Don't count your broken eggs until they actually break. Is that how the saying goes? Anyway, DVD Specialist Boulevard Entertainment says that the PSP's UMD format isn't dead, it just needs to be sold at the right price. Story in the full article.

If you thought the future of the Sony PSP could only be foreseen by the sole authority of the PlayStation Portable, John Koller, you might want to reconsider that notion. Several high profile game industry veterans popped a few thought balloons over rumors of a new PSP that may be cooking in Sony's kitchen. What their neurons cooked up on the new features of the "PSP2" you might have difficulty believing - if you don't find the read too far-fetched.

 

It still trails behind the DS, but don't say that the PSP's dead. IGN notes a Nikkei Keizan Shimbun report that says that PSP has sold over five million units in Japan!

According to the newspaper, PSP sales hit that mark in February, and it shows signs of steady growth. In fact, there's additional software development going on, and if you've noticed some of the things we've mentioned on the site, it's still poised to keep on growing. Sure, we can't figure out if that PSP2 is actually shipping out or not, but it's good news like this that makes a PSP fan happy at the end of the day.

One last tidbit, by the way. At the end of the article, Sony got quoted, saying that the system's adoption rate is "the same as that of the original PlayStation, which shipped one hundred million units." Does that mean they expect it to sell as much as the PS1 eventually? Well, first things first, let's aim for ten million Japanese gamers served.

Gaming site 1UP is reporting that it was able to talk to a handful of retailers concerning the PSP2 rumor carousel that has been spinning round and round like crazy lately.

According to the retailers, the handheld had a dismal Fall last 2006 as hardware shipments were down 72%, with total US sales reaching only 10,000. The retailers added that they gave Sony an ultimatum: drop the price or they'll drop the system from their stores entirely.

PSP Senior Marketing Manager John Koller said that no such price drop was announced during the recently held Destination Playstation event in Phoenix, Arizona. And then out of nowhere, Koller hinted at a redesigned PSP unit, "I can at least say this much, the screen won't be changing in size." (As you are all aware, the existence of the next PlayStation Portable has been long denied by Sony then confirmed by Maguire, only to be denied again.)

Anyway, Koller continued and explained that Sony is in the process of reducing parts and potentially adjusting the size of the PSP all together. Well, if these reports are correct, Sony should work fast. An ultimatum, after all, is an ultimatum. We're pretty sure the company can't afford to lose invaluable shelf space at this point.

Thanks Waponez for the heads up!

If our title sounds vague, that's because all the information you're about to see is vague to begin with. A member of PSPCrazy.com posted some rather interesting tidbits he claims are gleaned from a discussion with someone from Sony. And since he also mentioned something of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), we're kinda looking over our shoulders more often now.

No confirmation elsewhere so far, and we can't even tell if it's all true to begin with, all these moles and deep penetration agents and leaks and slips. Not even the paparazzi and gossip columnists were these blind in hinting. Anyway, here's what the PSPCrazy.com guy slipped:

• Ready At Dawn devving a new IP, nothing related to Daxter, but something about "riding of (sic) Daxter" (the game's success) which we interpret to mean that it might be a platformer. No other info to confirm our suspicions.
• Sony's plan to make the PlayStation Store accessible on the PSP.
  
• A comment regarding PSP2 talk which we can't really make out. Begin quote: "Sony by the looks of things will be taking the ipod route every 2 or 3 years maybe longer they will release and improved system not doing away with the name or image of the psp i mean do u really want a psp 2?" Did anyone get what that meant?
  
• An "in-house" PS3 title in the works.

We can't make heads or tails of much of this, period. We can't tell if it's true, false, half-true, fabricated, or the product of an overactive imagination. And because the guy claims there's an NDA involved, fat chance of any confirmation from him, his supposed mole, or Sony reps. No more speculation from us on this - it's all wild-(butt) from here.

Another rumor goes the path of the Aurora bomber, Crysis 360, and the cure for baldness. If you guys are having too much fun ogling over the PSP2 concept art made by Emre Husmen, look away - as Sony says there is nothing of the sort cooking up.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has just announced that "There is no PSP2." in the works, and that rumors circulating about a PSP successor are just that - rumors.

Among other features that the PSP2 would carry was an obscenely large 60GB HDD, a built-in camera function, Bluetooth capabilities, and a cell phone. Of course, there are far more features circulating out there, which carry over our best hopes for the portable. For now, we resume the daily homebrew grind with the console that's already here.

2006 was a heck of a year for the PSP, ain't it? You got people who wanted to write it off, but in the end the world that revolved around Sony's little handheld that rallied together and punched stuff out that made people take notice. Great released and upcoming games, from Loco Roco to MPO to even Full Auto 2, surprisingly, that show that the PSP can be more than just game-on-the-go and PS2 ports. The launch of the PS3 with its PSOne emulator and Remote Play. (And let's not forget the other side of the PSP world, who've also had their own reasons to celebrate).

Eh, but the champagne corks have been popped, and we're still hung over, and now it seems that in wine there is prophecy... or outright silliness. We've decided to come up with a list of a few forecasts we have for the PSP because, well, it don't hurt to dream. More to the point, with such a great ending for the PSP in 2006, we want to believe that the trend can be continued through 2007. So many dreams, ideas, rumors, speculations, and blue-sky guesses to entertain.

Well, except for the last item in the list. That one's a byproduct of endlessly toasting the New Year.

PSP redesign announced. Not necessarily a PSP2, even if the rumors are flying as thick as the fireworks at the stroke of midnight. The most conservative estimates we've got point to an announcement in late 2007, for potential release somewhere in the following two years - probably long enough to get much worth out of gamers' investments in THIS generation's PSP. Those conservative estimates also point to an 8-12GB flash memory, still the same 333mhz clock speed, a better analog nub, and instead of UMDs, the games will come on proprietary flash chips, or be DL'd off the net.

But hey, perhaps this writer could be bolder. Fortune, after all, favors that. Could it be, you and I never imagined... a dual-core PSP? Or even a Cell (re)designed for the PSP. And finally, the full DualShock2 control suite (four shoulders, two sticks), but still in a slim yet ergonomic format. Who knows?

Even more great games, thank God. This season will get off to a good running start with three words: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (yes, I consider FFVII as one word), and that's just at the previews. And it won't stop there for the PSP, either. Enough said. But guess what we found out? Remember when Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton said they'd like to do an MPO sequel if the sales are hot enough? Well, sales ARE hot, and we just found indicators that there WILL be a sequel! Guess we can't quit you, Big Boss. Hey, let all the devs take notice of this. PSP games can be done right. So do them right.

More images from the crystal ball - or from the bottom of the champagne bottle - at the full article.

Knolly told us to go and check this presentation out. It also happened to be in Korean, so we had to break out the Google Translate and the Babelfish. It's about Samsung's recently-unveiled "N-series" of 1.8-inch disk drives - yes, 1.8-in. HDDs. Will the wonders of technology never cease... then this slide came along...

For all the PSP2 rumors we've heard, this one just might have gone off the deep end. That undoubtedly looks like a PSP. A PSP with a hard disk drive? Not that it's unimaginable - for crying out loud, the iPod! - but why jump to conclusions from a single picture? There's nothing in the source's text that says anything that spells out "PSP" or "PlayStation Portable" (unless the Koreans call it a different thing entirely). Maybe Samsung was just using the image of a PSP as a demo.

Click on "Full Article" to read on.

A lot of you guys might go ballistic with this, but lots of market researchers think that PSP sales will plummet this Christmas season. No, we're not talking about just another sales-figure drop. We're talking "abysmal" here. Why so? Lots of reasons. And you might even contest these observations. Well, let's discuss them point by point.

The next-gen consoles are coming out: PS3 and Wii. It's a fact; consumers are most likely to buy something that's hot. With the November release of both consoles, does the year-and-a-half old handheld have what it takes to boot it up? Maybe not. And of course, most of Sony's attention is being focused on the PS3. They're making sure that its release would run smoothly into Santa's pocket. The effect of this is that the poor little PSP will be left "un-hyped" as much as the PS3 is being marketed.

And then there's the much talked-about "PSP2." If they're coming out with a beefier sibling for the handheld early next year, then lots of people who never owned a PSP before would rather go for the more powerful PSP2. More than anything, this will really spell doom for the PSP hardware sales.

Where does this leave us? No one knows. Surely, you've got something to say, though. But understand, before you click that "Post Comment" button, do understand that this is just something of an analysis of the market and nothing really writ on stone.

With so much hype going around about the Sony PS3, John Koller from Sony PSP gives us his take on the company's upcoming plans, as well as the success of the PSP.

First it seems as if Sony is leaning towards towards multi-functional game consoles. Recall that the PS3 is advertised as a cutting-edge home entertainent system, while the PSP is not just a gaming device, but a portable web browser as well. Now, Sony seems to explore most of its product's capabilities by using the PSP as a remote control for the PS3. At the E3, they showed how the PSP was used as a rearview mirror for the F1 game. We could probably expect more of the PSP-PS3 team-up in the future.

But while waiting for that, we could get excited for another "inter-console" innovation from Sony. Well, sort of. Koller says that sometime this fall, PS1 games could be downloaded to your PSP. Koller also claims they're working on the nitty-gritty details such as prices for each game downloaded or the actual date as to when these PS1 games will be made available to PSP. As for other plans, projects for the PSP2 are underway, but not much could be said about as they're currently focused on enhancing the current version.

Regarding sales, he says that Nintendo has quite a success with the DS Lite, but there's "no impact on sales". He adds that their marketing strategy is different from Nintedo's as the latter seems to target a younger audience than Sony.

All in all, Sony considers the PSP a success. Hopefully, they'll say the same for the PS3 too.