Analyze This: Is It Time To Refresh The PSP?

They are the professional analysts who research, keep track of, advise their clients on, and opine to the news media about the video game business.

In Analyze This, we present a timely question pertaining to the business side of the industry, and then simply let a trio of analysts offer their thoughts directly to you. Each person's opinion is his own.

We asked Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, Doug Creutz of Cowen and Company and Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief on what they think of the current state of Sony's PlayStation Portable:

Sony SVP Peter Dille admitted that PSP piracy is a big problem. Yet major PSP titles can still sell (c. f. God of War, Crisis Core). Do you see that piracy is the system's Achilles' Heel?

There have been rumors of a redesign of the PSP without a UMD drive. Does the PSP need to be refreshed, and is this the right direction?

Despite piracy, the PSP is on at least an attempted upswing -- new big-name games and a possible redesign may help boost sales. So with this in mind, what do you think developers and publishers should be doing on the PSP right now?