Sony: 2009 is 'Year of PSP'

I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND: Last year's holiday season was pretty rough for fans of the PlayStation Portable, with only a handful of games vying for space under the Christmas tree. The dearth of new products left many wonderingJapan tour if Sony's handheld system was on its way out.
Not so fast, says John Koller, Sony's director of hardware marketing. The company sold more PSPs in 2008 than ever before, up about 31 percent from 2007. Turns out, Sony was just gearing up to make 2009 "the year of PSP," Koller says.
About 16 months ago, he says, "We talked with each of our internal developers and looked at all of our franchises and asked: How can you create them for PSP?" The results announced so far include "Resistance: Retribution," ''MotorStorm Arctic Edge" and a portable version of "LittleBigPlanet."
Other publishers are getting in on the act, with PSP editions of MTV Games' "Rock Band" and Activision's "Assassin's Creed" in the pipeline. Koller says PSP owners can expect a "40 to 50 percent increase in software this year, with a lot more announcements" by summer including some "very large franchises."
As for persistent rumors of a disk drive-free PSP2, Koller says he has nothing to report. He says the Universal Media Disc, Sony's mini-disc format, will continue, although "we are encouraging digital distribution" so players can download more games from the online PlayStation Store.