Sony has released a minor upgrade to its Play Station Portable handheld console. The new version, the PSP-300 series, has a new, brighter LCD than the previous two versions.
Other than the new screen, the new PSP gets reshaped select and start buttons. The Home button has also been replaced by a button with the PS logo, though the function remains the same.
A new feature that no other previous version has had is the built-in microphone which can be used to talk to other people through Skype.
To Sony though, the biggest improvement in this version is its security. The PSP has long been the target of pirates everywhere. The previous versions were hacked to play games off of the Memory stick, so a lot of people who own the system never ever purchase a single game in Sony’s UMD format.
Sony hopes the improved security, both hardware and software, makes the PSP a viable system for third-party developers again. The hope is that with less pirated games, developers would be encouraged to get better games out because at least they know that they’ll get their money back.
How the gaming community will receive this new version of the PSP remains to be seen.