There have been many modifications to the PlayStation Portable ever since it launched back in 2005, but there has yet to be an announcement of a TRUE next-generation portable gaming system from Sony. Sure they have added a couple new features to the PSP 2000 and 3000 but not to the extent of needing to upgrade. There are rumors of Sony announcing the next PlayStation Portable at E3 this year with a touch screen and of course upgrade hardware, but will this happen?

Sony launched the PSP in 2005 hoping to succeed in the handheld gaming market and they did just that. True, the Nintendo DS outsells PSP week-to-week but Nintendo has been successful with this market for many years. The DS also appeals to more of the casual gamers even though the PSP does have many great casual games like Patapon. But even with them losing in sales to the DS they have made loads of money off of the PlayStation Portable and without a doubt will be coming out with another one.

Now the question is, will it be announced this year? I am sure that Sony does not even know 100%. They just released the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and even though it did have a rough start, it has began to pick back up and is doing very well. Now you are probably wondering why I am bringing the PS3 into the picture. The reason why is because I feel that the PlayStation 3 will keep Sony from announcing the next PlayStation Portable this year. The reason why I say this is because if they were to announce the next PSP lets say at E3, that would be something else Sony would need to focus on and put a lot of time and effort into. This would hurt them deeply with the PlayStation 3 as that needs to be the #1 thing to focus on. They need to find a way to get the price of the system down and sell more consoles. They started out well for 2008 until Microsoft dropped the price of the 360 to $199 making it almost impossible for someone to justify buying a PlayStation 3.

Sony just needs to start putting all their time and effort into the PlayStation 3. If they can drop the price to $299 soon after the release of Killzone 2 along with release many more great titles and add more features to the PlayStation 3, this will make Sony a lot more money and enable them to surpass the 360 this generation. This will give them more money to put more focus into the PlayStation 3 and then later on with the next PlayStation Portable.

So if Sony is smart and understands what they need to focus on, there will not be even an announcement of the next PSP this year but maybe next year at E3 if they can turn everything around with the PlayStation 3.

No PSP2 until Sony's financial crisis is over.

^This. I really doubt sony would even make psp2 at all. They'd probably just focus all their effort on the console front which is where they were once successful. They've never really succeeded on the handheld front.

I'm sure it's in developement, but I don't think they would reveal it until 2010. They have too much else to do right now.

^ Exactly! I was thinking the samething. No price-drop/new console until they get themself out of their financial situation. They're raising prices and some folks expect a price-cut Lol.

Mmmmm no:

- The PSP sells well and begins to sell softwares.
- The PSP can get one or two price cut(s) to dump sales.
- My finger told me that a PSP4k is on the way for late 09: no UMD slot, going full DL. It will be cheaper than the psp3k and will have a much better autonomy.

So no, no PSP2 before late 2010.

i don't there's need for a new PSP, i mean what are they going to change, sure it can be smaller and lighter but what else?

if they are not going to add touch screen then all they can do is to increase graphics quality which is too early for a handheld, developers are lazy to produce quality PSP games right now (except square enix), so i don't think a new PSP would have better/more software, so i think they should just leave as it is for the next 2 years and then announce something new, maybe with camera or something, but not this year

I really do not think that Sony needs a new PSP, hardware is selling well (better then PS3, which is selling badly whatever people say) PSP is able to create good graphics and there are no problem with its media capabilities, with 3000 revision which adressed few issues i think Sony should keep it for a while, its more powerful then the opposition and does offer something different then DS.

And try to attract some more western support because that's the main issue, not hardware itself which is strong and succesful. Killing of PSP and bringin PSP2 could be risky , DS will be around for a while and new Sony handheld might be again too expensive and will not get off to good sales.

There will be no PSP2. There is no incentive for Sony to release a new gaming hand held. As its been mentioned numerous times before the PSP and DS are two different systems so technically neither have competition.