Today the European PSP PC store was updated with two third party PSP games for download: Medal of Honor and Pirates! The American store already has Gurumin as well as a number of first party titles. Just yesterday it was announced Sony would be offering a new bundle that comes with a sizable memory stick (4gb) and a downloadable game (Everyday Shooter). Then there's the movie store that just opened. All this has me thinking that Sony is keeping the current PSP alive partly as an experiment or beta to gain more data for their inevitable PSP2. They seem to be slowly building up the PSP store with full games and movies in order to see how people accept this distribution and to test out their own network. This is also getting consumers used to the idea of a download-only system. 

Basically, all of the new features that have been slowly rolling out seem to be a rehearsal for their next effort. An effort that would probably rely on an Itunes-like media store and would replace the UMD drive with built in flash memory (which would make the system SO much smaller and more portable, not to mention much better battery life). What do you guys think?

I am surprised that they did not introduce some sort of storage in the new PSP

Definitely cuts down on piracy.

i think you got it right. if the psp2 games/movies is all dl only then they can do w/e with the hardware. add flash, built in harddrive, 2nd analog (which i fully expect).

this will most likely be sonys move with the psp2 and i think it will prove to be a good one.

I am too. I thought they might add a model that has 4gb or so built in and use that sku as a test to see how well it works and to see how much people adopt that system. Instead, I guess they chose to offer the 4gb memory stick bundle, which is pretty much the same thing without the added cost and complexity of designing a model with the flash built-in. I really think next year, end of '09, we'll see the PSP2 with on board memory and I think people will be pleasantly surprised that it won't cost much more than the current model. You gotta figure getting rid of the UMD drive would lower manufacturing cost and complexity substantially. 

Nah, just cuts down on piracy.

The PS store stuff is DRM'ed to death.

http://www.pspfanboy.com/2008/08/22/yuusha-and-bleach-will-have-simultaneous-psn-and-umd-release/

According to this article, Yuusha and Bleach will have simultaneous PSN and UMD releases in Japan. So Sony is moving another step forward and experimenting with offering games at retail and download at the same time. Is it so crazy to think that a year from now we'll see Sony ditch UMD releases all together and create a download only PSP2?

for the psp its a great choice.
since games are no larger than 1.8 gb.

"Rise from your grave!"

Coming this Fall, PSP store will actually be available straight to the PSP through WiFi. Yet another move to rid the PSP of physical media. Sony sure does move slowly, but they seem to be headed in the right direction.

Link: http://www.pspfanboy.com/2008/09/02/psp-wi-fi-store-coming-in-fall-new-ps3-infrastructure-mode-anno/

Also, the article mentions that the PSP will be able to connect to the PS3 to create an "infrastructure mode." In other words, Monster Hunter 2 (a local-only multiplayer game) will be turned into a full on over the internet multiplayer game.