PSP Successor Sports PS3 Graphics, Touch Pad, 3G Capability
On Thursday afternoon, and the wee hours of Thursday morning for most of the rest of the world, Sony unveiled its new portable device slated for release this Holiday season.
It’s current codenamed NGP, for Next Generation Portable. It will succeed the Playstation Portable, and a release from Sony claims Sega joins dozens of developers in signing on to support it.
They will join Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Tecmo Koei, Activision, Ubisoft, and a host of others in development efforts for the platform. The NGP touts both Wi-fi and 3G wireless support, as well as front and back cameras, a touch pad, and graphics reportedly on par with the Playstation 3. All of it can be seen on a 5 inch OLED display with resolution four times that of the original PSP. The game Uncharted was demoed at the reveal to a wowed crowd.
Though Sega has indicated support, there’s no telling what the company has in store. In fact, only a handful of titles are confirmed, including LittleBigPlanet, Killzone, Hot Shots Golf, and others.
Sony’s full NGP announcement is below.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced its next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP), which delivers the ultimate portable entertainment experience. NGP will make its debut at the end of the year 2011.
NGP is designed to offer unparalleled interactive entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation®. This new system offers a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context, made possible by leveraging SCE’s experience from both PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 (PS3®) entertainment systems.
Deep and immersive gaming is at the core of PlayStation’s DNA, and NGP is the latest embodiment of this vision. By having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, NGP will enable infinite possibilities for users to “encounter,” “connect,” “discover,” “share” and “play” with friends wherever they are. Within the device are a range of features that provide a genuinely cutting-edge, next generation ultimate portable entertainment experience.
* l Stunning OLED and Revolutionary User Interface
NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” moves of the fingers.
* l Super Oval Design and Dual Analog Sticks
While succeeding the basic design philosophy of PSP, NGP adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, created to fit comfortably in users’ hands. For the first time, a portable entertainment system will feature two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience.
* l LiveAreaTM
Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called “LiveAreaTM” where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through PlayStation®Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an “Activity” log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.
* l Near
SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called “Near,” developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.
* l New Game Medium
NGP adopts a new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for NGP software titles. Taking advantage of the flash memory feature, this innovative card can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card. By adopting flash memory based card, SCE will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data to deliver rich and immersive games.
NGP will also come equipped with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, all of which are designed to enable users to enjoy the world of entertainment that is linked with real life experiences.
PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for AndroidTM based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.
SCE will vigorously promote NGP towards the launch as the next generation portable entertainment platform and deploy various measures to further expand the portable gaming market.
?Next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP) ?
CPU
ARM® CortexTM-A9 core (4 core)
GPU
SGX543MP4+
External Dimensions
Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Touch screen
5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED
Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad
Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras
Front camera, Rear camera
Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone
Sensors
Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
Location
Built-in GPS
Wi-Fi location service support
Keys / Switches
PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless communications
Mobile network connectivity (3G)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?Games so far:
- Killzone
- Little Big Planet
- Reality Fighters
- Uncharted
- WipeOut
- Resistance
- Hot Shots Golf,
- Gravity Daze
- Smart As, Broken
- Little DeviantsKey Points:
- 2 analog sticks
- Six Axis motion controls
- New game media (flash-based carts)
- Large screeen
- Touch pad on the back
- Front and rear camera, with a microphone
- 5 inch OLED
- 3G plus WiFI
- GPOS
- 4x resolution of PSP
- Touch screen
- Touch pad on back of device
- PS3 quality graphics
- Released this holiday season, in Japan
- Micro analogue stick
- Downloaded PSP titles work on NGP
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I’m already more interested in this than the 3DS.
Sony’s response to the 3DS?
Can’t wait to see how this “NGP” turns out.
I… still want the 3DS though. But if this handheld gets a Sonic exclusive, then I’ll be VERY upset. However, if it has the same/similar power to the PS3, then whatever Sonic game released on this, should have it’s versions on consoles. Make sense?
What happens when the graphics quality on handhelds equal that of the home consoles? I tell you what: there’s a rip in the fabric of the space-time continuum! Man, my head is spinning with all of the activities I could do with a NGP…
I hope the more Sonic games on the 3DS
PSP2 Sonic The Hedgehog or Sega 2012 year
I’m not interested.
The games don’t seem so fun unless there will be a Sonic exclusive.
Because it’s a Playstation product, I don’t actually care about it on principal (the only good Playstation was the 2), but I’m really interested in some of the features of this as of now poorly named device.
How is the touch pad on the back used for games?
For that matter, how is it used at all, being on the back of the system?
Backwards compatible? (Doubt it.)
Is the feature sharing automatic like Nintendo’s streetpass?
Internal storage? (not on the list, but thought I’d ask.)
Price? (Ballpark it.)
Exact release date? (Quater 4 right?)
Also, here are some things I DO know about the device FYI.
Device is ‘sealed’ disallowing the switching of batteries.
3G is NOT standard, there’s one model with it and one without.
For me, this actually depends on games available both for this and for 3DS. If “NGP” will end up as the heaven of FPS players, it probably would be the purgatory of mine. No, not hell. It would be hell if there were only FPSes.
No FPS hate, I just personally don’t have fun playing 90% of those.
The NGP seems pretty cool. It is also probably more suitable to a 3D Sonic than the 3DS due to the dual analog sticks. I just hope what ever Sonic game they make, it isn’t a Rivals 3. That series blows.
This thing is interesting but I can almost guarantee by those specs that the system is going to be at least $350. The pspgo was $250 and the NGP is so much more advanced that it has to be a lot more advanced. I’d still take the 3DS anyway. The 3D is sweet and even though that thing is powerful and has a touch pad it probably won’t have that many sonic games. Sonic has always done better on the DS and Wii so if they do come out with one it might be to test the new controls kinda like how they made Sonic Free Riders for Kinect. All I know is that the NGP is gonna have to be at least $350 or else Sony won’t make a profit
…Yeah, I’ll just stick to the 3DS, kthnx. LOL. But in all seriousness, I’m more interested in the 3DS than this NGP thing. The only reason I still own a PSP is because of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. There’s just too many things about the 3DS that really grab my attention. Besides, there’ll probably be more Sonic games out on the 3DS than the NGP since Sonic games sell better on Nintendo hardware anyway.
This NGP doesn’t sound worthwhile. All the elaborate features on this system don’t sound like they will contribute anything to the most important aspect, which is the gaming! The the only one that will contribute is the HD graphics which will probably just act as a magnet to million repeatative FPS’s with bland visuals anyway and only a hand full of legitimately good ones. Top that off with the likelyhood of an overbloated price on Sony’s part and you get a rather half-arsed “Next Gen” portable.
Yeah, i’ll just stick to the 3DS too.