the Go.

Expect to see the new machine showing up in stores this fall, but we haven't seen the last of the old-style model: Sony apparently plans to keep both machines on sale.