Recently at E3, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) annouced and unveiled it's newest model of the PSP (PlayStation Portable) the PSP Go. While the name doesn't sound that interesting there are some interesting viewpoints on the console itself already, and it hasn't even hit the stores yet. What I know from reading various articles and reading articles from Sony themselves is that the PSP Go is to be a contendor to rival the recently released new Nintendo DSi amongst other devices currently on the market. I generally don't like to bitch about a console to much because it makes me sound like a fanboy, but really im not. I think the whole fan boy groups are sad and lame and quite possibly need to get laid but anyway back to Sony and the PSP Go.

At a first look at the PSP Go it doesn't really make me think "WOW I have to have it" it isn't exactly eye candy, but still I was always taught not to judge a book by it's cover and I won't start here, so lets look at some shots of the new PSP Go.

A very different shape and mould from the PSP's that are currently on the market.

Looks like it fits quite well in the hand for people with larger hands, maybe Sony are making there products more giant friendly?

Wait WHAT? Eric Cartman?

Well the last image was just some creative thinking from some South Park fan but what a brilliant vision he/she must of had to create it! Though while looking at the real PSP Go shots from a glance it seems like it's some bloated hardware that needs to go a diet, but after a while I've sort of fallen in love with the design, the sliding screen is a neat concept (Though I could see 10 year olds breaking it almost instantly) but still there are parts of the design that generally make it look smooth even though it does look a bit chunky. Though I do have to comment on how the buttons are positioned. They do seem a little close together which makes me wonder if playing games on the PSP Go will be as comfortable as say the PSP 2000, but until I hold one in my hands I can't really make a call on that one.

Looks and appearance out of the way, lets drill into the PSP Go's specs. One of the main new features of the PSP Go is that it will have a 16 GB Internal Memory so we will be saying bye bye to the UMD Format for the PSP Go. I believe that games for the PSP Go will be completly downloadable which suggests that Sony will be involving the PlayStation Store (PSN) into the PSP Go alot. This would make sense seems Sony have been fighting a long battle against piracy due to the UMD format that is used on the PSP 1000, 2000 and 3000 series. The fact that people could dump the contents of a UMD and run the ISO file instead is what Sony have been fighting to stop for years now. If the 16 GB Internal memory wasn't enough for you, the PSP Go is also to feature a memory stick slot too, so you can expand your 16 GB memory even more. This is my own personal idea here but I would think that Sony would have considered being able to let old PSP models that a consumer may own e.g. PSP 2000 play the downloaded games that are present on the memory stick within PSP Go, this is where the memory stick would come in handy, as if you downloaded a game to it then you could slot in the memory stick into a older PSP and play the game on that too. Like I said thats my own personal idea, I have no idea if Sony has planned this.

Besides games going completly downloadable, it's been recently announced that non-gaming applications are also welcome on the PSP Go. As soon as I read this I instantly thought of homebrew thats widely being used and developed on the older versions of the PSP. I think this is Sony's way of inviting developers to get involved and create controlled Homebrew, which I would just like to add It's about time! There are many PSP Devs right now that have done great things for the PSP. Dark_Alex and his legacy of (Second Edition, Open Edition and M33 Custom Firmwares) Fanjita of Team Noobz bringing us firmware downgraders and early devs such as Booster of DevHook fame. There are so many more devs I can list but the list would just go on and on, but now is Sony actually inviting developers to tinker with the new console? It's no secret that Sony recongise homebrew and even the man himself Jack Tretton (SCEA CEO) has recongised homebrew and made this statement when questioned about it:

"I think that is something that is in the works. We certainly see some of the stuff that has been done via homebrew, and it's incredibly creative. And I think we'd like to try and tap into that a little bit more."

Well guys maybe the PSP Go is that tap in method that Sony has been talking about. And to be fair I think homebrew has helped the PSP Scene out alot, besides the piracy problems, so if this is the case. Hats of to Sony for thinking about homebrew!

The price however, isn't exactly all good news. For a UK Resident (Thats me) the console is to be retailed at £229.99 which given the current situation yes the big R (recession) is a pretty heavy price and it's not like America has got it easy either it's retailed over there at $249 so a pretty heavy price tag on the new PSP Go. Especially when you compare it to it's little brother the PSP Slim and Lite (PSP 3000) which is priced at £109.99 (UK Price) so you can really see a difference. Whats interesting though at the moment is a handful of stores in UK have currently not ordered a single PSP Go Unit, due to the fact of little or no demand and because shop owners are worried that due to the non UMD platform they won't be able to make enough revenue because they will lose UMD sales, it's no secret that game stores on average actually lose revenue when selling consoles. Granted people will be still buying games for there older PSP's but in the end the UMD format will slowly become history and eventually we will no longer see the format at all. So there are concerns about the sales of the PSP Go, but major game stores such as GAME are stocking the PSP Go and you can currently pre-order it. And for the people that are flamming about the price have you not thought about buying the console from another country and importing it? It will certainly be cheaper for most, though not all will benefit from importing.

Overall though, despite the flack that the PSP Go seems to be getting by many, myself im certainly interested in purchasing one once it's out, granted I won't be getting one straight away, I think I'll wait for a bit and hopefully see the price drop a bit, but when it does hit the stores I will be interesting to see what the responce to the new PSP handheld is. Only time will tell!