Sony have announced the next iteration of their handheld system, the Playstation Portable Go. Recognised as “the worst kept secret of E3″ by Sony themselves, the announcement on-stage by Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai followed up many rumors and speculation about the system since an earlier leak from an episode of Playstation Qore (shown below).

15% lighter and 43% smaller than the most recent PSP-3000, the PSP Go will completely remove the UMD slot to save space and battery power and include 16GB of internal memory to store media. Sony have stated that all future UMD content will still be released in a physical format for those with existing PSP’s, but also uploaded to the Playstation Network for Go users to buy and keep in digital format. Media Go is also being released as a software solution for downloading and organsing games from the Playstation Store on a home PC. Sony have mentioned their plans for a method of transferring existing UMD games into a digital format for those wanting to move onto the Go but for now these specifics are unknown.

Further online distribution will be useful for the PSP especially considering the reception of their UMD format, so in case 16GB of internal memory isn’t enough the PSP Go will also support Sony’s Memory Stick Micro (M2), doing away with the old Pro Duo sticks. M2 sticks can support up to 32GB of data so anyone with a chunk of data to store should be able to fill their needs.

The PSP Go is shaping up to re-scale a lot of the PSP’s power, but it’s not all for the best. PSP games themselves will be no different as to support previous models of the system, so the PSP Go will still have only one analogue stick despite previous rumors. The screen will also be .5″ smaller sizing up at 3.8″, compared to the existing 4.3″.

Set for release starting October 1st 2009, a hefty price tag of $249.95 US (the original PSP launching price) may make a few consider stepping up to yet another version of the PSP. Kazuo Hirai made a good point at the E3 conference when saying that “2009 will see more big franchise titles released on PSP than any other time in the history of the PSP platform”. With upcoming titles such as Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, Rock Band, Metal Gear Solid and Jak and Daxter there definitely is a lot to look forward to in the future of the PSP.