Touch Screen, UMD-free, PSP2 - experts claim

Sony's PSP2 will feature a touch-screen, with UMD's ditched in favour of internal flash memory game downloads and improved PS3 link-up - predicts a panel of industry experts recently polled by PSM3. "What Sony needs to do now is ride it (PSP) out until their next portable machine and try for a restart", reveals respected technology journal Wired's Chris Kohler, "Maybe add a touch screen. That's certainly an excellent time to get rid of UMD."

[Capt CHAOS]

UMD wasn't a dead format..

[Ri0tSquad]

Relax.

[marinelife9]

Go ahead and add dual analog sticks to please then I'll pick one up.

[funkysolo]

You are not going to see it....PSP is $169 right now and is priced very well, why would sony take a biggggg loss on adding a 30 or 40 GB flash drive that would mean the psp would cost $250, which in turn means less units sold per month at a loss. UMD is perfect for gaming since it's cheap and mass produce and cheaper than DS cartridge. I think you are dreaming but UMD is a great product that allows enough information for a portable product

[Doppy]

As far as a portable gaming device the PSP is great, but no one want to lag around UMD's when you can easily download a game from the PS Store. I think a UMD slot would be ok, but I'm all for the flash memory. With a UMD slot you have to buy memory sticks to use the other functions of the current PSP, and I listen to the mp3 player more than anything. And by the time the PSP2 releases (sometime after 2010) flash memory will see a drop in price, and more families will adopt computers into the homes giving nor people access not only to the internet, but more specifically to download games to their PSWhatever. Adding an extra analog stick is necessary, allowing emulators to be played is necessary, and since it's most likely going to be a phone, having a good carrier is necessary.

As far as UMD and Flash goes, both will due just fine, but flash is more preferred by me. In the end make a UMD version, and a flash version, I'm willing to pay more for flash. At least 30GB and a longer lasting battery.

[TheMART]

Well seen the latest sales per week in Japan Sony doesn't need to change anything for the PSP.

It outsold the DS last week and before that it was about on par. Because of Monster Hunter 2. The PSP just needs more great games like upcoming God of War, Patapon etc etc.

It doesn't need a touch screen. I hate that stupid stylus stuff

[spandexxking]

touch screen could be good idea if ysed properly. but yeah i wouldnt want it in stylus form. ive noticed you defend the psp but your avatar suggests you dont like sony whats up with that?

[cloud360]

PS3 to TheMart:

You only hate me coz am black

-thanks GT user

[TheMART]

@ Spendexxking

I have a white 360, I have a white PSP. I like the PSP because of its ability to run homebrew stuff and some games. But there are few.

I dislike Sony because they always give so much promisses and delivers so few and so late.

PS2 they had blabla marketing that got people not to buy the Dreamcast and wait for the PS2. Then it launched and it wasn't that mighty in the graphics area. They promissed and delayed.

PS3 same story. PSP same story. Only thing is, as I already said, PSP is fun for homebrew. Only thing Sony did good is making it in ceramic white which I like (those black PSP's you'll see fingerprints all around, same with the PS3) and the PSP has good hardware for a handheld.

So. One can like some hardware from a company one doesn't like in general. The NDS has worse specs then my mobile phone. It is even older then last gen handheld hardware

ouch screen could be good idea if ysed properly. but yeah i wouldnt want it in stylus form. ive noticed you defend the psp but your avatar suggests you dont like sony whats up with that?

[spandexxking]

good points but i think the main reason the ps2 was a succsess was because it had games not because of them pulling one over on the consumer plus i dont think sega had the funds/marketing to keep their pace. ps3 is debatble but we have started to see some promise from it. the only thing the ps3 messed up on IMO is that they released an un finished product in terms of content, easily corrected in firmware but all the stuff it has now should of been there in the beginning then it would of got a better image. same with the 360 but except it was on the hardware side.(being rushed)

oh and ps3 fanboys dont disagree coz i consider myself a sony fanboy the difference being is that i can admit fault where there is one.

[moparful99]

Mart you hate on sony, but sony has been a blessing to the industry. You say that they over hyped and under delivered. I disagree with you, I point you to the games released in the last 5 years. Each subsequent game is that much more impressive. God of War 2 was a gorgeous game for the system and really shows what the system is capable of...

Now spandex you may dislike the firmware updates that sony releases but I love them. Simply because if there is an issue or they come up with new features you just simply download them. You say they screwed up by releasing an incomplete console but. I would rather recieve a feature in an update then have a consoles release delayed.....

[GIJeff]

ps2 delivered a lot more than what i expected from it in the graphics department. Very few hits on the ps2 are even remotely possible on the dreamcast. The dreamcast was a good arcade level machine in '99. But it didnt have the processing power to remotely keep up with the ps2. (God of War, Final Fantasy 10, Gran Turismo 3 and 4, twisted metal black, etc..) Dreamcast had crazy taxy, the psp can do that without a hitch.

[mighty_douche]

Do it!

Ill buy one ; )

[predator]

i want crisis core already.

[Iamback]

not going to happen for at least 2 years, so in 2010 tell me about this

[AllroundGamer]

touchscreen + 2 analog sticks and i will definitely buy one (owned PSP phat, sold it and bought a PSP slim)

[predator]

is it worth getting the slim psp? i was thinking of getting it as my launch psp has never been able to do wifi, keep getting a internal error code, does my head in. i cant use remote access or any conectivity with my ps3 either

[AllroundGamer]

i wanted the PSP Slim because of the TV out feature, i just couldn't play longer than 2 hours straight watching the small screen without having a headache...

[KozmoOchez]

Traded in my phatty for a slim(along with some games)plus the deal was too good to pass up: The system, a movie(I love family guy btw), a game, and a 1GB memory stick.
plus both of my phatties had an issue(first one with the analog stick sticking and the second one speakers stopped working) I have an issue with dropping psp's anyway, since they dont come equipped with straps anymore, maybe i'll buy one...

btw, touch screen is so unnecessary, you can't play games with touch screen on psp, it's a Nintendo thing, let them do that, just add the second analog stick, maybe rumble, better online, internal memory(somehow make it so that it can be upgraded or just has a lot of space in general, ipod style), really it just needs better games and stuff like that, keep all the other stuff that's already on there, especially skype, because if the psp2 is a big hit, i would love to be able to call other psp users and/or text them(cheaper and less stalkerish than getting cell phone numbers)

[Kaz Hirai]

These FOOLS think they can tell me how to do my job?

MWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!

[powerslide]

They will never get rid of umd because people like me will refuse to buy games online. A bit of both is ok, but online only no. I hope they don't listen to that guy because he is seing to make the psp like a ds (content wise).....if i wanted a ds like handheld i would buy a ds....wouldn't you?
Plus UMD isn't dead! cartridges are dead (the cost way to much to make and they currently hold only 128MB vs the 1.5GB of the UMD). The UMD movie format is dead, not the disk itself. For the next psp we just want another analog stick, hard disk (for umd cache or installation) and a faster umd drive, CPU and GPU

[Xeikon]

UMD is dead!

[DarkArcani]

Hard disks aren't really ideal for hand-helds. Too many moving parts, and power consumption. If you drop it and the stylist breaks, your screwed. Flash memory on the other hand, you could drive over it and it would still work.

[THE_JUDGE]

can keep that touch screen crap. I hate the idea of having to continually touch the screen. I like holding the controller and thats it. As for the UMD not being there, I don't care. I don't see what the big deal is with the UMD in the first place.

[desolationstorm]

The touch screen is far from crap. Some games its necessary while others it is not.

I dont think sony should mimic it at all, they are doing what they know how to do now. Just put more designed from the ground up for the system.

[RecSpec]

Nintendo, not Ninetendo. And that "touch screen crap" would not only be useful for gaming, it would help in navigating video menus and maybe playing music.

[THE_JUDGE]

Nintendo, it was a typo. If you need a touch screen to help you navigate then you are a schlub and should never be allowed to operate a car. They don't have touchscreens and people have been using those for years.

[djt23]

dude i love touch screen it is fun in games

i think you need to play a DS games

[Ju]

This would be the absolute stupidest idea ever. Getting rid of UMD, that is. So, no PSP backward compatibility what so ever. Well, if that's what they want.

Touch is fine with me as long as they still keep the stick(s). Architecture should change, internal solid state disk with 20GB, a (micro)CELL cpu (to share dev tools with the PS3 and allow easier porting) and a nice res which could output 800x480 wide screen (and component), and full PSP backward compatibility (SW emu).

I am curious why people think so much about the next PSP. The current one sells pretty good.

[desolationstorm]

Poeple think so much about it because its been out for 3 years in Japan coming on 4(though at the end of the year). Though id think its hard to see a brand new system coming out for either the ds or the psp. Both are doing well one a lot better, but both are doing well. Im actually looking for Nintendo to either show a new ds model or the next ds. Im leaning more towards a new ds model though I cant possibly see what they could do. Sony is just gonna keep step with Nintendo now in the handheld market. They got their foot in the door so I would still say that they are atleast in the early stages of a new psp.

[rawg]

The CELL chip was designed to be scaled up or down so it could probably be done. Would be cool if the PS3 could use external CELL chips to assist in processing, running folding@home across the PS3, PSP2 and Bravia for example. Not sure how that would work with games though.

[heyheyhey]

@rawg

man that would be an excellent idea

perhaps the devs could release some content on the PSN that only runs with the added power of the PSP2- and your right, it would help folding@home too

with a micro-cell the graphics on the PSP2 could exceed the PS2- which would be excellent

[Ju]

Well, take a SPUrsEngine (which doesn't have a cpu), and add a ppu element. That one runs 1.5GHz, not sure if that is necessary. Also motion sensing. Sure, that baby would blow the PS2 pretty much away. But, h.ll, we are in the 21st century, no ?

[BIGELLOW]

I think a lot of articles confuse the term "UMD" with only referring to "movies on UMD." It seems this article leans more towards talking about UMD "never catching on." Well, it caught on in terms of GAMES... just not very popular with MOVIES. Sony will never get rid of the UMD drive in the PSP for a couple of very simple reasons:

1) Backwards compatibility will be lost. Anyone with a library of games on UMD will be stuck. There won't be a way to authenticate that these users actually own the games (to be able to download their counterparts,) so they would have to re-purchase all of these games for download, not to mention that all of the games would need to be available for download in the first place.

2) Owning a library of games will be less convenient and would cost more. While the costs of memory sticks are coming down, the cost per megabyte is higher for a memory stick than the cost per megabyte for a UMD. It would be less convenient for players with libraries of games that are too large to fit on a single memory stick because there will now be a need to own multiple memory sticks, switching between then to get to your games, or re-downloading games that you don't keep on memory sticks. You also won't have a game that you can try to "re-sell" or trade when you don't care to own it anymore.

So, while UMD for movies may be lacking, the UMD format is certainly not dead... and will most certainly be in the next iteration of the PSP. Sony is notoriously stubborn like that. The memory stick was falling behind SD cards and MMC cards, and everyone expected them to eventually ditch it for more the more popular memory cards for their cameras and other devices. With the introduction of the PSP, the tides are turning. Now it is fashionable to have memory sticks. I predict, rather than Sony yanking the UMD drive from the PSP... they will eventually introduce a UMD drive in other portable devices. Perhaps there will be burnable UMD discs in future Sony digital cameras and camcorders. Maybe they'll combine two technologies and we'll eventually have UMDs which use Blu-ray technology.

[powerslide]

i couldn't agree more.

[rawg]

If they can make the PSP2 smaller by removing the UMD drive, I'm all for it. Plus carrying around a collection of UMDs diminishes the portability of the device, just like we had to carry around a stack of CD's before iPods came out.

Perhaps they could release a UMD drive attachment so you can play your library of PSP1 games but I would prefer having games loaded on memory sticks (locked to discourage piracy of course) or downloaded on to the device.

[DarkArcani]

How many UMD's do you take with you?
I have a case that can hold up to 4 plus the one in the psp. I usually only bring one other game with me if I decide to even bring another game.

That's just me though.

[felidae]

i think the only good game for the psp will be god of war coo .. but this is also coming to the ps2, so who cares?

DS is much better - but that's just my opinion.

[OC Shock Value]

PSP has many good games man..

MGS
Power Stone
Tekken 5
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Final Fantasy
God Of War
Daxter
R&C Size Matters
Twisted Metal
Gran Theft Auto

Thats to name a few..
So you should probably do your homework B4 you talk shyt..

[TheMART]

BTW Sony would not do this within 2 to 3 years. THey just had a redesign last year with the PSP Slim & Lite.

Redesigns cost a lot of money so these speculations are nonsense.

[rawg]

I really like my PSP slim, especially its connectivity to the PS3 but it's still a little to big to carry around. If a new PSP2 came out that looked like the fan mock ups that have been posted recently I would get one in a second.

[Adamalicious]

If it's true then let's see if they can beat iPhone and iTouch to it.

[OC Shock Value]

This system is currently doing outstanding, and is the most powerful handheld out.. Tho its not puttin up DS numbers sales wise.. its still doin really really good.. which no handheld has never done B4 against the gameboy

[whoelse]

I would love to use the iPhone like touch screen to scroll the XMB!

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

I want to use the Playstation Eye to move my XMB around on the PS3. It's just like Minority Report.

Anyone???

[heyheyhey]

@Leon

yeah for sure, as long as its responsive and easy to use cause if it is then i would feel like some weird, futuristic hacker bloke- which would rawk

[Bull5hifT]

a guy working at sony japan already is working on it, youll be able to pull left right and up down and doublle thump your hand to select
and much more

he said it isnt planned for 09

that there waiting for hackers to break into the ps3, in order to dangle that option in front of us so we will upgrade to the next firmware

its like sony keeping alotta unimaginable app's from getting released to give you some little by little for you to upgrade to a secure firmware

[BlackIceJoe]

I like the touch screen idea but not because of the DS. I do love my DS but for me I would like Sony to do what apple does with the iphone.
For me that would be if it could be some thing like that. As for taking out UMDs. I really hope that does not happen I have spent lots of money on games so I would hate to not be able to play them again. Plus playstation has been able to play past PS games in the past so why not keep it that way.

I do think they should change the UMDs to the mini Blu-Ray drive though.

I do think that downloads will be bigger the next time around for the PSP and will have a bigger part in the PS Store but I do not think it will be the only way to buy games.

If it would be though then the PSP2 really needs a hard-drive and a lot of on board memory. But I would also like to see that in the PSP2 even if it is just for hardware games.

But if none of this can be added all Sony really needs to add is another analog stick and the second L and R buttons.

[Bull5hifT]

wont that make the games suffer, not being released on UMD?
they'll have to be less than 2 gigs to be downloadable without people getting mad at waiting

sony should make a mini bluray- so then the games will have at least 12 gig's to use

they'll finally be able to fit San andreas in there
and make a good long final fantasy game with all the cutsceens

why do you people complain so much? a disk format is nice if sony only gave you the tools to make your own, imagine making your own 12gig umd
disk on your computer filled with your content...i have 4000 songs on my ps3 and they come out a little aver 13 gig's, why do you need more?

i dunno , thats why i ain t buying warhawk and socom confrontation on my ps3, is beacuase there under 2 gig's, $40 for something like that on a next gen system seems nasty to me

i hope to gawd Little Big Planet is exclusivly on blu-ray
cause if they manage to fit all that on a 2 gigabyte download, then ill know they half-a$$ed it

little big planet better have at least 16 gig's of content to keep me entertained and uverwhelmed with goodness

[Revvin]

Sony need to have a handheld (not necessarily the PSP2) which exploits the remote play features of the PS3 and tie in with LocationFree and whatever features PlayTV brings. It need not have any real processing power of its own, just enough to connect to the PS3 and stream games right from there. All it needs to be is a dumb terminal of sorts that utilises the PS3's processing power. The time for playing cut down versions of regular games because they are runon a handheld needs to end, I want to play my PS3 collection on the move.

[Bull5hifT]

the internet in america is to slow, to get alot out of remote play, but maybe making a service for online anywhere psp2 not reliant on "HOTSPOTS"

would make you able to walk around somewhere while you wait for the movie to buffer, or a game to load.... i hate being constrained to a particular area to access content....it would be nice to be able to copy some stuff over air using the service

id pay from $10-$30 to have this feature and a good solid portable internet browser, accessable anywhere

[heyheyhey]

all this stuff isn't as important as dual sticks- for at least half-decent FPS games

but touch-screen would be cool too

[LevDog]

Tough screen would be Tite.. I still think they should add a camera so when you Remote play you can vid chat with someone from your psn.. and they should take a serious look at adding a real phone service not just skype or whatever it is.. Hook up with Verizon or Sprint/nextel and compete with the Iphone.. PsP is tite but could be titer

[mintaro]

do i smell two analog sticks?

[jinn]

portable systems r girly

[TwissT]

I would love dual analog sticks but the touch screen I am pretty iffy with and IMO I think they should keep Umd I have no prob or see no prob with it, I personally like it better than those super small chips.

[Ju]

I still don't understand the problem with the UMD. Yeah, it could be faster and what not. Sure a solid state disk (or such) could allow for an iTunes like game shop to download games. But how does the retail want to distribute games without a physical media ? SD cards are way to expensive. They'd need some SD-ROM or soemthing, which is cheap but compatible to any form of flash card.
For movies, well, yeah. So ? Nintendo uses its own proprietary game cartridge format. UMD is that for the PSP. We are talking about a low price multiple Gigs media. I see nothing out there which can replace a UMD so far, maybe a miniBD (used in camcorders).

I also do not want to have YADS (yet another DS), or YAPhone (yet another phone). I like the PSP for what it is.

[DFresh]

I'm getting the PSP Slim but not sure if it's smart if there's a PSP2 right around the corner.
I don't know can some expert email me and tell me what I should do because I still want a PSP I'm just not sure where to put my money at.
Someone please tell me what I should do?

[Chubear]

There won't be a PSP2 'till 2010/2011. Don't even waste time worrying about it.

[jeepndave]

no more UMD, no more UMD!!!!

[pwnsause]

I can tell you several things here though,

If the PSP2 is designed well enough to meet the demands on what People want on it, it can have the potential to go out there and Compete in the Mp3 Player Market/the Cellphone market/and the Handheld gaming market all at the same time, why? just look at the PSP today. its a swiss army knife, an all in one package that can almost rival the Iphone and Ipod. not to mention, look at the Handheld market itself, despite Nintendo Dominating in the Handheld market, its the First time Nintendo has real competition in the Handheld market, no other handheld sold as well as the PSP when competing against a nintendo handheld product.

[dEsc]

wonder if it will have SIXAXIS

[conswella]

With touch screen and internal drive capacity thats around 8 to 10 gigs, preferably more, for as much music I could ever wish for, and I'm sold! I would pay 300 dollars for it. If I had the option between to versions of capacity, I would select the bigger one, and it still wouldn't be enough. Instead of paying for several different gadgets to fit my different needs, I would rather have one to do them all. I don't care which does what better, especially taking into account how I feel for the PSP's functionality. If they should choose to make games for it then so be it. The touch screen I would welcome to death. Have you tried using the keyboard they give you? Yes, you have, and you don't like it. Thats why you want the touch screen on your PSP. Imagine the worlds that would be opened up just with that: e-mail, texting, in game communication, etc. They're releasing a keyboard attachment for the PSP I hear, but good god I don't want any more crap to carry around. Neither do you. Messy tangled bits I can do without. Touch screen good.

Oh! I just realised they will realease Go!Messenger in their firmware update whenever the keyboard gets released - probably.

[heavyarms]

and i will buy one.

[onyxbox]

"Touch Screen, UMD-free, PSP2 - experts claim"

yeah... it's called an iPhone!

[EvilJoey]

They Wont do a new one for a long time they will update the current one a few timebs before they come out with a #2 ...

Sony's Motto is there systmes life span why would that differ from ahnd helds. This isnt news its Lame speculation on which No one But sony Really Knows.