Sony has officially revealed the successor to the PSP, and it’s codenamed ‘NGP’. The device’s spec list reads like a techhead’s dream, with two cameras, a 5 inch OLED touchscreen (boasting 4x the resolution of the PSP), twin thumbsticks, a front and rear camera, Sixaxis motion control, 3G, WiFi and GPS, front and rear touchpads and an electronic compass. It will use flash based media, as we already hinted at a while back.
Games shown so far include Hot Shots Golf, Gravity Daze, Killzone, Reality Fighters, Smart As, Broken, LBP, Little Deviants, WipEout, Resistance, and Uncharted, and apparently look just as good as their PS3 counterparts.
Trophy support has also been confirmed, and a new UI called ‘LiveArea’ has been talked about. The LiveArea UI is what Sony are calling the ‘gateway to the games’. and will include the ability to launch the game, jump straight to the Store for that game (for DLC, etc) and communicate with others playing the game, and see what they’re up to.
You can even comment on what they’re doing, such as when they get a good score, or hit other milestones.
Kaz Hirai was understandably proud of the NGP, which is still just a temporary name for what everyone will be calling the PSP2, but the specs are indeed impressive – but it’s the control options that’ll really wow audiences – the Uncharted demo offered a variety of inputs, including tapping the X button or the touch screen to jump.
Capcom, Sega, Tecmo Koei, Konami, Epic, and Activision are all supporting the new console, with Capcom showing Monster Hunter 3rd and Lost Planet 2. Tecmo showed off a demo of a touch-screen powered Musou, and Hideo Kojima showed off a realtime cut-scene of Metal Gear Solid 4, massively trumping the 3DS’s MGS3 demo.
“On NGP, we can enjoy the same quality as PS3,” he said. “What I’d like to realise is playing on your PS3, and when you go out, you put the game on your NGP, and when you come back home, you can once again use your PS3 and large screen TV.” We’re told to watch E3 for more on that.
Then, Epic showed off a realtime Epic Citadel-esque flythrough, and then Dungeon Defenders, which was apparently ported from PS3 to NGP in “about a week”, and Activision’s Philip Earl just said three words: “Call of Duty.” This could be huge.
It has also been confirmed that you can play downloadable PSP titles on the NGP.
Finally, Sony confirmed that it’ll be pushing PlayStation branded content to Android phones and other devices, you can read more about this aspect of the presentation here in a separate post.
We’ll be reporting on everything NGP throughout today, but for now here’s the official Fact Sheet.
Tuffcub
So if I’m reading this correctly, Kojima will have a NGP game for E3, but it will also be on PS3. Win.
mcphatty
It looks excellent! In my opinion all the right design choices, well done Sony boys!
aerobes
That video was delightfully 80’s. Hope the marketing is better for this device than it was for the PSP.
seedaripper1973
Why is everyone bitching about price? (get a second job) ;-)
But seriously, i dont give a shit, i spunked over 600 quid when i got my launch PS3 (and it died after 2 years)…so sodding what, if i want summat, then i’ll bloody have it! (perhaps my goal structure is somewhat skewered?) :P
Kennykazey
So beautiful! It’s probably gonna be expencive, but ohh… I want it, but seeing as it plays the same games as the ps3, I’m not sure if I can justify it over an 3ds which plays games I don’t have any other access to…
Juelz345
That makes no sense at all. It wont just play “the same games as the ps3”. It has the ability and power to run ps3 games, there is a distinct difference.
tom_lord
This is like Sony went crazy and ticked every wish-list, amazing and unexpectedly good!
But it doesn’t matter because “It’s dead on arrival” according to Michael Patcher……(Borderlands wont sell and Red Dead will bomb also!)
seedaripper1973
I’m waiting on Greg Millers review (i just can’t help meself) :P
tom_lord
Hehe!
BigD-UK-
The specs are great, interesting in seeing battery life and memory capacity. OLED touchscreen, awesome! The design looks OK, but looks like they just sanded the edges of the PSP, also wonder if the analog sticks will be as fiddly as the PSPs. The “NGP” name sounds like Sony have done the same as MS did with the Xbox, skip a “2”, guess its looks better on marketing, though doubt it will shake the PSP2 tag for sometime.
It’ll be interesting to see the price. We’ll have to get a contract for the 3G, missing out phone functionality seems a bit daft. As iPhone and other smart phones (Won’t it be going up against the SonyEricson Xperia Play the “Playstation Phone”?) are getting their gaming moving from Solitaire to Rage HD, I can’t see the prospect of 2 “mobile” contracts for 2 devices both with gaming and apps and only one having call functions being overly popular.
Oh and the “New Game Medium”? Fiddly little flash cards? I’d hope all the games would have just been downloaded from PSN to a decent sized internal memory.
stueeeee
Then we’d still have to pay the overpriced Store prices. After the psp go I think they realise that a lot of people still want physical media when they’re spend £20-£40 on a game.
hazelam
kinda surprised to be saying this, but i rather like the look of that, the analog sticks look like they’re much improved over the psp, always was the big problem i had with the psp, still a bit low down for my liking but still looks good.
and it sounds like it will still use physical media, not umd though so i couldn’t play my large collection of psp games, but then i can always just use my psp, i have bought a few psp games new but a large number of them are older titles that are preowned.
also that means no umd video, i know you can get movies on the store, but you can get tv series on umd, i have gavin and stacy, bottom, prison break, smoking room and the mighty boosh, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing any tv on the eu store any time soon, or for a long time to come either for that matter.
ultimately, it will all depend on the price, i expect i’ll wait a year or two before getting one, waiting for a price drop.
TheDeathAvenger
As expected it looks and sounds amazing. Now to find out how punishing the price will be, doesn’t seem likely that a ‘portable PS3’ will come in less than or even equal to a PS3. Just hope we’re not talking PS3 launch price kind of money.
BG123
Sounds good, but does it really need 5 million cameras and 3G and all that rubbish? It’s undoubtably going to be rediculously expensive as it is. I would have prefered a slidey screen design, like the PSP GO coz the 3000 is uncomfortable to hold.