There are numerous voices claiming that Sega should re-start manufacturing gaming consoles – some of them going far enough to claim that a new console from Sega would turn the tides of the console wars. Even though that is hard to believe, it appears that Sega does have some plans to challenge the gaming device market, apparently aiming at Sony’s PlayStation Portable (even though, on numerous occasions, Sega denied any interest in manufacturing gaming devices again).

However, things have changed a bit since we just found out about the existence of Sega Vision, a project which apparently is being developed SegaPrize Europe – a Sega department describing itself as “the hot new kids on the block looking to make some noise in the industry”.

Register Hardware released the story and claims that the handheld will be the “PSP beater” in 2009 when it gets released. According to them, Sega Vision will not only function as a gaming platform, but it will also be able to play movies and music. It will also feature a TV tuner and voice recording options. It sounds like a too-good-to-be-true kind of thing.

Even more, the RH website claims that a “handful of working models” are out in the wild, somewhere in a central London arcade shop. If that’s true and SegaPrize Europe did develop a Sega Vision handheld, there surely is something fishy here, because we had absolutely no official news on the matter. What’s your opinion on this?

[Image credits: Register Hardware]

Update: We have contacted the SegaPrize Europe team via e-mail and we’re waiting for a response. Check back to find out if Sega is indeed entering the console wars!