Rumors continue to swirl about Sony’s follow up to the PSP as development kits are being rolled out to select developers in the industry. From what has been gleaned as of now from various unnamed sources, the PSP2 looks to one up the 3DS by offering an almost true 1:1 experience between the home and portable gaming experience.
Image Taken from VG247
So what do we know with relative certainty about the final design of the PSP2?
- It features two analog sticks that are convex in design as opposed to the concave nature of the original PSP’s analog nub.
- The PSP2 will utilize the same form factor of the PSPGo with the control inputs sliding out from underneath the unit’s display.
- The display will be slightly larger then the current iteration of the PSPGo, and taking a book from Nintendo will also be a touchscreen.
- Similar to the PSPGo, there will be no optical drive meaning games will have to be downloaded or sold on memory sticks.
- The unit will feature two cameras (One front facing, one rear facing).
- A touch panel (similar to what is used on laptops) will be implemented on the underside of the unit for various gesture based inputs.
- The graphical capabilities will be similar to the PS3 at the resolutions that are native to the device.
It seems as the pictures of the device released by VG24/7 have been confirmed by a number of industry sources adding if not confirmation, a bit more credence to the device’s rumored functionality.
Even with all of these features all but confirmed by Sony, there are still far too many questions left in the back of my mind before I’ve made up my mind about the PSP2. Namely my questions about the device all come down to what kind of battery life the unit will have. The original PSP was lampooned about it’s abysmal battery life during it’s launch in 2005 as it faced the much more efficient Nintendo DS. While official numbers about the battery life of the 3DS have been just as guarded, I can’t help but feel like Sony may be repeating history in the creation of a device that will receive the same criticisms as it’s predecessor. Sony’s track record with the game distribution on the PSPGo is also a notable hurdle that the PSP2 will have to overcome as titles regularly don’t show up on time or even at all on the service.
With Sony remaining quiet on the device it is hard to objectively judge the device on it’s own merits, but from what we know so far I simply see history repeating itself, which doesn’t bode well for the PSP2 (at least here in America).
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