Sony is planning to introduce the next iteration of its PlayStation Portable handheld game console in June, according to published reports.

The expected major revamp of PSP will be unveiled at the Entertainment Software Association's E3 conference in Los Angeles, game fan site 1UP.com reported, quoting sources directly involved with the new system.

The sites goes on to say that the new PSP likely will be called the PSP Go! and will be available with either 8 GB or 16 GB of flash memory. It's expected to be released in Japan in September and will debut in the United States in either late October or early November.

If the report is accurate, then Sony will be releasing the redesigned PSP in the United States more than six months after Nintendo released the DSi, the latest iteration of the company market-leading DS portable gaming devices. The DSi has been available in Japan since last fall. The devices sells for about $170 in the United States.

Nintendo's DS line of handhelds has seen sales of more than 100 million units since its release in 2004. Sony has shipped only 50 million PSPs since releasing the device in the same year.

As of Dec. 31, global shipments of 83 Nintendo DS games have topped 1 million copies, according to Nintendo. Seven of those titles topped 10 million.

In March, Nintendo's Wii video-game console and the DS portables led the industry in terms of unit sales, respectively, followed by the No. 3 Xbox 360, according to the NPD Group. Sony's PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable were fourth and fifth, respectively.

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