PSP Go Leaked – Blunder or Ploy?

In a very eerie concidence with my post yesterday about being an early adopter of Sony’s technology it seems that there’s been a “leak” of the new kid on the block, the PSP Go. There’s a couple places talking about it and here’s what they have to say:

Look up there, folks. That’s the future of Sony’s hopes and dreams in the handheld gaming sector. With just hours to go before the company’s official E3 2009 press event, it looks like the pieces are all coming together. First a UMD-less game release, then a highly credible mole giving the PSP Go a name, and now — live action shots. The images here were sourced from an obviously slipped June 2009 Qore video, and aside from giving us a look at the slider-based system (which, let’s be honest, looks a ton like the questionably successful mylo), we’re also told that it’ll tout 16GB of internal memory, built-in Bluetooth and an undisclosed memory slot. If all goes well, it’ll ship this Fall for a price to be determined, and it’s actually not slated to replace the PSP-3000, as both of ’em will attempt to live on store shelves harmoniously… at least for awhile. Oh, and don’t worry — we’ll be on hand in LA to bring you all the impressions we can muster early next week.

[Via PlayStation Forums, thanks Matt and A1]

Update: Video is now after the break! Thanks adizzy615!

Update 2: Official press shots have emerged. [Via Engadget Spanish]

Update 3: A few more official specifications are flowing from the full Qore video (pardon the sync issues). Here’s the dirt:

• 3.8-inch display (resolution is undisclosed)
• 43 percent lighter than the PSP-3000
• 16GB of Flash storage
• Bluetooth built-in; supports handset tethering and BT headsets
• No UMD drive
• Memory Stick Micro slot
• New Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet and new Metal Gear Solid (!) on the way
• Full PlayStation Network support (movie and TV rentals / purchases)
• Integration with PlayStation 3 (works the same as the PSP-3000 does)
• Sony views each of its products as “10-year lifecycle products,” so the PSP “needs to live on.”

Probably one of the most interesting developments is Sony’s dropping of the UMD format from the new device in favour of large internal storage. Now whilst I’m a dribbling moronic fan boy when it comes to all things Sony I can’t say I was too impressed when they decided to release yet another media format for their handheld console. I mean sure I can understand the memory cards (at least I can use them in other Sony stuff) but the UMD was just another format that didn’t need to exist and of course one of the most popular homebrew apps are ISO loaders. Granted there will be a majority of users out there who use that to pirate games but anyone can tell you that loading your game onto your memory stick improves battery life, reduces load time and saves you the hassle of carrying around those annoying discs. I’m glad Sony has wised up on that one.

With the removal of the drive and the addition of Bluetooth and a larger display it does make this upgraded PSP a pretty attractive purchase to someone like me. When the PSP slim came out I didn’t buy one because it was pretty debatable how much I would gain from going to such a device. This one on the other hand has things I can’t get in my current PSP (now almost 4 years old as well) so it’s pretty much guaranteed I’ll get one. Hopefully they do some awesome integration with it so that I can use it in certain games, but that’s up to the developers of course.

Now onto the leak itself. Colour me sceptical but whilst everyone is saying this was a slip up I can’t really see it that way. There’s always a lot of buzz and hype when it comes that time every year for E3 (even though it’s had a severe decline in the recent years due to it’s “reorganisation”) and the easiest way to make sure you’re talked about at the show is to release some details early so that the press will want to report on that to do the old confirm/deny/opinion piece. The amount of information that we’ve been fed by this leak is pretty substantial so there’s not going to be any rush to report on Sony’s next big handheld so what we’ll see instead will be the hands-on reports and possibly some videos of it running. I can’t help but feel that this was an attempted leak gone a little too far, killing some of the buzz that it would have seen at E3.

But then again I’m a cynical person when it comes to these things. Until I see the big corporations huffing and puffing and trying to blow the houses down of the people who leaked the photos/specs/videos I don’t believe that it really was a leak. Sony confirmed all the details shortly after the leak as well, raising my eyebrow even further.

Still it looks like a good evolution of the PSP handheld and with mine tickling the 4 year mark you can bet that I’ll be looking to get one of these to have a fiddle with in the future.