Sony’s new PSP rumours emerge

Simon Brew

Is a brand new handheld PSP machine going on sale later this year?

Published on Apr 30, 2009

Sony is believed to be announced the next version of its PSP console at June's E3 gaming trade show over in the States. The news has come via the website 1Up.com, which has quoted sources who are "directly involved" in its development.

The new machine is set to be called the PSP Go!, and will no longer feature the UMD drive. Instead, storage will be handled via internal flash memory (with the report suggesting both an 8GB and 16GB version being available at launch). Then, games will be available via download, which - if true - should cheer the retail sector enormously.

In the style of certain models of phone, the controls for the new machine are believed to slide out from the bottom of the unit. The second analog controller will be removed, and the machine is likely to be on sale by the end of the year.

You can find the story at 1Up here, and the unofficial mock-up of how the machine could look is also from 1Up.