And now there's more PSP-sequel news from a sort-of-unlikely source: Acclaim's David Perry. Yes, the same man who brought you such hits as Earthworm Jim and Cool Spot is laying it down via everyone's favorite microblogging service, the Twitter.
In an effort that must be absolutely lauded, Kotaku decided to break the weird Internet 3.0 cycle of reporting "MAN SAYS SOMETHING ON TWITTER, FILM AT 11" that myself and plenty of others have gotten into and actually followed up with Perry to see if he had more to say. And hey! He did!
"I spoke to a developer who is working on it right now," he said. "I know this developer is already working on it, so that means they have a prototype. That would sound like a fall release to me."
Perry also states that the unit is sounding like it'll ship without a UMD drive, and he further speculates that consumers will receive games as digital downloads. So, I guess, it's like an iPhone but with games that actually resemble meaningful interactive experiences instead of more-gimmicky versions of old cell phone games?
Separately from all this, we've also heard from an Anonymous Source type that the buttons on the new PSP may be significantly different from the existing layout. Who knows if that will pan out, but if I were designing a new PSP, I'd at least put a full DualShock-style layout on there. Might as well toss in some motion control, just to keep up with what Apple's been doing. And hey, maybe do a touch screen, just for kicks! Of course, that stuff gets expensive fast, so maybe asking for all that is a bit much. But hey, let's get pie in the sky on this, right?
It's a fascinating prospect, and with all of the PSP-focused game announcements coming out of that retailer conference in Arizona, it certainly sounds like Sony's gearing up to take the portable market more seriously this year. Add to that the way that every single outlet on the Internet seems to have at least one or two other "trusted sources" to back up Perry's details, it's pretty clear that something's up.