Rumorang: PSP2 rocking 60GB hard drive

by Christopher Grant { Dec 29th 2006 at 1:53PM }

Thanks to the ~~always reliable~~ services of machine translation and Powerpoint slides, we're free to speculate on the possible inclusion of Samsung's new -- and, at 1.8", diminutive -- 60GB hard drive making its way into the PSP. Of course, we heard rumors of a 50GB PSP2 nearly two years ago, with rumors of mini PSPs, flash-based PSPs, touch-screen PSPs and, according to PlayStation Magazine, a Samsung flash-based PSP2 since then. Did Samsung let something slip in their slideshow? Perhaps that flash deal led to the creation of this new drive, engineered specifically for this application? There's an awful lot of smoke around this one ...

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Tags: PSP2, Rumorang, Samsung

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

pete @ Dec 29th 2006 1:58PM

60gig thats gonna hold a whole lot of psone games from the playstation store, some movies two, hell 60gig it might as well go against the zune and ipod.

serb @ Dec 29th 2006 2:02PM

that would be a dream come true for me i mean the hackers of the psp

Richard @ Dec 29th 2006 2:03PM

I love translators.

"...recent times to provide the employment quantity of 100GB husbands and wives it receives a footlights from the mobile market..."

Xiath @ Dec 29th 2006 2:03PM

Or perhaps samsung made a very small hard drive and as an example of what it could be used for picked the PSP.

pixelator @ Dec 29th 2006 5:28PM

This isn't a PSP 2, and OPM never said this would be a '2' model. From the beginning, the scuttle has been that there will be a slimmer, slot-loading PSP with internal storage that will be a NEW edition of the same platform, like the DS Lite or GBA SP were.

Erwos @ Dec 29th 2006 2:35PM

I'd believe if it were released in three years or so. But anytime sooner, and I don't think the economics would be there - unless Sony was planning to take a $100-$200 hit per unit.

samfish @ Dec 29th 2006 2:11PM

So when this flops too, can we finally stop arguing whether or not the PSP is dead?

kiwi @ Dec 29th 2006 2:11PM

Sounds like Sony might be trying to make the PSP an iPod and DS killer.

It probably won't work, but... if this is true, you can bet that they'll be advertising the fact that it can play mp3s, games, and movies.

Of course... add together the cost of an iPod, DS, and portable DVD player, and you'll probably come up with the cost of the "PSP2" ;-)

Redscare @ Dec 29th 2006 2:14PM

"Of course... add together the cost of an iPod, DS, and portable DVD player, and you'll probably come up with the cost of the "PSP2" ;-)"

Don't forget a portable DVD player will play actual DVD's instead of proprietary trash.

Orionzdream formerly Jason W @ Dec 29th 2006 2:20PM

I want another analog stick and the hard drive please.

With the PS3 offering those cheap PS1 games for $5.00 a pop im willing to throw down 250 for a PSP with a hard drive.... again.

randomdave @ Dec 29th 2006 2:21PM

"Samsung Electronics leads and 1.8 inch hard disk the man with underdeveloped genital organ it does by any means it is simple."
I'll just assume thats some sort of korean expression I guess?

Spence @ Dec 29th 2006 4:32PM

Here comes the Nintendo DS battery president with his golden trumpet.

MoonfirePewPEwPEw @ Dec 29th 2006 2:28PM

The PSP as far as improvements is dead guys. There will not be no PSP lite or the like. They are preparing for the next handheld war, just like Nintendo is doing right now, so any poll/misc you see asking about what would you like in a PSP is in preparation for their next handheld.

CHUDGOO @ Dec 29th 2006 2:40PM

Clip art / Stock photos...nothing leaked.

When throwing together the presentation they used a "portable media device" image...it just happened to be a PSP.

"Perhaps that flash deal led to the creation of this new drive, engineered specifically for this application? There's an awful lot of smoke around this one ..."

These drives have plenty of applications (ipods, UMPCs, etc) so saying that it was created "specifically" for this application is a bit overreaching.

TeddyJO @ Dec 29th 2006 2:43PM

Add 2nd analog stick, mandatory firmware upgrades, Playstation network integration and somehow make new UMD standard or get rid of it. However an HDD would be bad due to battery life.

drew @ Dec 29th 2006 2:47PM

one question... if youre a direct competitor of a video game company, and they really "lose" 100-200 dollars per unit, why wouldnt you just buy up units of your competitors' consoles? you're taking money out of their pocket. sure, you have to resell them, but i doubt it's very hard to resell consoles nowadays anyway, esp if you knock a little off the price. does anybody know what prevents a company from doing this?

NintendoFanbot @ Dec 29th 2006 2:49PM

Great!

Now if only they could control the PRICE, and the power usage... and makes games proper to the platform.

There is no handheld war or console war... it's only a series of idiocy resulting in companies downtalking their competitors instead of their own inadequacies, and it only sets fans of everything against exclusive fans (myself). :(

If Gunpei Yokoi were alive he'd probably have strong words to say about Kutaragi as an engineer. Possibly negative, hidden under Japanese social compliments and pleasantries.

CHUDGOO @ Dec 30th 2006 2:03AM

Yes and while we're at it...

It should be soft and cuddly....with lots of firepower.
Its eyes should be telescopes! No, periscopes! No, microscopes!
It should be full of surprises.
It should never stop dancing.
It should need accessories.
(end Simpsons Funzo rip)

Seriously... you game with the PSP you have, not the PSP you want.
They have absolutely no reason to overhaul it in ways that would make -US- happy...it's Sony, remember??

crono141 @ Dec 29th 2006 3:00PM

Harlock @ Dec 29th 2006 3:04PM

Would be a paradise for pirate psp games. Its like a DS with internal supercard of 60gig storage, from the factory to you.

Hoffer @ Dec 29th 2006 3:20PM

I've got a PSP, but would upgrade in a second for a second analog stick and a 60 GB hdd.

David004 @ Dec 29th 2006 3:34PM

And still no one would buy it.

Sony should just make the thing for media and not for games, then they might have a chance.

Komrade Kayce @ Dec 29th 2006 3:54PM

Honestly, if it wasn't for the battery life, at this point I would own a PSP. The ability to play ripped PS1 games, emulators, MGS: PO and one or two other games have actually made it worth a 'used in the bargain bin' price.

But as it stands, except for the PSP games, everything the PSP can do my computer can do better. Thanks to the battery life, my PSP would probably end up spending most of its time near said computer... so... why.

I dont know why Sony isn't working on the battery life over anything else. Release a PSP lite or something, strip out the UMD functions, nobody cares. Stop trying to firmware block all the hacks, because its whats selling your systems.

And give the PSP a 'lid' while you're at it so we have something to flip down over the screen while we're not playing.

Even if you dont throw a second screen on the underside of the lid like the ds enjoys, it would be nice to not have to worry about the PSP in your pocket not being skewered by the pen in your pocket. Im not saying the PSP is dead, but it fails at portability.

Im surprised with all the fanmade mods and 'portable n64's, nobody has taken apart the PSP and decided they could do a better job.

GoonieGooGoo @ Dec 30th 2006 2:30AM

I would hardly call the PSP a failure....its a great machine.....I can say last month's titles were better than the DSs lineup....(for example MGS: Portable Ops, Lumines, II, WTF, and EA Replay)

What sony should do is release a true Playstation TWO portable.....(PS2P)...with 2nd analog stick.

Wouldn't be that hard for them to do.......especially as you can run 90% of PS2 Games off of Hard Drive anyway...

Zebulunite @ Dec 29th 2006 7:13PM

Komrade Kayce, I had some comments on your post (and, before inevitably being called one, I'd like to say that I'm not some Sony loving PSP fanboy. I own a PSone, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, Gameboy Color, GBA SP, PSP, and soon a DS lite. While the PSP remains my favorite handheld at this point, I certainly like what Nintendo has done with the leading handheld, the DS).

“Honestly, if it wasn't for the battery life, at this point I would own a PSP. The ability to play ripped PS1 games, emulators, MGS: PO and one or two other games have actually made it worth a 'used in the bargain bin' price.”

Poor battery life? I've used my PSP a ton, and I don't believe I've ever run out of battery life while using it, as I make sure to charge it when I'm not using it. I've played on it for several hours and still had adequate battery life to continue using it for a good deal longer. Now, I'm not saying that the DS doesn't have better battery life, but I've never found the PSP's battery life inconveniencing, for me. So unless you just constantly fail to charge you devices, or go on some insanely long gaming sprees far away from an outlet, I don't see how the its level battery life could be the reason barring you from purchasing one. In any case, one of my favorite features of the PSP, its standby mode, allows me to put the device into a very low power mode while preserving where ever I was at in a game, saving me from losing progress should I be low of battery life.

“But as it stands, except for the PSP games, everything the PSP can do my computer can do better.”

So...what's your point. Of course your computer could do everything better than a PSP except, obviously, being portable. Do you find all portable MP3 players useless as well because your computer could play audio files at a higher quality with more storage? All portables represent a compromise of power and portability. The PSP would have to be an insane technical marvel (with an even more insane price tag) to do everything better than the average computer.

“I dont know why Sony isn't working on the battery life over anything else. Release a PSP lite or something, strip out the UMD functions, nobody cares. Stop trying to firmware block all the hacks, because its whats selling your systems. “

I've already made my feeling about the battery life clear, but “ strip out the UMD functions”? What?! So your idea of a “PSP lite” is one that can't play PSP games? Certainly a successor to the PSP could do away with the UMD (and lose direct backwards compatibility with PSP1 games), but any revision of the PSP (similar to the PS1 to Psone, or the DS to DS lite) would have to include the UMD, by definition of being a revision.

“And give the PSP a 'lid' while you're at it so we have something to flip down over the screen while we're not playing.

Even if you dont throw a second screen on the underside of the lid like the ds enjoys, it would be nice to not have to worry about the PSP in your pocket not being skewered by the pen in your pocket. Im not saying the PSP is dead, but it fails at portability.”

Well, again, I guess this goes to personal preferences, but I at least never carry any of my portable devices in my pocket, be it my PSP, GBA SP, Pocket PC, or otherwise. If your worried about the PSP “being skewered by the pen in your pocket”, I'd suggest that you not put any handheld device in your pocket before removing pens or other dangers. And you say that the PSP “fails at portability”, and yet you want it even larger (i.e. containing a lid)? In my opinion, at least, the PSP is certainly portable, as for me I define portability in an electronic device as being a self-contained unit able to be unobtrusively carried, which I can easily do with my PSP (or my GBA SP, or with a DS lite when I finally get one).

“Im surprised with all the fanmade mods and 'portable n64's, nobody has taken apart the PSP and decided they could do a better job.”

Uh...there's a fundamental difference between making a stationary console portable and making a portable console “more portable”. From what I remember from pictures I've seen, but the PSP (and I'm sure the DS, lite, and GBA SP) are all full of electronic circuitry and controls, to the point where the manufacturer cannot stuff anything else in the system. The PSP, for instance, is so refined and minimized already that the square button had to be constructed differently than the other buttons (in a slightly negative way) in order to fit it in the system along with the PSP's screen. The only way I see Sony making a smaller PSP is using a different, and smaller screen, which would make many people (myself included) quite upset.

Zebulunite @ Dec 29th 2006 7:23PM

David004

“And still no one would buy it. “

Uh...at least according to this website (http://www.vgcharts.org/ngwars.php), the PSP has sold nearly 19 million systems. Barely more than half the total number of DS systems, but still far more than any other competitor to Nintendo in the handheld market. The PSP has sold nearly as many systems as the Xbox and Gamecube in half the time, and I certainly wouldn't call either the Xbox or Gamecube systems “no one would buy”. Software to system ratios could be another thing (but I haven't seen any definitive information either way on that subject), but even still, 19 million PSPs certainly represents a system that has been bought and accepted on the marketplace (if not quite as much as the DS)

”Sony should just make the thing for media and not for games, then they might have a chance”

Have a chance...to do what? The PSP is a portable game console, with additional media features. Unless if I'm horribly mistaken, the PSP is competing primarily with the Nintendo DS, and stripping out the playstation in the PSP certainly wouldn't make it “have a chance” to compete with the DS.

bayn @ Dec 29th 2006 10:13PM

Sold my psp...
a) someone PLEASE make games for it, after playing Elite beat agents, Mario, Cooking Mama (for the GF) etc. the DS kills in games and variety. I mean 50 bucks for crappy games vs 30 for NEW good DS games? No wonder its an uphill battle.
b) I would still have the DS though if sony would stop its draconian and STUPID UI mistakes. Why is the folder naming so crappy? Why does the PSP not let me play any vid I want in full screen? Why do I have to jump through hoops to get the functionality out of this multimedia device? Fix the UI, loosen up the stupid rules, let me use the hardware like I want and I would probably still have it for that alone vs. playing games.

Zebulunite @ Dec 29th 2006 11:22PM

bayn

“a) someone PLEASE make games for it, after playing Elite beat agents, Mario, Cooking Mama (for the GF) etc. the DS kills in games and variety. I mean 50 bucks for crappy games vs 30 for NEW good DS games? No wonder its an uphill battle.”

“Kills it in games and variety”? “crappy games”? IGN gave an equal number (24) of PSP and DS games editor's choice awards (although the DS games in that category probably average out to a slightly higher score). Still, the PSP of many months ago, when the system had a dearth of good games compared to the DS, is no more.

$50 PSP games? What are you talking about? I just looked on Amazon.com, and only one PSP game (Elder Scrolls Oblivion Morrowind) is listed as above $40 (and its not even out yet). Similarly, Ebgames.com only lists 3 games over $40.

And, according to this article (http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/11/nintendo-ds-vs-sony-psp-game-and.html):

“I did some browsing at EB Games (online) and put together some numbers for new games (not used games, which can fluctuate with inventory). The store currently lists more $10-$20 games for the PSP (30) than it does for the Nintendo DS (26). The average price for a new game is $32 for the PSP and $28 for the Nintendo DS, and the median game costs $30 for both systems. (Note: That's just games available; sales volume obviously isn't something I have access to.) Each system has a nearly equal number of games.

The other thing about PSP game pricing is that it appears to be more flexible than Nintendo DS game pricing. There are PSP games launching at prices from $50 down to $20, which makes it possible for a game to portray itself as anything from a big-name release down to a chintzy piece of shovelware. Moreover, this gives games room to drop in price, so a publisher can squeeze top dollar out of the rich and then appeal to the masses later with a budget price. Nintendo's model, especially for its big-name games, has seemed much more rigid. The price for New Super Mario Bros. will probably still be $35 two years after its release, whereas the price of Liberty City Stories on the PSP has dropped from $50 to $20 in just over a year. “

So while PSP games on average cost slightly more on release, they drop in price much faster than DS games (or at least first-party DS games)

“b) I would still have the DS though if sony would stop its draconian and STUPID UI mistakes. Why is the folder naming so crappy? Why does the PSP not let me play any vid I want in full screen? Why do I have to jump through hoops to get the functionality out of this multimedia device? Fix the UI, loosen up the stupid rules, let me use the hardware like I want and I would probably still have it for that alone vs. playing games. “

Well, I wouldn't argue with your main points there (the video restrictions really annoy me), although I think the UI as a whole is very well designed. It just has a few problems in sore need of being fixed.

Eric @ Dec 30th 2006 12:12AM

The psp hard drive been advaible for a while now that is the 4gig version and has two batterys.It's battery life is no problem same as it now or ever a touch better.

Link here:http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=genbrw&page=title&r=PSP&title=796270#jump-tech

Sidepocket @ Dec 30th 2006 9:05AM

Wait, so they are adding a 60 gig hard drive...but not doubling the production of hit PSP games so they can like, try to mach how many good DS games there are?

*sigh* They never learn do they? @,@;

bayn @ Dec 30th 2006 11:43AM

@26
Your right, I sold my PSP a little bit ago and have not really looked back, prices have been dropping. I still have a bad taste in my mouth since I was dealing with some of this stuff from day one.

The PSP has great promise, but it seems sony does not want to let the user do what they want with it. A shame really. I'm not saying burn them all, but I am saying the DS, at least for me is much more fun. I just don't want to replay PS2 games over again and pay 30 bucks to do so. (Granted thats not all sony's fault) Now the capcom collections, those seemed like good games :)

As a MM device with a HDD and access to use the full screen res and easier to use file management (the UI is fine as you said) and I'd prob pick one up again.
Heck on my phone (Dash) I can drag and drop files and play vids, mp3's etc much easier than the PSP did it.