14 DAY TRIAL // The handheld gaming console market is a pretty tough one, as both Sony and Nintendo are fighting for the first spot with their individual consoles, the DS and the PlayStation Portable. While the DS has the upper hand on Sony's product, the two consoles are still pretty much neck and neck in a lot of territories, including Japan, where both of them are extremely popular, even though they have been launched on the market for quite some time and new versions, like the DSi and the PSP-3000 have appeared.
But, as time goes by, rumors about the next version in the lineup and what new things it will bring to the customers in order to keep the product attractive and useful are bound to appear. Although some of these rumors concerning a brand new PSP, not a new revamp, dubbed the PSP2 have been denied by several executives from the Sony corporation, more and more sources are starting to confirm that such a project is nearing completion at the headquarters in Japan.
Now it seems that other very close sources to the electronics and gaming company stated that the brand new PSP console would have a lot of features, including a multi-touch user interface, similar to the one found on Apple's iPhone, which, with the support it has for games, made some critics say that it would affect the market share of the Japanese portable console. These sources also revealed to IGN that the project was indeed nearing completion and that we might get to see the official statement from Sony in the near future.
These claims were also backed up by a supposed customer survey made by the Japanese corporation to present to PSP users, in which they were asked about new features and how they felt if these were introduced in a future version of the handheld console. Among them were social networking support, Bluetooth for connecting with other devices or the supposed touch screen which has been confirmed by the sources mentioned above.
As usual, when contacted for any statements about these consoles, the Japanese company refused to say anything, citing that it was the policy not to comment on rumors or speculations. So until we see the official announcement made by Sony, the PSP2 is still a rumor.