Rumour: PSP2 Coming Fall 2010 (in Japan) - With 3D? [UPDATED WITH PATENT LINK]

[Mo-green28]

HAHA All this PSP 2 info. I need to fall asleep and the wake up when E3 Starts. Only waking up for God of War 3 and Read Dead Redemption

[Baki]

HAHA All this PSP 2 info. I need to fall asleep and the wake up when E3 Starts. Only waking up for God of War 3 and Read Dead Redemption

Now we just need a picture of what it looks like and pricing info.

[Mo-green28]

Now we just need a picture of what it looks like and pricing info.

Yea but sadly If they truly are going to unveil it at E3 that's when we'll see. 4 months away

[Baki]

Yea but sadly If they truly are going to unveil it at E3 that's when we'll see. 4 months away

Lets hope for a Qore leak again.

Although I'm going to guess its going to have a similar design to the GO.

[Mo-green28]

Lets hope for a Qore leak again.

Although I'm going to guess its going to have a similar design to the GO.

That would be fine aslong as they make it bigger though. Because my friend let me hold his, and my hands are way too big for the Go. IMO the PSP 2000 size was fine. I'm guessing 3000 was okay but any smaller than that is too small for me.

[Blacksite]

Haha, imagine if it didn't have two analog sticks, though. I wouldn't even bother calling it a successor to the PSP.

"NEXT-GODDAMN-GEN VISUALS, BUT YOU COULDN'T ADD TWO GODDAMN ANALOG STICKS GODDAMN!!!"

[Baki]

Haha, imagine if it didn't have two analog sticks, though. I wouldn't even bother calling it a successor to the PSP.

"NEXT-GODDAMN-GEN VISUALS, BUT YOU COULDN'T ADD TWO GODDAMN ANALOG STICKS GODDAMN!!!"

That would be fine aslong as they make it bigger though. Because my friend let me hold his, and my hands are way too big for the Go. IMO the PSP 2000 size was fine. I'm guessing 3000 was okay but any smaller than that is too small for me.

I agree. They should make it a 4" screen (bigger than GO, smaller than PSP) with slideout controls.

[Mo-green28]

Haha, imagine if it didn't have two analog sticks, though. I wouldn't even bother calling it a successor to the PSP.

"NEXT-GODDAMN-GEN VISUALS, BUT YOU COULDN'T ADD TWO GODDAMN ANALOG STICKS GODDAMN!!!"

I think Sony learned their lesson the first time around. Because that would be amongst Sony's all time worst business desicions ever.

[Mo-green28]

I agree. They should make it a 4" screen (bigger than GO, smaller than PSP) with slideout controls.[/quote]

Yea that would be fine. And space the buttons very well. especially seeing that it's going to need more space to accomadate an inclusion of a second analog.

[TGO]

What, no pics?

[Mo-green28]

What, no pics?

At, or around E3 time most likely

[Baki]

What, no pics?

Pics would probably require someone with deep access. Not to mention, aesthetic designs probably wouldn't be final now (but would be close to it).

[DarkVincent07]

Games as memory cards/something like that = awesome win!!!

I only own about 15 PSP games, looks like I need to buy more before this baby comes out (if its all true of course) in early 2011 :P

[Thorzilla]

This rumor is being substantiated by sites such as Eurogamer and DigitalFoundry citing 'internal sources'.

It seems something is coming now for sure. Five years and the time has come. However this time Sony have little chance in my opinion of upstaging the iPhone and iTouch. Tough days ahead.

As for the specification, power does not interest me, it will just make the job of third-parties harder. They really needed to make sure application wise it was top-notch. But they can hardly match Apple can they? I do not know, seems like Sony have no strategic orientation. If they think power will the answer again, they are really out of touch.

I assume you know more product marketing and orientation than Sony do then?

[DarkVincent07]

Trophies for PSP2 games? :P

[Baki]

Trophies for PSP2 games? :P

That would be awesome. One PSN account to rule them all.

[DarkVincent07]

That would be awesome. One PSN account to rule them all.

Same friends list and everything, you could see what they are playing on (PSP or PS3), what game, trophies for all games, PSP games have plats, but PSN PSP games work like PSN games.

All sounds great to mee!!!

I'm still really happy that this rumour says PSP2 games will come on memory cards. I love my game boxes <3

[F34R]

Games as memory cards/something like that = awesome win!!!

I only own about 15 PSP games, looks like I need to buy more before this baby comes out (if its all true of course) in early 2011 :P

I think games on any carts will make the prices of games increase. While memory is cheaper and cheaper every day, the price of memory is still multiple times more expensive than optical media.

[Baki]

I think games on any carts will make the prices of games increase. While memory is cheaper and cheaper every day, the price of memory is still multiple times more expensive than optical media.

Optical media is less than 1 cent. Memory sticks are about 30 cents.

[AranhaHunter]

Trophies for PSP2 games? :P

That would be awesome. One PSN account to rule them all.

That should be implemented, as well as other PSN features found on PSN (friend list, background downloading, in game XMB, etc). Anyways, the rumored list sounds like a wishlist but it is the bare minimum that one can expect for a PSP2.

And since I have nothing to do, I'll say what I want for a PSP2 that would make me buy it day 0. I would expect 4G, online anywhere for the PSPhone SKU, portable projector like some phones have now (probably an add on), GPS. XMB Widgets and app support like those found in the bravia XMB (there's crackle, fearnet, hulu apps on bravia tvs, as well as useful widgets such as weather and finance, those would be even more useful on a portable). Make it an app store that 3rd parties could develop and add it there like on the iphone, could make it a tab on the overall PS Store. A music/music video store added to the Playstation store would also be welcome.

Gaming related, I'd want ability to play most PSN games (i.e. you buy Fat Princess and you can play on your PSP2 or PS3, and play against other users using either device, you could also work on your trophies using either device, obvious exceptions would be games like Burnout Paradise, Wipeout, etc). Obviously the PSP version's graphics and audio would be a little downgraded, but this would be awesome. Seeing as the PSP2 is obviously going to be BC, I would like for some of the more popular games (GOW, GTA, HSG2 - ok the last one is for me lol) to get a patch so that it would recognize when you're playing it on PSP2 and you could play with dual analog and maybe even trophy support and other PSN features like Custom Soundtrack.

OT - A lot of Gaffers on this forum lol

[karazyfoo]

Hopefully this psp2 has dual nubs

[MR_T]

i hope not ive only just bought another psp lol! whatever happens i hope to god they still use some form of physical media

[Ryunosuke]

Exclusive: Sony PSP2 arriving in 2010, features PowerVR SGX543 graphics
10/16/2009 by: Theo Valich

It looks like the stage is set for a big handheld console showdown in 2010. Endangered by rising sales of games for iPhone and OTA downloads instead of conventional cartridge/memory card games, both Nintendo and Sony have to prove that their hardware isn't going on the path of Amiga [proprietary gaming "PC" using Motorola's CPU architecture from 1980s and 1990s], but rather can live in today's connected world.

After we disclosed the relationship between Nintendo and nVidia on the next-generation hardware, we learned that handheld-refresh cycle is in full speed over at Sony as well. If we take a look at PlayStation Portable hardware [both conventional and the PSP Go] since launch, we can see that one problems that Sony has is the use of different hardware over the course of lifetime. Sony released four PSP handhelds mostly relying on 32-bit MIPS R4000 CPU core with 8MB eDRAM as the "Media Engine" clocked at 222 MHz [later unlocked to 333 MHz, PSP Go can overclock to 480 MHz], while the graphics subsystem relies on a proprietary chip featuring 2MB of eDRAM, clocked at 166 MHz.

Naturally, this hardware doesn't exactly have the compute power to tackle the last generation of cellphones, and with the 2010 phones offering HD output capabilities, the time was up for current generation of hardware. Sony begun work on PSP2 back in 2008 and unofficially announced the selection of graphics hardware: on November 24th, 2008 Imagination Technologies ran a press release stating that "Imagination Technologies Group plc has signed a license agreement with a new partner, a major international consumer electronics company, for a high-performance forthcoming member of Imagination's POWERVR SGX graphics processor family."
The client, "major international Consumer Electronics Company" was no other than Sony Corporation and the chip at hand are known as PowerVR SGX543. On CES 2009, Imagination Technologies introduced the PowerVR Series SGX architecture and on March 16th, 2009 Imagination Technologies ran a press release introducing the details of this part. Even though the introduction was low-key and wasn't picked up by tech media, seven months later we finally saw what the architecture can to.

The power of this chip is quite impressive, easily beating integrated graphics parts on PC platform. For instance, it flat-out beats the living daylights out of PowerVR core integrated in Intel's Atom platform. According to the sources close to heart of the company, the SGX543 for PlayStation Portable 2 can reach theoretical performance of desktop graphics cards released during this year, an impressive feat indeed. Imagination Technologies recently passed the 200 million shipped SoC chips milestone, but with PSP2 deal, that number is sure to grow by at least 30-40 million units more.

Now, the interesting part about the PowerVR is that it is a true MIMD [Multiple Instruction-Multiple Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMD ] architecture. In their press releases, ImgTech is bragging about the capabilities of the "GP-GPU", but even if we take a look at the specifications with the cold head, a lot of surprises are in store. The multi-core design is available in dual, quad, octal and sedec-core variants [SGX543MP2, SGX543MP4, SGX543MP8, SGX543MP16], and they're by no means slouches.

For instance, a quad-core version SGX543MP4 at only 200 MHz frequency delivers 133 million polygons per second and offers fill-rate of four billion pixels per second [4GPixel/s], in the range of GeForce 8600 cards. For that matter, 4GPixel/s runs 40nm GeForce GT210 [2.5 GPixel/s] into the ground. Given that GeForce GT210 runs at 589 MHz for the core and 1.4 GHz for shaders. Since PowerVR SGX543 targets handheld devices, there is no saying what the performance plateau is.
An eight core SGX543MP8 at 200 MHz delivers 266 million polygons and eight billion pixels per second, while faster clocked version, for instance, at 400 MHz would deliver 532 million polygons and 16 billion pixels per second. 16 billion pixels per second equal GeForce GTX 260-216, for instance.

After analyzing the performance at hand, it is no wonder that Sony chose to go with PowerVR for the next-generation PlayStation Portable. While the exact details of the SoC are still in question, our take is that Sony could go with quad-core setup at 400MHz [8GPixel/s], paired with a dual-core CPU based on ARM Cortex architecture. This would put Sony direct in line against Tegra-powered Nintendo DS2, PowerVR-based Apple's iPhone 4G and Palm Pre2.

With all the major players selecting ARM cores for their current or next-generation products, it looks like the second decade of 21st century will be marked with the battle royal between ARM and x86 architecture in the handheld space [with the advantage firmly in ARM's hands]. Given the installed user base of 15 billion ARM-powered devices and a plan to ship 15 billion more in the next five years, it looks like Intel x86 and AVX will have to wait until 2015 to get the chance to compete against ARM, PowerVR, Mali and GeForce IP, as far as handheld space goes.

When it comes to Sony PlayStation Portable Gen2, selecting PowerVR was the right way to go and since the company unofficially stated [but officially acted] that they don't give a darn about backwards compatibility [take a look at PlayStation 1-2-3 and PSP-PSP Go], programmers will just have to get used to utilizing the ARM core and PowerVR SGX graphics to the max.

We also learned of the PSP2 planned release date, but in order to protect our sources, we'll keep that information for another story. Let's just say it is within the next 12 months.

The Battle Royal for handheld gaming 2010
Apple iPhone 3G s / 4G = ARM Cortex + PowerVR SGX
HTC = ARM Cortex + PowerVR
Microsoft Zune HD = ARM11 + GeForce 6
Nintendo DS2 = ARM Cortex + GeForce 9
Nokia platform = ARM11 only
Palm Pre 2 = ARM Cortex + PowerVR SGX
RIM BlackBerry = ARM9 only
Samsung = ARM Cortex + PowerVR SGX
Sony PSP2 = ARM ? + PowerVR SGX

Feel free to let us know if we left somebody important out.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...-graphics.aspx

Guess you can use this as either further evidence for or against the PSP2 releasing this fall and its specs. Either the source in the OP used previous rumors/articles to come up with his/her own rumor of the PSP2 specs and release, or he/she actually heard the rumor from a reliable source which would suggest the other sources did as well.

Personally, I am leaning more towards this one being true(spec-wise). Perhaps not the release date, but I don't except it to be too far off from the rumored release date. I think a announcement/revealing at TGS this year and a release by or around Spring 2011 is more likely.

I also believe Nintendo's next handheld is going to be released this year. I believe it could be the ? platform for Sonic 4. Some have suggested it is for the iPhone /iPod/iPad, but I don't know why they would have to keep that a secret.

[Vulgotha]

This thing has some fairly impressive specs for a handheld graphic solution.

[Tyrien]

This thing has some fairly impressive specs for a handheld graphic solution.

Eh looking at some of the laptop GPUs coming out now, I'm not that surprised with the theoretical power it's claiming to have.

Whether or not the rumor is true or rather accurate, we can say for sure that Sony will go all out in the graphics department. The current PSP can do fairly impressive graphics as is when care is taken into development. There's no sense releasing a brand new platform unless there will be a massive increase in power.