Next-Gen Sony PSP2 Spy Shots Leaked Online, Deemed 'Abandoned Prototype'

Just about everyone's eagerly waiting to see just what Sony's up to in the field of mobile gaming, where its PSP and PSPGo portable gaming consoles have been sort of trailing behind, mostly due to the success of the various Nintendo DS incarnations and the rise of the iPhone and iPad as very affordable and easy to use portable gaming solutions. There have been quite a lot of rumors regarding Sony working up on their next-generation portable gaming console, known for now as the PSP2, but up until now, the Japanese company has been particularly secretive about it, with very few bits and pieces of info making their way online. However, it seems that the guys over at VG247 have managed to come across some very interesting photos depicting a PSP2 development kit, although, to be perfectly honest, the quality of said pictures is so sub-par (awful, to put it bluntly) that it's rather difficult to distinguish the various elements that make it up. What we can see, however, is that this development kit packs twin sticks and a trackpad, front and rear-facing camera modules, as well as a sliding form factor, that resembles a lot that of the current PSPGo console. Nevertheless, in quite a curious twist, the people from VG247 have later on updated their post, claiming that an unnamed industry source has tipped them to the fact that what we see in these super-blurry photos is not exactly the latest PSP2 model, but rather an abandoned prototype, Sony being forced to abandon the PSPGo-like form factor for a more traditional, block-like one (similar to the original PSP). Of course, it remains to be seen what the PSP2 will ultimately look like (and whether it will be actually called PSP2 or will have some other bombastic name), but we'll probably have to wait quite a long time before we come face to face with it, since the estimated release date for this next-gen console is late 2011.