http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/17758.cfm

According to PSLS, Sony will be releasing an updated PSP handheld before the holiday season this year, one that will add significant hardware changes.

The PSP-4000 revision, according to sources, will be announced at the upcoming E3 event.

Debunking past rumors, touchscreen will not be added but the proprietary UMD format is a thing of the past. With the removal of the disc drive, the PSP will add a solid state drive and will keep a removable flash memory port.

The site also wouldn't confirm that the PSP-4000 will have a sliding screen, but implied it. There will also not be the addition of dual analog sticks, which has been hotly anticipated in all rumors.

Perhaps even more notably is that a few blockbuster games will be coming later this year including Little Big Planet, MAG, Heavy Rain and Shadow of the Colossus.

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Leaving those features out will be a big upset for many that were expecting this, as i am for one.  If this is true, i feel that the new PSP wont sell as well as it couldve.

And Shadow of the Colossus is having a new game? I didnt know that or am i missing something here?  Discuss.

Interesting.. I think it's still a good thing that Sony are putting the UMD behind them.. Also hopefully there is a sliding screen otherwise there wouldn't really be that much difference to older models of the PSP.

We'll see how everything turns out in under 6 weeks time

I'm still not beleiving any PSP-4000 rumors for this year because, and also no UMD because..

1) A Rockband PSP bundle is due out in a month
2) A Hannah Montana PSP bundle is also due out this year
3) People are not fully acceptable of download only. Case in point no one complains when It's both download and UMD, but when It's only download everyone complains.
4) ...which leads to all the canceled Patapon 2 pre-orders (looking at Amazon sales ranking alone, Patapon has dropped pretty steep from the top 3 spots, and of course on msg boards everyone is complaining about Patapon 2 going download only)
5) Even Sony has to realize going download only will not stop Piracy. Once one person download the title they will most likely break the DRM and upload the ISO where others will download.

good that there's no dual analogue sticks.
I only have one thumb per hand after all. How do they expect me to reach the symbol buttons at the same time as usr the right A-stick?

still, only rumors at this stage

yea, i dont believe this at all either, is afterdawn (or PSLS) credible?

@monstamack: isn't there also an assassin's creed bundle coming this year?

obviously fake, what does those games have to do with the psp? and shadow of the colossus isnt a saga.

AC? I forget.

Let's also not forget the big titles announced for the PSP1 and most likely in UMD format for this year? Little Big Planet, Motorstorm, Jak and Daxter, Dissidia Final Fantasy, Rock Band Portable and bound to be more by E3. Hoping to have the best PSP year since 2006 (Although last year we had Crisis Core and God of War) and hopefully more titles then 08 (PSP had 59 titles last year as far as I know so far this year 41 in total counting Gamestop's pre-order list and titles released this year so far).

Adding a second screen without any touch screen would be dumb. Well rumors are rumors. Let's just wait and see how it all plays.

^ doesn't say anything about a second screen