In an interview with CVG, EA’s Patrick Soderlund has revealed that the company has had access to Sony’s latest worst kept secret, the PSP2.
Asked if EA has “had any exposure at all to the PSP2”, the company’s senior vice president replied “Well, obviously as a developer we have had that – but I’m not allowed to talk about it.” However, he declined to give any further details on the upcoming handheld, including if they have merely been shown it, or if they are actively working with devkits, as rumoured: “We can’t talk about it because of our relationship with Sony obviously.”
Whilst EA is the first major publisher to confirm it has spent time with the PSP2, it isn’t the first gamemaker to spill the beans. Back in September, the executive producer of the upcoming Mortal Kombat, was the first developer to reveal that kits are doing the rounds. “PSP2 looks like it’s a pretty powerful machine,” he said, interestingly also revealing that the studio had yet to receive tools for the 3DS, despite that console coming to Japan before the end of the year and the rest of the world in early 2011. Given that the PSP2 is not yet close enough even for an announcement, it seems that Sony are getting the handheld into as many developers hands as possible, as early as possible – learning from both the development issues faced by some studios with the PS3, as well as the current lack of investment by publishers in the PSP.
Rumours have been flying recently about the still-unannounced console – possibly due to Sony leaking false details in order to catch whistleblowers – from memory that bests that of the PS3 and 360, a ‘HD’ screen, and even a full touch-enabled pad on the back. Also on the rumour mill is a “PSP Phone”, with pictures of a prototype obtained last week by Engadget. It is as yet unclear how far along that project is, and where a phone which apparently only matches the power of the current PSP would fit into the PlayStation portfolio, with the PSP2 rumoured for a late 2011 release.
Source: CVG
gazzagb
It seems they are getting it out to lots of Devs so they can get to grips with it – hopefully this will mean a great line up for it’s launch.
G_The_Enemy14
Yeah I agree, hopefully it’ll have a stronger launch than the PS3. The original PSP launch games weren’t that great either.
gazzagb
I thought it was quite a good line-up. Plenty of variety, and I remember Pursuit Force being insanely hard, frustrating and addictive at the same time.
G_The_Enemy14
I never really got into pursuit force. I just remember playing need for speed carbon :p
lewis
Ridge Racers was amazing. Still play that game to this date. Just waiting for Ridge Racers 2 on PSN so I can play it on my GO.
bigwhiteyeti
I still play Lumines once in a while.
samiro05
Aye, I hope it’s a good handheld with lots of great games to contest with Nintendo’s expanse of games for their handhelds. I’ve not had a handheld since Gameboy SP so if this turns out as good as it’s hyped up to be then I may get it.
bajere
yea, hopefully. I just hope the unit looks better than what we have seen. not a very nice unit to carry around
lewis
I know Studio Liverpool have one… in fact they have had a few iterations. The current one features more than one area that can be used as a touch pad/screen For the first time they were shown early models, and gave feedback on performance and architecture. About time I guess after the constant whining from developers on the difficulty they have had with the PSone, PS2, PS3 etc. I also hear that they have the base specs for the next playstation. Development for the next playstation starts when Liverpool stop working on Apocalypse. (You don’t have to believe a word I say by the way. If you don’t beleive me search for Lew15ewad and check out when I broke the news of Wipeout HD, and its 3D support on Gamefaqs forums)http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/wipeout/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-44039074&pid=938148
lewis
Ha ha, sorry my name was Godofbolton then lol
BIGAL-1992
“Well, obviously as a developer we have had that – but I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
Logically, he just did.
iBirch
Can’t wait for PSP2!
Sympozium
I can’t… because I’m not sure whether or not it’ll have storage over 30GB for backwards compatibility.
Yeah I can’t wait until they actually announce a new psp with details.
scavenga
Kinda reminds me of back in elementary school, no matter what gear you were chatting about in the yard, there always was this one kid whose father had one of those “except it’s up at the cabin at the moment, so you can’t see it”
Sympozium
Hopefully EA won’t release any messy games like there launch psp lineup
cam the man
I wonder if Sony will have another go at a ‘world wide launch’ for the PSP2.
Charmed_Fanatic
all i hope for is Backwards Compatibility, but it seems to thin for that??
Grey_Ghost13
It seems Sony may be trying to learn from past mistakes, can hopefully only bode well for the PSP2.
stueeeee
Well I’ve got plenty of great UMDs I still like to play so if it’s BC or has a code redeem scheme on psn like we were hoping for Go that would b great! Judging by how backwards compatibility has been going on consoles this generation I don’t hold out much hope :-(
lewis
Don’t you think that BC holds back a console? Imagine if the PS3 launched without BC. It would have been cheaper, or they could have put better specs into the PS3 side of the console.
Radboud
I hope they do not spend any time on BC….
If you want to play your UMD games, what’s keeping you from putting them in your old PSP?
I really really hope they do not put an UMD drive in the PSP2, because that would make it bigger than it could be. I love the size of my GO and if I want to play an UMD I pick up my PSP-3000, hardly any need for BC.
Crazy_Del
“We’ve seen the PSP2, but if we give you the details. We would have to kill you”
=P
lol
Looking forward to hear more news about this.