Artist's rendering of the PSP Go!
(Credit: 1up.com)A report from 1Up.com says the new version of the PSP will be hitting store shelves later this year. It will be announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
1Up.com also says the new PSP will be called the PSP Go! It's slated for a September release in Japan, followed by a U.S. launch in October or November. The publication said that the Go! will sport slide-out controls. Those who were hoping for dual analog sticks will be upset to hear that the new PSP will presumably still feature a single analog nub. 1Up believes that the Go! will come in two versions: one with 8GB of internal memory and another with 16GB of memory.
Shockingly, 1Up sources told the publication that Sony will be dumping the UMD drive for digital downloads. Players looking to add titles to their handheld will be able to do so by buying games from an online store.
Sony has not confirmed 1Up's report. And it's likely that the company won't be saying much as we get closer to E3. But if the 1Up report is true, is it enough to force Nintendo from its top spot in the hand-held gaming space?
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(Credit:
Microsoft)
Matt Rosoff, a CNET Blog Network blogger who writes "Digital Noise," said in a recent blog post that he spoke to Microsoft's marketing director, Adam Sohn, earlier this week, and Sohn told him that although Zune sales were poor, Microsoft still plans to release a new set of players before the 2009 holiday season. According to Rosoff, Sohn said "they'll be a surprising step up from the current models."
Great. But I don't know why Microsoft plans to waste its time with the Zune. According to its latest quarterly filing, Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million, or 54 percent, during the last quarter. Considering iPod unit sales were up 3 percent during the same quarter and Apple enjoyed $3.3 billion in revenue, I'm not convinced Microsoft's plan to offer new Zune models is a good idea.
Instead of wasting our time and its money on the Zune, I'd like to see Microsoft ditch its attempt to make progress in the personal music player market and tackle the handheld gaming space. Why not? It could transfer all its funding and development costs to that division and in the process, jump in on one highly lucrative market.
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I've been tough on Sony over the past year for the mistakes I think it has committed with the Playstation 3. I'm a firm believer that Sony should bring the price of its console down and drop the price of Blu-ray players to make its format more appealing to consumers.
But just because I believe that, it doesn't mean that there isn't any hope for Sony to turn things around. And I still believe that there's no debating that the Playstation 3 is probably one of the most capable devices on the market. But if Sony really wants to reach a position of dominance in the video game industry again and make people realize that it's offering a fine alternative to other products in the market, it needs to tie its future to the PSP.
Why the PSP? It's simple: Sony's handheld is an unbridled success that has caught some people off-guard. In the handheld market, it's extremely difficult for other companies besides Nintendo to gain a foothold. But in just a few short years, the PSP has been able to persevere through its rough start and become one of the most popular devices on the market.
Realizing that, Sony needs to make the PSP a central focus in its strategy going forward. If the company won't drop the price of the Playstation 3, the best way to bring more people to its console is to use the PSP's huge installed base to its advantage.
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In a recent New York Times article, Nintendo was heralded for its immense success with both the Wii and DS. But the most important part of that piece had nothing to do with the Wii and everything to do with the DS.
According to the report, the Wii and DS will work much closer with each other in the New Year. Nintendo contends that complete or demo DS games will be made available for download on the Wii and can then be transferred to the DS wirelessly.
And while this sounds somewhat like Sony's ill-conceived idea of PSP integration with the PS3, Nintendo's idea is not only a far more important step forward, it's the epitome of what the company is doing right -- bringing a convenient and all-around superior experience to its mobile platform. And as long as it continues to do that, Nintendo will have a system on its hands that will last as long as it wants it to.
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