The thing has Playstation written on it O_O

Well the PSP2 has finally been unvieled but one of the biggest things of the announcement has barely been talked about. That is the supposed end to the PlayStation brand in portables, could the NGP be the beginning of the end for the PlayStation brand?

The PlayStation brand launched in the mid 90's to huge fanfare the PSOne sold millions of units. The PS2 went on to sell even more then the PSOne. The PS3 began the downturn of the brand, Sony had said people would get two jobs just to buy the newest PlayStation and they were wrong. The PSP launched alittle while later and failed to defeate Nintendo though it did a very admiral job becoming the most successful Non-Nintendo handheld. The brand itself has been tarnished by the PS3 and less so by the PSP.

Now Sony appears to be changing course with its PlayStation brand. The PSPhone was leaked and talked about everyone thought for sure this was Sony bringing the PlayStation brand to the phone market. However once revealed the PSPhone actually did not carry the PlayStation brand to my knowledge though the device has not launched. The PSP2 also got called something else instead of PSP2 it got the name NGP (Next Gen Portable). Dropping the PlayStation brand from the handheld world pretty much altogether.

Why did Sony drop the PS brand from PSP2 and the PSPhone is unclear. It is also unclear whether Sony will change its mind last minute and include the PlayStation name in the final product. However it is interesting to see Sony drifting away from the PlayStation brand.

If Sony doesn't add the PlayStation branding to the final consoles what does this mean for PS4? Will Sony retain the PlayStation brand for PS4 or will Sony drop the PlayStation name altogether and start fresh. Their are benefits to Sony dropping the PlayStation brand as well as draw backs. The biggest benefit I see is consumers won't all link PlayStation to the new console, so their bad experiances with pricing and such for PS3 won't carry over to PS4. Look at Nintendo's GameCube had the Wii been called GameCube2 would it have sold as well? Probably not due to people having bad memories of the GameCube's brand name.

If Sony is looking to target new audiences a name change could make that way easier. No longer would new consumers compare their newest system to the last one. A whole new product brand could stimulate higher sales. At the same time the new brand could harm sales as non-hardcore gamers might not make the connection between the last console and the new one, though I doubt that will be a problem with the Sony label present on the package.

I know PSN will be used on the PSP2 I also know a PStore will be availible on the PSPhone so the drop would be external not internal. Would the inclusion of the PlayStation brand online defeate the purpose of dropping the PS brand from the product's name? Also the NGP includes the PlayStation brand on the console but it doesn't match up with Sony not calling it PSP2. Will the brand remain on the final product or will Sony launch a new brand?

So what do you think, could a move away from the PlayStation brand benefit Sony in the long run, will it hurt in the short run. Whats your opinion should Sony hang on to the PlayStation brand?