Souds like it is going to happen. And that is fine with me.

Will I be able to run Crysis on the PSP2?

This is certainly interesting. Exciting? I don't know. Tell me they're giving it dual analogue support and that's kind of exciting. I certainly see the logic in a download only service for the new iteration. Just look at the way online content has gone in games these days. The access is there to support it comfortably. And all of a sudden your PS3s access to the PSN, and more importantly your online wallet makes the two even better bedmates. (BOOM! Convergence baby! Comin' atcha. Like a buzzard.)

I think a fundamental reason Sony would drop the UMD is no great purist vision towards downloads as a new business model, it's just a plain fact that the UMD drive was cartoonishly noisy, and generally sapped the battery life like a mo fo. Just think of what an access heavy title like GTA or PES did to your play time.

Does no one else see that the UMD was just a MiniDisc with the corners cut off? The MiniDisc ultimately never made the splash that Sony wanted it to (overpriced tech again). If the MiniDisc was an attempt to make CDs 'chuck in your bag' portable like tapes, then the UMD is just the same but with DVD as the inspiration. Again, Sony fell over itself on the hurdle of pricing. When you could buy the higher quality DVD version of a film for significanly less money than the UMD equivalent, then rip it to a memory stick, and still be able to watch it on your TV should you choose (Bear in mind that the price of memory has tumbled in the years since the PSPs release - which, oh my god is probably about 5 - they're totally going to start the next cycle soon). Oh any then there was UMD Audio, don't get me started on that. It's the DVD vs ripping argument only 10x more of a no brainer. 

Anyway, the format the games come in is really a moot point if the titles that are going to be released are going to be a repetition of the quality vaccum that the current psp has seen. Especially given the fact I've had one for 5 years now, I can count the number of truly great games for it on my fingers.

As I touched on above, the thing that really hampered the PSP was the control options. The power was definitely there, but what was the point in developers being able to almost match the PS2 in terms of graphical crunch / physics processing only to have the whole affair crippled by an inadequate set of user inputs?

I think we'd all have had a more entrtaining experience from the current machine if we'd exchanged a little graphical polish for some analogue buttons even. It's not beyond the realms of science.

It's for that reason that some of the most successful games on the format have been the ones that didn't just attempt to use the processing power to mimic the PS2, and went in their own direction. I'm talking of course about your Patapons and your LocoRocos here.

Some of the developers cracked the First / Third Person Shooters on the platform. I'm thinking particularly of the Logan titles here (and hopefully the forthcoming Resistance: Retribution). But in all fairness, how much better would that experience be if there was a second analogue nub to look around with? It's like the one that got stuck on there was put there to tease you with posibilities rather than be of any genuine use.

I like my driving games (and bought a console on the strengtht of GT4 Mobile adverts - launch title? Bunch of arse), and originally assumed the buttons were analogue since there was only one analogue stick. That all made sense, since GT was a launch title, and that's how GT used to be controlled.

Ok, I've got that off my chest - all apologies for the overly long comment.

Wow. More than a whole page of posts to read. They're taking care of business of late.

They haven't denied it that's for sure.

That's sony's version of "true but I will get spanked if I say anything"

I would actually buy a PSP finally if its download service is as easy to use as iTunes.