So Doesn't Deny UMD-less PSP Rumors

[War]

"Rumors about yet another iteration of the PlayStation Portable have been gaining momentum, some pegging it as a "PSP2," while others suggest an incremental update, a la the PSP Brite. Yesterday's claim by Shiny founder Dave Perry -- he knows someone who knows all about the new PSP and it doesn't have a UMD drive -- has been presented to and waffled at by Sony itself.

Interviewed by MTV Multiplayer, John Koller, who heads up SCEA's marketing of PSP, said that he 'Can't comment either way,' but did add, 'I will reiterate that the digital component is very important to us. That's all we can say at this point.'

Perry referred to the ostensibly new PSP model as a 'fully digital online device;' one that would forgo UMDs in favor of downloadable, digitally distributed software. That said, Koller's comment already has us putting together our E3 2009 bingo cards."

Source

May not seem like a big deal to you guys, but take into consideration that Sony has always been quick to squash rumors.

 

[Jiggah]

He states that there's "no new hardware." He's denying that there will be a PSP2.

A UMD-less PSP (PSP-4K) was pretty much a given already (considering an official ISO loader in the firmware, the update to allow access to PSN from the PSP). I'm not sure what the big deal is.

 

[Pizzaroo]

I certainly hope they come out with a UMD disk converter or something (I kinda buy my PSP games for my 3000)

 

[ChaosBoi]

Why are they coming out with new models so fast? 3000 just came out and now a 4000 is in the works? I haven't even got a chance to try a Slim yet!

 

[BakuFunn]

Well, without the UMD slot, the PSP would be much thinner and would be able to support that "sliding" mechanism that is all the craze in the rumors.

Also, the UMD slot uses up power, and is ugly. The UMD format is basically dead.
Why is is a Universal Media Disk, when all it can be used on is a PSP? Those movies you buy for UMD are useless, why not just get a DVD and convert it for your PSP?

I think this makes sense
With stuff like steam, digital distribution seems very nice nowadays.
The only reason I can see to object is that the PSP has an extremely slow wifi, downloading 1gb+ games will be a pain in the ass and battery. I just don't see the point downloading these huge things on this game console. The iPhone makes sense, the apps are small, 10 MB around. And the WiFi is pretty speedy. It's no 802.11 N, but it gets the job done. I think UMD's are dead, but there should be giving the PSP internal memory or make it use, say SD or something. Memory sticks are so overpriced. Then this digital distribution would be nice. Also, offer games on discs you buy. Use this proprietary format for that disc and make crap like games manager to transfer games to your PSP.

For a pirate-less PSP, digitally downloaded games are unreasonable, unless they distribute on disc you use your computer to transfer to your SD card. But then everyone would complain about the shit software the computer uses.
And I would complain about it being windows-only.