Hot on the heels of the red Xbox 360 rumor comes an official announcement from Sony about four new PSP colors.

Entertainment devices that sit in one spot in the living room often come in conservative colors, which usually just means black. Portables, on the other hand, could be a fashion accessory and often come in a myriad of colors -- take the new iPod Nano, for instance. Sony is now taking some of the bright colors seen the in the latest iPod and transplanting them to the PSP.

Coming in March to gamers in Japan are bright and vibrant versions of red, blue, yellow and green PSPs. The freshly painted handhelds will be offered both as part of a core bundle for 19,800 yen ($220) and as a value pack for 24,800 yen ($276), which adds a 4 GB Memory Stick, carrying pouch, wrist strap and cleaning cloth.

Naturally, the “Carnival” PSP line shares the same hardware as the latest PSP on the market, referred to as PSP-3000. While the latest PSP has a built-in microphone that the previous models did not, not everyone believes that newer is better. The PSP-3000 also comes with what Sony calls an “advanced high contrast LCD,” which is indeed more contrasty than the previous models, but carries with it the undesirable characteristic of creating interlacing artifacts.

With the PSP-3000 serving as the only model sold new in stores, if you’ve got to get one, then why not make it a Carnival? We’ll let you know if these colors will spread to North America or Europe.