PSP2 Announcement Update

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3comments PSP2 Announcement Update
Posted Thu 27th Jan 2011 8:40am by Ming Fung

"The power is now in your hands."

The wait is over, Sony has officially announced its new portable today and the internet will be a better place for it. Expect fewer grainy PSP2 mock ups, leaks or wild speculation regarding its compatibility.

Sonys Kaz Hirai finally announced the successor to PSP, codenamed NGP, revolutionary control system; location based entertainment; social networking; augmented reality; and PS Suite compatibility all unique selling points of the device.

The announcement was hosted in the giant ballroom of the Prince hotel, right by the Tokyo tower; reports came in that approximately 800 SCEI staff were on hand. The event kicked off with the usual stats from Sony discussing the penetration of PS3, %80 of PS3s connected to the internet and 69 million registered accounts. Cross platform came into the picture with Kaz Hirai announcing Playstation Suite, which allows Playstation content to be delivered to Android devices, or a "hardware-neutral game framework" that enables "PlayStation-quality". The strategy will allow developers and publishers to have a secure framework for distribution, which basically amounts to bringing Playstation content and PS store to Android devices.

The speculation appears to be true and the device will indeed feature dual analogue sticks, which no doubt will bring joy to many gamers. These micro analogue sticks give you the feel of Dual Shock, rather than the PSP slide variant. A new type of touch interface was also confirmed, which was described as front and rear touch panels with supporting sixaxis motion control and a three axis compass. The back touch panel is reported to be 5”, with both touch panels enabling "touch, grab, trace, push or pull" sensations. The reports also indicate it has the same gyro sensor and accelerometers as Move.

Less surprising, the device has a HD 5” OLED display (four times the resolution of PSP), Wifi and is also 3G capable. The device has front and back cameras which can be used for augmented reality gaming, or "converging real and virtual worlds" as Kaz Hirai puts it. The retailers can expect the added bonus of new game media which looks similar to a SD card.

Sony worldwide studio president Shuhei Yoshida talked games, WipeOut, Uncharted, Resistance and Killzone will be available. Reports indicated that Uncharted looked close to the PS3 version and used a combination of the touch panels, motion as well as traditional controls to move Nathan Drake around.

Jun Takeuchi from Capcom was on hand to demonstrate a version of Monster Hunter 3 working on NGP, Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega showed off a Yakuza cut scene rendered in real-time on the device. Akihirio Suzuki from Tecmo Koei took the crowd through a version of Dynasty Warriors that integrated with the touch controls. The legendary Hideo Kojima then demonstrated MGS4 on NGP, model data and environments taken from the PS3 game and exported directly to NGP. It showed PS3 quality was possible but Kojima did specify it was running at 20FPS. Epics Tim Sweeney then showed off a trailer of Unreal Engine on the device and to bring the third party portion of the event to a rousing crescendo Philip Earl announced Call of Duty.

The NGP will sport a new user interface, called the "Live Area" which links to the store and is touch controlled. It supports communication and social features, with “Location-based entertainment” using the devices GPS capability.

As to the power of NGP, Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega had this to say "This is hardware with no excuses,".

No firm dates or RRP were discussed but NGP will be available holiday session 2011, without doubt it’s a compelling device. However will this be enough to take a significant market share in an area where both 3DS and iOS sit?

What is known about the specification is listed below

Dimensions approx: 18.6mm x 182mm x 83mm (height x width x depth)

5” HD screen, 4x the resolution of PSP

Quad-core processor

Touch Screen, Back touch panel, dual micro analogue sticks, sixaxis motion

Three axis compass (GPS)

Front and back cameras

New SD like media

Wifi, 3G, Bluetooth

Built-in stereo speakers and microphone

Say SI-O-NA-RA to mock-ups, Say hello to NGP!

Tip on N4G

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Comment on this Article

Comments

Ming Fu 807 27/01/2011 1:14pm	I think it will come down to price point, if Sony can weigh in at £220-250 then they might have a chance against 3DS, however will it matter a sniff when capared to iOS and Android? I have doubts. And maybe Sony do as well which is have they have a finger in both pies , even Nintendo have their eStore ... pure speculation I know. If Sony that grow the 'PS Suite' and get a App Store like offering off the ground then they have a slim chance of making NGP a success. A high price point for a device and cheap software can work (thats the iPhone) but it will need to do a lot more than play traditional games. The USP for me is the control system, playing a game with real tactile controls is different to using a touch screen ... whilst I love my iPhone 4 as a gaming device thats where it falls down. The other thing I wonder is if you can re-use assets from PS3 on NGP does this infact make development cheaper ? Kojima talked about this in the announcement ... so maybe it's implied. It's a real Swiss Army Knife of a product, but they need applications to use the media capability ... game on.
Ashley Martin 287 27/01/2011 1:09pm	I agree with Will. Although the thing is impressive spec-wise, I'd rather play games like Uncharted, Killzone and CoD on the PS3. Unless this is £50 cheaper than the 3DS with double the battery life, I won't be buying one. And the chances of that happening are slim as it's already been rumoured to have around 4-5hrs worth of juice on a single charge.
William Robinson 0 27/01/2011 10:54am	While this is a technical marvel I would rather buy the games on my PS3 and have them nice and big. If Sony don't offer an experience different from anything else on the PSP2 they will lose out once again. Plus I bet the battery life on this thing is TERRIBLE!

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