i just bought a psp, and if they pull some apple type shit and come out with a new sku every year for their product, i will seriously consider jumping ship, an hd is a great idea, but i think thats an incredibly stupid move when they want to sell proprietary memory sticks, its selling like god damned hotcakes here and in japan, i actually like that i can look at the pics from my sony camera on my psp, but if they actually wanted to innovate, they could have an hd and ms pro duo, ugh is all i have to say

gstatty

@mrantimatter: Multi touch isn't exactly all that useful for games. It has it's uses but it's more of a gimmick.

sereal

@gozirah: "I guess a next gen PSP could be download only, but with no drive there goes backwards compatibility."

I think our experience with the PS3 should tell us that retaining BC is not high on Sony's list of priorities. That's fine, as long as next time they don't promise to include it in the PSP2 and then snatch it away again.

rightok

@Brackynews:

Games are cheeper now than when we were kids you know, inflation and all.

I think he was trying to point out it didn't make sense to charge $20-25 for a UMD movie with lower resolution and no special features when the DVD sold for $15.

mrantimatter

He said it seemed that studios said "lets see if we can get people to pay $20 or $30 for crappy movies with less content."

That's funny... THE GAME STUDIOS ARE SAYING THAT TOO! But the price range is $50 or $60. Who's playing follow the loss-leader, here?

@GOLD5: What you do with your nub is none of our business.

Brackynews

@DevonTheDude: Damn, my bad on the pricing.

Even so, miniHDDs are still cost prohibitive.
That $129.99 that I quoted was after extensive looking on Pricewatch and other sites and is basically just a raw drive in a case, no more, no less.

I still don't see it being financially feasible. However, in line with the comments of other posters here, if they went to a memory stick as the cartridge system and eliminate UMD entirely, then I could see it working and making the PSP being THE handheld standard.

Captiosus

PSP is long overdue for an internal memory, and yeah, lets use read only memory sticks as cartridges.

Thomaticus

How bout a second fucking analog nub?

GOLD5

@Heliophage: lol it's Sony. I wasn't aware that said heart existed.

Bardiel18

not to mention how effin fast they download. Now if we could only download games this fast

moeses213

ok, is it me or do the SD movies on the playstation store look HD and the HD movies look "Super HD"? I mean these are all fantastic quality

moeses213

lol, i believe sony pictures are the one who started the 20-30$ crappy umd movie thing

mcool93

Sad thing is people probably actually masturbate to this news

Foreign-Contaminant

please stop adding new things to psp, just make a whole new plataform, BETTER.

laio

@Mr.DuckSauce:
The right freakin' analog stick gets my vote.

The other thing is 'holdability'. I can't imagine I'm the only person who has this problem -- my fingers get really crampy after any sort of extended play. The ergonomics of holding for game play are nothing like the ease of holding a Dual Shock for example. I'm not sure there is a good way to fix it without trading off for bigger size. My personal opinion is that in some situations you almost need the big plastic case that Sony sells, just so you have more real estate to hold the PSP with.

(or maybe I just have early-onset arthritis :-)

Geraldo

I think the best improvement that could be made to it is some type of flash memory probably in the 16-32GB range. That and another Analog. And of course retain the the ability to use memory sticks for extra storage and possibly just put the games on to that. Instead of a umd, but if that happens it would have to be in the PSP2

Neo-Senku

@DevonTheDude:

The 80GB Zune and iPod are 249 actually :)

LittleBigPlaneteer

Another thing, Sony shouldn't add in too many features you guys want. It sounds great, but the price of that type of device wouldn't sell because of it being high priced. They are make an accessible handheld for kids/teens too, which means it can't too sophisticated or else it won't appeal to a broader crowd of people.

I'd hate to see Sony make a high priced revamped version that doesn't sale half as good as its predecessor.

bigdude209

Actually I hope UMDs go away for movie titles, but long as they are are still for games. They should keep memory sticks around for extending storage. However if they not going to use SSD, they could just make the memory sticks a lot cheaper.

Movie titles for download sound good, but the overall details still need to be worked out to make it completely accessible towards people who aren't as online oriented.

bigdude209

It's like a perfect storm is brewing: draconian DRM, ISP-set download limits, hardware formats disappearing (goodbye UMD, goodby HDDVD...), HD formats arriving... it's the death of copy/paste, I tell you.

mariospants

I've bought a few UMDs, and they were no way near full price of the DVD. I like to have a classic at hand in case I need to kill some time in a train or so. And with the new PSP's video output, you can in fact entertain a small group of friends e.g. late at night in an apartment on a skiing vacation -- IF you remember to pack the SCART adapter.

Sure, if you compare UMDs to DVDs, they haven't done well. And of course it's more convenient to steal* a movie and have it on the memory stick. But all in all, I like the UMD disc.

But isn't it generally about time Sony made a new PSP? One with internal storage, right analog stick, bluetooth (for headset and external GPS), perhaps internal GPS, and of course a microphone?

The PSP slim&lite was a sorry excuse of a next-gen PSP IMHO...

Zta

@Captiosus:

The 30GB zune is not $300, the 80 GB Ipod and Zune are $300.

DevonTheDude

Hell Fry's.com has a 8GB Memorystick Pro Duo for $52 bucks, that how cheap it's getting. It would likely be flash based memory since there are 54GB CF memory cards (yes they are out for professional SLR cameras) out for over $200, but by the time the PSP2 would hit these cards would be cheap (remeber when 2GB was $200 at launch!)

They would eliminate the UMD/disc drive since that is what kills the battery life, plus the're not going to make a UMD 3.0 (3.0 since UMD is based on Sony's mini-disc technology, and people thought that min-disc was a failure in the US). It's cheaper and better overall for the PSP to be based on memory stick based games, not to mention it's a lot more durable than the flimsy UMD cases. They could make the PSP smaller (thinner, we still want a big screen) by eliminating the UMD drive completely.

They could use OLED for the screen to also reduce size and power consumption.

DevonTheDude

Hey Brian I saw you talking about this on G4 yesterday! I knew immediately it was you, could not miss the trademark beard.

DevonTheDude

This sounds like a novel idea, but I see some major drawbacks.

Firstly, microdrives used in things like the iPod and Zune aren't cheap. The 30gb Zune still retails at $299.99 and all it does is play music and have limited WiFi. To give further example, the cheapest I've found a 60gb miniHDD (1.8") for PC use is $129.99 - that's just for the HDD alone in a cheap plastic case with a USB cable.

Adding a HDD will make the PSP cost more. There's no way Sony is going to suck up a 50 to 75 dollar (generously assuming wholesale values of bulk drives) production increase per unit.

Secondly, a HDD model would go back to the size of the original PSP. There's just no way they could add a 1" or 1.8" miniHDD into the current slim's case. Likewise, due to the weight and drive spin, it would make the PSP a bit heavier. If not installed symmetrically, the PSP will have to be counter weighted otherwise the imbalance would make the PSP uncomfortable after prolonged play.

Third, and finally, this would utterly destroy battery life. The battery life on my 30gb Zune is supposedly 14 hours on a full charge, but that assumes that I start playing music, turn on the lock and never press a button or look at the display again. If I start navigating or have the display on, the battery life drops dramatically. Again, this is just a music player. Imagine what it would be like on a device that has a UMD drive spinning, a widescreen display that's almost always on, and other input options which require power (memory stick). Add a HDD and I'd give the current PSP battery 2 hours, tops, if you're really lucky.

They'd really have to beef up the battery to accommodate all of these functions. This, also, would lead to increased cost (but could play nicely into the counter weight consideration if the newer battery were designed to sit opposite the HDD).

Finally, no offense to Tretton, but he's mostly a PR guy. I wouldn't put too much stock into things he "thought" they "thought" about. It's a nice idea, to be sure, but I don't see it happening because of price and redesign issues.

Captiosus

@LittleBigPlaneteer: well put amigo.
UMD would have flown off shelves at prices like $5.99. how dumb did studios think ppl were? make no mistake umd movies looked freaking great on psp. i bought a launch psp and watched spiderman....best portable player imo. let's see:

behind door number 1: UMD movies at 20 bucks a pop.

behind door number 2: BLU-Ray movies for about the same price, and GASp! more content,and HD Quality Movies.

hmmmmm......i wonder which to pick. omg i hate choosing! (stands between both doors biting nails feverishly)

zanzibarlegend

@jasongw: Actually you can purchase a 320GB harddrive for 110 dollars, quite a bit cheaper than a Wii.

Grecaun

"I think we definitely thought about it," he said. "I think that's the trend moving forward."

After that much thinking I think they should think they know what they think they want to do. 8/

Awoken

@Phester: There's no reason why it would be limited by internal storage. I think the idea (common sense anyway) would be to have a certain amount of internal memory in addition to expansion capability, so 8GB onboard memory + 8GB memory stick

decodergrizzly

This is a very good idea, even if I do buy a PSP now I won't be disappointed because I can just go out and buy an SD card for no price at all. But for those who plan on waiting it out, this is definitely a good thing Sony is doing.

It would be pretty sweet to see Sony try and work around not producing anymore UMD discs or have an option to buy the games through PSN on the PSP if it hooks up to Wifi, that would be awesome.

Chaospluto

@kspray-dad:

Yeah, I've heard about that but don't they have to use the old firmware?

Good point about the non-resellable DLC. Maybe they can still support UMD as an external add-on drive for those who prefer to purchase the physical copies? That would be a small sacrifice.

flashtut

@flashtut: ISO rippers do it for the pirates.

I don't like the non resale aspect of Digital Content.

kspray-dad

@RaepGoblin: You can already do that.

kspray-dad

I still favor memory sticks as an option because I have a few devices that support it as long as it maintains a cheap price point. I usually get third party memory sticks since they tend to be slightly cheaper. Although I could probably use USB flash drives as another alternative.

I'd love a built-in hard drive similar to that of my iPod video's 80GB hard drive in place of the UMD drive. Battery life isn't that much of an issue with it, and I'd be able to store a bunch of movies and games while on the go, so it seems to a good idea with less to carry.

It does screw many people with a large collection of UMDs but if they added a UMD-to-digital download trade-in policy, then it would be a fair compromise. A conversion tool would work too, but I don't know how they would accomplish that.

flashtut

I would love to get a psp that I could just hook up to a computer or PS3 and download full games to it. I wouldn't have to carry around UMDs anymore and It'd probably replace my iPod.

RaepGoblin

This doesn't make much sense to me. You can get up to 8 GB of memory for it now, maybe more and I just don't know about it yet. You can also move files to and from your pc with a $10 USB cable. A hard drive seems expensive, unecessary and liable to break. I believe they are slower than the memory sticks too.

curtisawa

Isn't there a third party harddrive attachment for the PSP?

Pattypie

@Jayge:

Actually, the biggest you can get for any portable 2.5" laptop is 320gb right now, and it'll cost you as much as a Wii.

jasongw

it will no doubt be on the psp 2 or something of that nature. I think that the psp can only stand so many redesigns.

Xtreme_Hindu_Cow

I think it's clear that especially for portables, downloadable movies really is the *only* way to fly. Good riddance, UMD. It's unfortunate we still have to tolerate you for games. Thank god for hacked firmware, big memory sticks, and easy game ripping!

jasongw

@Captain Fury:

forgot to say:

after all the 06 trash talk that is

Captain Fury

Yeah, HD storage would be a very large mistake on Sony's part. There are 16 and 32 GB flash memory units availabe, and 64+ is rumored to be in development. Flash memory takes less time, is easily switched and portable, and more durable then hard disks. Hard Disks have hard enough times keeping themselves from scratching the crap out of your personal data in static positions.

Media is much easier to transfer between flash cards. They're also much easier to take care of, and take up less space.

And now I'm getting redundant.

Basically, the hard drive in the PS3 is great because you can easily buy 500GB on the cheap and have as much of anything as you want on it. But it is NOT the way to go for portables.

It's the anti-hype train for the PSP2. Which they wouldn't release anytime before the end of '09, if not mid '10. Given the release date of the new Resistance.

Which is not to say Sony wouldn't continue supporting us (especially recent Slim purchasers), but they wouldn't cut the hardware less than a year after upgrading it and clocking the CPU higher.

I'm rambling while I watch TV. Sorry for the mini-book.

Jayge

That comment from tretton confirms there will be a psp with a hard drive in the near future as in possibly later this year. If it wasn't coming soon they wouldn't say anything about it,

dsmx

Jack Tretton is one of my favorites gaming PR guys... he seems very down to earth

Captain Fury

I don't know why people are getting worked up about this, this is clearly about how the PSP2 will be set-up, far too late to change the psp now.
I give him credit here though.
"I think the UMD has struggled," he said. "And that's an understatement. That's been a very frustrating thing. I don't think (UMD movies) were handled very effectively."
Too true.

Ryuujin1024

@Phester: It's all just talk. If you're really into slaps in the face, then look into iPods and iPhones.

gozirah

80GB/160GB choice (same HD's as iPod Classic) with NO UMD slot and a peripheral that allows you to transfer your legacy UMD content to your PS3 or computer for transfer to your PSP's drive. Add a second analog stick. Make it even slimmer. Sell it for $149/$249. The $249 premium pack comes with the UMD-thingy.

Gilbert

I would love to get a psp with a hardrive provided it also kept it memory stick use,

Neo-Senku

The PSP2 should have 2 analog sticks, a 30GB internal memory thing, multitouch screen, motion sensing, bigger Wi-fi range, and of course a memory stick slot, backwards compatibility, AV out, and processing power a bit more than the original Xbox or the Wii. And, homebrew support. I can dream can't I?

Placentasaurus

What about a second analog button!!!!

adragonfang18

Talk about a slap in the face for all of those that just bought a 2G unit. Thank God my PSP phat still works, and memory isn't expensive at all. I'd rather be able to upgrade my storage capacity on the fly rather than have a limited internal HD.
Maybe this is the beginning of the hype train for the PSP2...

Phester

For those who complain about the cost of pro duos... I personally use an $8 microSD (from ebay -> Pro Duo adapter with 2GB microSDs for my PSP. Allegedly the better adapters can use microSDHC memory from 4-8GB each.

But at ~ $6 each, the 2GB microSDs are a great deal. They're somewhat slower than a real Pro Duo, but good enough for all my needs.

Ulm

I'm just glad the PSP didn't fade out after its shaky start. It certainly gets the lion's share of my portable time, and takes a sizable chunk out of my total game time as well. A hard drive is an interesting direction. I'm currently satisfied with the UMD format and an 8 giggle-bite stick for my other stuff, but I've definitely found myself holding off on PS Store content due to not wanting to fill up my memory stick. I have to admit, having all my games directly accessible under the game icon would be pretty slick too (yeah yeah, custom firmware, quiet you!) ...but I like cases/manuals too :(

Wolfers

@mrantimatter: I agree on piracy protection, but durable, I disagree with. The cases are pretty fragile and I can step on a DS cartridge with no worry, but a UMD(specifically the case) is pretty fragile and prone to getting foreign material in the case and causing scratches.

I doubt there will be a true PSP2 anytime soon unless there is a radical change on the DS side. I'm guessing there will be new models with improvements (like a HD, or touch screen, more memory, etc). The core of the system will be pretty much the same.

Ehardergardens

I guess a next gen PSP could be download only, but with no drive there goes backwards compatibility. I think that in order to keep their library expanding, they gotta keep UMD along with any new features.

Instead of adding a honking large drive, I think it would make much more sense to add 3G networking, so you could download movie chunks, or game episodes on the fly.

gozirah

So they are going to not only drive a stake into Memory Card Duo sales (That's gonna make third parties happy), but give people even more space to pirate titles? Dark Alex will have whatever firmware it comes with cracked witnin 8 hours unless there's a failsafe that bricks the system via frying the motherboard.

Bad idea, but hey, if they really believe in a 10 year PSP, might be worth the software sales damage.

Foxstar Sixtail

good idea. stick pro duos suck. few readers support them without the adapter and it's easier to leave them in the psp and attach via usb cable anyhow. this is the way to go, and should be cheaper. but it should be IN ADDITION TO. and yeah, 2-4 gb would be fine.

i foresee a PSP2 Elite with like 10. put that in the pool for E3 2010.

mister_shhh

"and as the cost of memory continues to drop"

This is probably going to end up being the same reason why they don't make a model including internal memory.

What they should've done is made it compatible with regular old SD cards. They aren't that much bigger, and they're much cheaper for larger capacities. I suppose flash memory wouldn't be too hard to incorporate though. I'm looking at an 8GB flash drive right now, and it's very compact. I can get the same sized drive in 16GB as well (and they're pretty cheap too, MicroCenter :3 ).

Mit

Even allowing other formats to be used for storage would alleviate some of the issues. The memory stick pro duos are crazy high priced relative to other formats. I don't like having to have multiple memory sticks to hold all my data. A HDD would be nice but unless it was large enough to allow me to not rely on memory sticks anywhere as much, i dont think it would help.

With the way that Sony has been doing things with the PSP lately i doubt it would be all that much space to begin with.

DrDoom83

@mrantimatter: That and have those periferals, camera, microphone for skype, and maybe GPS, built in.

drywaller79

64GB AND Memory Stick slot or BUST!

Leetables

I'm no longer a fan of Sony's mem stick, so I guess I favor a larger capacity hard disk with more RAM to avoid constantly hitting the hard drive to load data. The PSP will continue to have the analog control problem though unless they redesign it completely which leaves me less than enthusiastic about a PSP even with a hard disk.

kasplat

@Ehardergardens:
Keeping UMD still gives you some measure against piracy, as well as a durable format. They might need to up the capacity though.

That or move games to spcial MS's, but then you'd have games comming on one stick, using another for expanded content, which could lead to easy piracy.

Also, unless they can make the format say, 2+ gigs and under $3 to make, its going to effect game prices.

mrantimatter

PSP 2 with multitouch, and built in memory would be awesome.

Give us a few gigs (say, 2-4) of internal memory and full support for exppanded memory, IE MS-duos, and I think we'd be set.

Get bettery life up to say, 10 hours and make the umd drive faster, and you'd have a neat handheld.

mrantimatter

UMD at the time was a pretty good idea.
Memory at the time of the psp launch wasn't cheap and to do something like a cartridge for the DS that could store 1.8 gigs of data (or thereabouts) for the amount of assets in psp games(launch titles were rarely over 512mb though) would have been much more expensive. If people weren't greedy (movies @5-10 dollars) then they would have been better (at launch). Most people bought 1 or two umd movies for the novelty of it at launch, then realized it was basically a scam.
UMD cases are a bit flimsy though, and the clear plastic top has been dislodged on several of mine.
I think continuing the UMD to a PSP2 would be bad idea though. Tough call to make considering all the games out on that format. But it looks like Sony has already begun moving their library online, just the folks that have sizable umd libraries would be out of luck.

I enjoy how straight forward Jack is being(or how incredibly clever he is at APPEARING to be).

Ehardergardens

@LittleBigPlaneteer: Agreed. Still, Sony could've done a lot more to make studios aware of that fact.

It just reminds me on the one hand of how much I love the PSP (I do think it's the best handheld to date) and on the other how maddening it was to watch Sony completely mismanage it at every turn for the first two years of its life.

I've likened it to watching a retarded child trying to solve a puzzle behind several inches of sound proof glass...no matter how much you yell and scream and gesture that square peg is still going into a round hole.

Even now there's a lot of room for improvement in Sony's PSP strategy, but it's still worlds better than the way they've phoned it in for the last couple of years.

Nightshift Nurse: Mile High Colonic

@LittleBigPlaneteer:
Exactly, with the amount of content, and lack there of, on a UMD, there should have been a significant discount in their pricing. I would have been more inclined to pick up my favorite movies for on the go if they weren't $20+ a pop. Well, maybe it's still not to late to lower the price and see if demand rises enough. UMDs could be a good supplement and alternative to the down loadable titles that Sony is going to be offering on the PSN store.

-oG-ShAdY

UMD movie prices were way too high and UMD is just too slow for portable gaming. Wait did he said possibly a PSP with a HDD? They might as well call it PSP Quest for Booty Edition. I would welcome it but if they did that a long time ago it could have rivaled the iPod. I knew a ton of people who used their PSP for music and movies but the memsticks just didnt hold enough and werent cost effective. This would be a good idea but expect alot of HDDs to be filled with warez aka booty...YARG!!!

ichiban1081

@cy-rano:

Actually the PSN video downloads are great quality. The SD videos have the quality of an upscaled DVD imo.

cduran

Arg Matey! Sounds good to me!

y2julio

It's refreshing to see that level of honesty in a Sony exec. Now they just need to admit that at it's height UMD actually sold better than Blu-Ray has to date...

Jordan Lund

@LittleBigPlaneteer: agreed it was definitely the publishers that dropped the ball on that one.

Yet of course they bump up the price of blu-ray movies because it's in 1080p, but won't drop it for sub sd quality UMDs. Blatant gouging.

TheHun

@cy-rano:

What I was really hoping for was a blank UMD market. I mean, I still can't believe they aren't selling UMD-RW's in the market. Sure we'd need some sort of UMD writer to get info onto them, but Sony could have it in a way that you could purchase movies from their online store and transfer them to UMD. You can of course do this with memory sticks, but why waste space on your MS when UMD's could be used too.

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Woden501: Now why would you have a 8gb SSD for...I have a mspro right now in my psp that's 8gig already. Just make bigger mspro and we're good.

karateka

just to be devil's advocate, UMD were not such a terrible idea - they should just have been discardable media. They have excellent quality and it's really nice to watch a movie on the psp instead of suffering the (often) horrendous movies proposed on airlines. With the horrible sales, many stores have discounts on UMD (i often buy a UMD for ten bucks, good movies like layer cake even). But the thing is, you don't want to keep a UMD forever, like you'd keep a DVD. You want to watch it once when you are bored in a bus/train/plane, so it buying a umd is basically a rental, and you should not have to pay 10 bucks for it.

I say, make time-protected UMD (i don't know how it'd work, but I have seen DVDs like that), and sell them for 4 bucks, even 5. and make them available in airports and train stations.

I don't know if it'd be popular, but it would an excellent offering.
Downloads are often bad quality, or too slow. and i don't see myself download a movie on a airport wifi connection.

cy-rano

Wasn't it detailed before that it was the movie studios fault for seeing UMD's the same way they see DVD's and thus wanting to charge the same price for them? Sony wasn't exactly in control of that pricing plan, the studios were. If UMD movies came out at 9.99 or less from the beginning they may not be looked down upon now. The concept of UMD movies isn't terrible, just the pricing of them.

LittleBigPlaneteer

As long as I can run cfw....I'm cool with it.

starscream1101

Well it would have to be an SSD because I can't imagine a hard drive lasting too horribly long in a PSP. One good drop, and you've got to replace the whole damn thing. Even if they went with an SSD I'm sure that you would pay a premium for it. I imagine a 8gb SSD would probably cause Sony to raise the price back up to around $200 for just the system itself, and even higher for the forced bundles like the Star Wars and God of War ones. I think all in ally I would prefer to just be able to purchase my own memory so that I can take advantage of some of the great deals I've been seeing lately on flash memory.

Woden501

UMD was just pointless. A majority of people don't want to pay full price for a movie they can only watch on a portable (before tv-out on psp).

I like the idea of having a digital copy of my movies when I purchase a physical copy. I'm still not down with going all digital for movies and games...especially if I drop $25-$60 on something, I want to stroke it lovingly.

kwicherbichin

Every time I almost talk myself into buying a PSP, they go and do shit like this. Oh well, I will keep on waiting.

chuffhoncho

i think the movie store on PSN is the stake in UMDs heart.

jfx316

@dowingba: Oh, they sell them, just people don't buy them. Like ever.

TalKeaton: A Force to be Reckoned With

Last time I heard that he doesn't like garlic, and fear's fire.

PSP with a harddrive or a SSD, is something that would make me actually buy it, or a right analog stick, more so the stick than the drive, but either way, it's a good deal.

Mr.DuckSauce

Please, less digital distribution until the frikken ISPs stop putting download limits.

With limits in place, physical hard copies are going to be cheaper than digital downloads with less hassle.

RPGr

I'm pretty sure nobody even sells UMD movies anymore.

dowingba

Wow. Sure glad I bought that memory stick....and my soon to be gimped ps3.

Jesus, sony, stick with a hardware configuration for longer than 2 seconds.

Marasai

I would imagine a stake in its heart, though I wasn't aware myself that said heart still carried a beat.

Heliophage

I like me some Jack Tretton. "Crappy movies" is putting it lightly.

Machines