The Handheld Wars of Old are underway. Sony has just announced that its upcoming PSP2 will not only be on the streets by Christmas; it’ll be as powerful as its current console.

Sony has officially told publishers and developers that the upcoming handheld “is as powerful as the PlayStation 3,” requesting richer, more in-depth content than any app-centric handheld gaming device on the market (namely Apple and Android phones). Sony is setting high standards for inaugural titles, and it’s a relief to see that effort up front rather than a list of lazily ported titles from older consoles.

Slotted to arrive in Q4 of this year – perhaps as early as October – the PSP2 will include an HD screen with twin stick controls. If that wasn’t enough to make industry insiders jump up and down, the handheld – while fully supportive of downloadable content and incorporating apps from the PlayStation network– will also boast a new media format, enabling retail to play a part in the development cycle of the system’s games.

The device may even incorporate a phone.

Sony will begin planning its rollout strategy for the device on the heels of Nintendo’s 3DS presentations in Amsterdam and New York. They will reveal more information to the public at GDC and E3 later this year.

News and Culture Editor Laurie Vazquez really misses when all games were flat. Sure, she’s worked in television and veered off into film and television writing, but when she’s not whacking out scripts for contests (or, more likely, when she should be whacking them out) she fires up her beloved flat games. Take away her Nintendo, and she is a sad, sad girl. Just don’t take away her Futurama or her viola: that makes her mad.