Video game fans know it sucks to invest hundreds of dollars in consoles, accessories, and games only to do the whole thing over again in five years. We do it, but we hate it. Sony’s PS2 is showing the console lifecycle might be lengthening, with awesome games still being releases for the seven year old system. The PS2 even outsells the state-of-the-art PS3 meaning people seem willing to invest a couple years in the aged platform.

But Sony’s PSP handheld is a different beast. John Koller, senior marketing manager for Sony’s PSP told IGN he believes the handheld has a 10-year lifecycle similar to the PS2 and PS3. Using firmware updated and some hardware revisions, they can milk the life out of the PSP. But this is a bad idea and an example when starting fresh is better in a few years.

The PSP is an excellent system, but it was Sony’s first foray into handheld gaming meaning they made mistakes they can learn from. The PSP has done well against Nintendo’s stranglehold on the handheld market and a successor could do better, just like Microsoft’s second Xbox has done better than its first. Even Sony’s PS2 eclipsed the original Playstation.

Technology, as always, leads the charge in updating the PSP. It’s not simply to create a more powerful system, but a more helpful system that can take advantage of lessons learned the first time out. The three main necessities in a new PSP are flash-based games, a built-in hard drive, and homebrew support built-in.

Sony still argues UMD’s success, the reason for its exclusion has more to do with technical benefits rather than sales. Like Nintendo’s DS, the PSP2 should use some kind of SD card for games providing an expandable size for developers (probably 2-8 GB) while improving battery life and size. UMDs use tons of battery power to spin, have long load times, and take up lots of space. SD cards are energy efficient, faster, and smaller. And now they’re a lot cheaper.

Built-in hard drive makes sense for the expected PSP/PS3 store that will provide a non-stop supply of games, movies, and music to gamers and media lovers. The Xbox 360 receives criticism for not including a hard drive as standard and the PSP will receive similar challenges as developers question how many of the PSP’s users have large enough memory cards for their games. Sony could even have an 8 GB and 16GB model subsidized by the large audience who will download content on the go.

The most controversial idea, Sony needs to embrace homebrew and that’s not going to happen on the current PSP. A large community of PSP owners want to make programs for the PSP, from GPS software to media players to free games and emulators. Yes piracy is a risk, but so it alienating your customer base. By embracing homebrew, Sony increases the value of their hardware without spending a dime. Instead of spending time and money fighting homebrew, a little effort to simplify homebrew could make the PSP2 the must have for techies and commoners alike.

With more than 30 million sold in three years, the PSP is quite a success for Sony’s first effort. But practice makes perfect and Sony could increase its success and gamers enjoyment by making us go through the pain of a new upgrade in two to three years. We might be mad, but when the hardware is improves, the games are better, and the value increases, we’ll show our gratitude the best way fans can - by spending money.