Rumor: PSP2 will ditch UMD disc drive

David Carnoy | Feb 27, 2009

One of the concept designs for the PSP2. (Credit: Joe Thomas and Rocco Devenanzio)

Ah, it's funny how rumors get started--and this one is truly back-channel if there ever was a back-channel rumor.

Kotaku is reporting that a developer at Acclaim, David Perry, wrote this message on his Facebook and Twitter accounts:

"I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they've removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I'm excited!"

Now that message is rapidly making its way through the blogosphere. Of course, it's unclear what it means exactly. As Kotaku says, no one knows if Perry has seen the new PlayStation Portable or is "just hearing rumors through the development community".

At the same time, it wouldn't be surprising if Sony were to shift away from a cumbersome optical disc system and move completely to flash memory storage (Memory Stick Pro Duo) and digital downloads via the PlayStation Network Store. Kotaku does bring up a good point in wondering how such a device would be backward-compatible (perhaps if you have the UMD, you'd be allowed to download a digital version of the same game?).

While there's been a lot of chatter lately about a totally new PSP system, it's still up in the air whether the next version will be a complete redesign (a true PSP2) or just another another incremental upgrade to something that would be called the PSP-4000 (we're on PSP-3000 right now).

Kotaku and others are pointing to E3 in early June as a moment that would be ripe for a PSP2 announcement--which does seem logical. However, I for one hope it will do a lot more than play games.

As always, feel free to comment.

Update: Kotaku has some new quotes from Perry, who claims the PSP2 is, indeed, real and could hit this fall. I'm sure Sony isn't all that happy to have a developer leaking unverified information--but we don't mind.

Via Crave CNET

Filed under: Music & Play
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gsr5867

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gsr5867 says...
ITS ABOUT THE FREAKING TIME THEY DITCH THE FREAKING UMD. ITS SUCKS BATTERY LIKE CRAZY AND ITS SO EXPENSIVE. A QWERTY KEYBOARD WOULD BE MOST WELCOME AS WELL AS TOUCHSCREEN AND BUILT-IN CAM. HMMM... TASTY!

Feb 27, 2009 15:27

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Devlin

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Devlin says...
While I also am excited to see a new PSP I'm not too sure on a complete paradigm shift on Sony's part. Developing a new optical disc format isn't exactly cheap or easy so I don't see Sony just dropping it. Indeed, it no longer is as portable as, say, a 2GB flash memory card but eliminating the UMD drive from the next generation PSP will cause controversy over backwards compatibility.

Feb 27, 2009 19:29

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