LorenzoL

Trophy support has been confirmed.

So far I'm not impressed with the Third Party games...

Supermallet

Looks like a nifty piece of hardware with a silly UI. I won't be buying one until they've proven themselves as a platform with killer games.

Which, imo, I never felt the PSP was.

Fandango

Chris_D

Looks awesome. Will buy it when I can afford it. So not at launch probably.

tlwizard

If he has it, playing in his hand, why is it not coming out until November/December? Why announce in January if we have to wait almost a whole year.

However, color me excited, I think there's some great stuff going in there, a bunch of stuff that I won't use, and I'm honestly really impressed (and suprised there's not more talk of) with the Playstation Suite/hardware neutrality bit.

Also, are they going to offer a trade-up program for my UMDs?!

Chris_D

Is it actually going to be backwards compatible with PSP? Not that it wouldn't be nice but I haven't heard that.

Supermallet

No mention of UMD compatibility, and given that there's a whole new format for the games, I highly doubt it.

fumanstan

I'm excited about better PS games coming to Android more then the rest of the announcement.

Michael Corvin

Joystiq has some damn sexy images posted.

pinata242

What about PSPGo-like functionality?

orangecrush

Is it just me, or do you guys think Sony would do well to make this thing able to play PS2 games and offer them as downloadable titles like they did with PSOne games? I think they could sell a lot of these if they made something like 20-30 PS2 games available at launch.

Decker

They mentioned this. Backwards compatible with all PSP downloads. No optical drive on the PSP2 so no UMD usage.

Chris_D

Backwards compatible with all PSP downloads? That's awesome! Never buying another UMD again (although I'd already made that promise to myself).

You sir have a window to the future .

Decker

The problem with that rather awesome idea is that they wouldn't be playable on the PS3 since they removed backwards compatibility from the system in year two to save money (and perhaps so they could re-release their popular titles in HD)

Raul3

Like the PSP, the technical specs are really amazing. Let's see if they can deliver this time.

Being that I owned the PSP Phat and now have a PSP-3001 I'll probably get one of this down the road.

Chris_D

PS2 compatibility could potentially be readded through software at some point (no doubt difficult though). It doesn't make playing PS2 games on the PSP2 any less awesome though. Frankly, I'd rather look at the somewhat dated graphics on a portable device anyway. Same for PS1 titles currently.

pinata242

If I remember right, a fair number of PS2 games (particularly the later ones) used a bunch of hardware-level shortcuts that weren't actually supported by Sony's API allowing the developers to get even more out of the system.

Those sort of things are not easy to write an emulator to accomplish. This is why, as I understand it, the original decision was made to include the PS2 hardware directly rather than a software solution.

Decker

What could be easily done (at least in theory) is to play the HD upgraded versions of PS2 games currently available for the PS3. God of War 1 & 2 and the Price of Persia Trilogy are already available for download through the PSN. That would be very cool and shouldn't be at all hard to implement.

Chris_D

The Xbox was the same, that's why MS had to release different emulation profiles for the games. But, yeah, it's difficult.

pinata242

Yup. Any time you hear that a console manufacturer is changing CPU or GPU partners, you can kiss full BC goodbye

Tracer Bullet

Sony just did a run-around on Nintendo. No question.

Handheld gaming dominance is predicated on selling it to casual gamers. The DS did so well because your mother bought it to play Brain Age. With moms moving to smartphones/iPod Touches and playing 99-cent games, more of the same isn't the way to go-- but that's exactly what Nintendo did.

Hardware-wise, this thing is way ahead of an iPod Touch. I want to see more about the software, app development environment, and price, but I have a good feeling about the new PSP.

Raul3

They need to support (third party) developers better. Moving to ARM should help if they do a good job with the SDK/API.

Chris_D

I still think the 3DS will outsell the PSP2 based on a lower price and inertia from the DS. 3D is icing on the cake. But you are totally right about Nintendo losing the casual games market to smart phones. There's no way the 3DS can match the success of the DS IMO.

Tracer Bullet

The 3DS does have the DS inertia going for it, but I don't think it's going to sell because of that. From a casual gamer's point of view, what do they need to spend the $250 on a 3DS? What's the difference between a DS and a 3DS, aside from the 3D?

Contrast that with the fact that Sony will sell this thing as a competitor to the iPod Touch, and it actually does look competitive. I doubt that Sony is even viewing Nintendo as their competition with the NGP.

Anubis2005X

So long as the price is reasonable, I'll definitely be down for a PSP2. Upgrading from a PSP Go, so not UMDs to worry about...