PSP 4000 Design Rumours: The End of UMD and a Slidey Screen
If you were to poll most PSP users about their biggest annoyance with the console, the majority would probably say the UMD drive.
It’s been a bugbear from the very start, making the system more fragile, giving longer loading times and crushing battery life thanks to the questionable wisdom of putting moving parts inside a handheld.
And obviously demand for UMD movies is pretty much non-existent.
The sensible thing to do would be to redesign the system without one, only that would leave loyal customers with pockets full of UMD’s a little on the pissed off side.
Still, according to a “secret source” on Eurogamer, that’s exactly what the next iteration of the PSP (the 4000) games console is going to have in a dramatic new redesign.
Along with the loss of a UMD drive, the unnamed developer also is quoted as saying that “The screen is basically the one in the 3000 – except it slides.”
Allegedly, Sony are looking into games that only use the shoulder buttons (think Loco Roco) that can be used in this closed state, which will also make for a more compact media player – games with more buttons will need the screen to be fully slided out.
The rumours have been gathering for some time, and it’s even spread on to Twitter, with Dave Perry publicly challenging John Koller, the marketing manager for the PSP, to deny that they plan to drop the unique games format.
With big hitting franchises like Little Big Planet, Assassin’s Creed and Motorstorm due on the PSP this year, it’s a rough time to make owners doubt whether buying UMD’s is a good idea, so hopefully we can get some solid answers in the near future.
What do you think? Is the end of the UMD drive a good thing? And how will Sony placate the millions of UMD owners?
A download service to slam shut the industry-hated pre-owned market?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
2 comments so far
1 James I // Mar 5, 2009 at 2:47 pm
the business model for UMd was flawed from the start. Sony should have cottoned on that completely proprietary playback format is fraught with danger (Beta, Minidisk),
2 Alan Martin // Mar 5, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Hi James, thanks for the comment.
I agree with you, though more for the reason that putting moving parts in a handheld is just asking to have your battery life destroyed.
I’d question whether ditching a format half way through a console’s lifespan is the right way to go though – lots of people are going to feel cheated if their stacks of UMDs suddenly become worthless…