Yet more rumours have surface indicating that the 2 is real and will be arriving next year just in time for Christmas.

A source in the British games told VG247 yesterday that the is in hands of developers and is telling them to prepare for a launch during the 2011 holiday season.

This follows last month's revelations by studio Netherrealms that they are currently working with a PSP 2 kit and are suitably impressed by the power of the new handheld.

Over the course of this year's season of trade shows Sony's big executives have repeatedly denied the existence of a new generation of PSP hardware.

By Ewan Aiton