[hugh]

Sony on Thursday provided a sneak peek at its next-generation portable gaming system, codenamed NGP, which will be the successor to the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

NGP will be in stores by the end of 2011, but Sony did not have details about an exact release date, pricing, or available countries.

The company did, however, provide info about the NGP's features, including a multi-touch, 5-inch OLED front screen with 960-by-544 resolution, and a multi-touch pad on the back. The NGP also has front- and rear-facing cameras, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and built-in GPS.
The device runs on an ARM Cortex A9. There are three motion sensors, a gyroscope, accelerometer, and electronic compass. It has built-in stereo speakers and microphone. Its dimensions are approximately 182 by 18.6 by 83.5mm.

Sony Playstation Blog post

 

[FortMacDude]

Nice try Sony..but the mobile world has passed you by and the Iphone, IPAD, IPOD touch, and other mobile tablets are where it's at now with the kids, teens and young adults.

This NPD will not sell well with the average Joe 6-pack

 

[rawd]

Joe 6 pack buys Apple products? Are you high?

 

[normancw]

I think with dual analog sticks, first person shooters, which are pretty crappy on touch only devices, might be a lot of fun to play on it.

 

[dezzpayne]

They can pull it off but it's a tough sell. The specs are amazing, as usual it's all up to the software.

 

[BGY11]

Given Sony's push for 3D, I was a bit surprised (though happy) to see no mention of 3D support on the NGP. Overall, I think Sony put a lot more thought into the NGP than Nintendo did the 3DS. While some things aren't "new" when it comes to portable gaming (accelerometer/gyroscope, camera support), other things are (such as the touch panel behind the screen and the dual analog sticks).

I'd say overall, Sony realized smartphones are luring people away from dedicated portable gaming systems, and decided to try and make a device that could compete with them.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted some physical controls while playing an iOS game. I think Sony has created a device that can play any type of game, from the casual touch-based games to the hardcore dual-stick shooters. Whether it sells is a different matter...

 

[hugh]

Well according to VGA Chartz, 65.8 million people have bought a PSP so I'm sure they will sell a lot of NGP's.

 

[eimaj]

Would've been nice if it was more compact like the PSP Go. Might have been hard to get analog sticks instead of sliders on it though. Maybe with the NGP Go they will have sticks you can just press to pop up and lock down.

 

[Dioneo]

There's a lot of buzz around that hardware already. I have to admit I'm interested, and I'm not a portable gaming guy at all.

 

[dezzpayne]

I think the really big news here is the shift for Sony. This is a company who has a reputation for delivering amazing hardware but so-so (and very closed) software. If you took the best parts of Apple and Sony and joined them together you would have a juggernaut of a company.

Anyway on to my actual point.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/27/sony-announces-playstation-suite/

The Playstation suite may actually be the bigger announcement in the long run and may very well make or break the NGP in markets outside of Japan.

I think it signals a change in course for Sony. Away from a very claustrophobic way of doing software to a much more open standards concept.

I like Dioneo rarely play mobile games (I work from home for one) but am very interested in this awesome looking piece of kit. In the age where convergence is king I am surprised they are making separate Playstation phones and gaming devices. I guess they couldn't live with the compromises.

 

[asif9t9]

The PSP was supposed to be a portable console. It never could be because it didn't have dual analog sticks. It's so silly that we had to wait for the "next generation" PSP to get a second stick.

But whatever, now that the second stick is here, maybe they can make this a portable console. That in itself is a very cool idea. Now if they can make it so you share AAA PS3 games with your NGP....

 

[dezzpayne]

Now if they can make it so you share AAA PS3 games with your NGP....

They actually said that's part of the vision. Sony said in the future you will be able to save your games in the cloud and if all works out as planned you can play on your PS3 at night, play it on the NGP on the way to work, and then back to the PS3 again without having to mess around with moving save files.

 

[dezzpayne]

http://kotaku.com/5751839/ngp-is-a-game-developers-dream

Gotta say I'm fairly excited. If they can do everything they say they plan to they may have a real winner on their hands.

I'm just curious about the ports. They say porting to the NGP will be super easy and you can play save games from the PS3 on the NGP but how do they handle the sales? I won't buy the same game twice just can play it on the road.

Sounds like a real tough problem. The NGP needs to stand on it's own 2 feet and it's awesome you will be able to port from PS3 to NGP so easily but who is going to buy a PS3 and NGP copy of the same game unless they have a method to have the NGP hugely discounted for owners of the PS3 version.

 

[Dioneo]

Maybe something like a "digital copy" license bundled with the PS3 game?

 

[dezzpayne]

Still though, when you think of it, if the NGP is basically a mobile PS3 there may be a limited amount of NGP specific games. Perhaps they are hoping to increase the PS3 install base to compensate or add the digital copy feature to Playstation+. My point is that I think it's going to be extremely difficult to strike the balance between having it profit as a stand alone platform and being the mobile wet dream it aspires to.

I guess part of what I'm asking is, how would they measure success beyond selling the hardware for what will most likely be at a loss?

"We sold 5 million copies of Uncharted 3 and we figure if not for the NGP we would have only sold 4"

In the article they do so the NGP version needs to differentiate itself from it's big brother but that takes us back to having to pay full price for 2 near identical copies of the same game.

They have some serious work ahead of them. I hope they are up to it.