Gaming sites VG247 and MCV both claim that the so-called PSP2 will be unveiled at a Sony "business overview and strategy meeting" in Tokyo on January 27, just two weeks away.
The new PSP will go on sale "later this year," VG247 reports, adding that early versions of the console have been circulating around gaming development houses for about a year.
Sony has yet to confirm the PSP2, but execs for the electronics giant have been hinting about the handheld for months now.
Only a few weeks ago, Sony gaming boss Kazuo Hirai told the New York Times that a new version of the PSP — not that there necessarily is one, of course! — might boast touchscreen controls, similar to iOS and Android handsets. (Let's just hope Sony doesn't throw out analog controls with the bathwater.)
But while Sony may take some cues from smartphones with its new PSP, the PlayStation Portable platform will continue to focus more on deeper, more "immersive" games, rather than casual mobile titles like the ubiquitous Angry Birds, Hirai promised in the December interview. There's also been talk of Sony execs supposedly bragging to game makers that the PSP2 "is as powerful as the PlayStation 3."
The latest chatter comes as rumors continue to mount over the widely leaked, Android-powered PlayStation Phone, which has been spied, videoed, poked, prodded, and even dismantled in recent days and weeks, although neither Sony Ericsson nor Sony proper has spilled the beans yet.
It's been more than a year since we saw a new PlayStation Portable arrive in stores — the PSP Go, a slimmed-down version of the still-available PSP 3000 with slide-out gaming controls and flash memory instead of a UMD disc drive.
The Go landed with a thud, however, with gamers objecting to the lack of UMD (which meant old disc collections wouldn't work on the Go) and the then-steep price tag ($250, which Sony ultimately chopped to $199 last fall).
OK, so what happens if that January 27th Sony meeting comes and goes without a PSP2 announcement? Well, there's always the Game Developers Conference in late March, a reliable venue for gaming news. Further out, we've got E3 in June, or the Tokyo Game Show in September.
Credits: Yahoo News
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