Gosh, as if you even needed proof that Sony are releasing a second iteration of their ‘best-shipping’ hand held console.

After setting up a system in the UK to get their machines into the grubby mitts of school children (talk about getting kids to associate with a brand at a young age!), SCE UK managing director Ray Maguire stated at the national launch of Sony’s ‘PSP in Education initiative‘ that the current model of the PSP is but the ‘first iteration’.

Pictured: The original mock-up for the PSP. It looks a lot smaller, shiny and stylish than the final version. Perhaps that is what it was missing - the three s’s!

It makes sense for Sony to reissue the PSP. After its sales war with the Nintendo DS this past holiday season, I assume its clear to Sony that they still have work to do and things they could change with their console. After Nintendo released the ultra-slick and almost perfect update with their DS Lite it seemed fitting that Sony would inevitably follow their lead. Sony also have a large history of updating and slimming down their products, with both the Playstation consoles released so far receiving smaller and cheaper versions within their lifetimes.

Taking a look at the PSP software section in my local game store. It really feels like there is a heavy lack of interesting games for the hand held. In my opinion, Sony will have to do more than simply release a new version of the hardware. They need to make sure that they have a new line of software to go with this new version and some actual good games. With the upcoming interesting looking platformer ‘Crush‘ by unique brit-developer Zoe Mode and todays announcement of the upcoming PSP version of ‘God of War‘, perhaps things are looking exciting on the PSP front? My only wish is that Sony start to get some new ideas and titles onto the machine which aren’t just remakes/ports/already established franchises.

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