Sony has always prided itself on being at the forefront of bleeding edge technology. Their approach has been to over engineer products to ensure an extended lifespan and to stay a step ahead of the competition.
Today at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan Sony Computer Entertainment announced their next generation portable console (NGP). The device will feature a state of the art ARM based chipset that promises capabilities on par with PS3 level graphics. In a move to position itself as a worthy competitor in the mobile tablet landscape, Sony has given the NGP a 5 inch OLED display with multi-touch capabilities ala the iPad. This places Sony’s portable console on the radar of anyone looking for a small tablet for web browsing, but also wants a full gaming device. Following their legacy of over engineering, the NGP will feature front and rear facing cameras and an additional multi-touch pad on the rear of the device.
NGP-PSP-2-Sony-Portable
In a move that is sure to anger millions of PSP fans, Sony has decided to ditch the UMD disc format, trading it for micro SD cards as the new gaming medium. It remains to be seen if users will have to repurchase games they already own to play on the new console.
No official price for the device was announced at the event.
As a showcase of the PSP2 (NGP) graphical capabilities, Sony demoed the PS3 franchise adventure game ‘Uncharted’ running on the hand held.
Future software for the upcoming console:
- Killzone
- Uncharted
- WipEout
- LittleBigPlanet
- Call of Duty
- Resistance
- Little Deviants
- Hot Shots Golf
- Reality Fighters
- Gravity Daze
- Smart As
- Broken
- Hustle Kings
Key NGP features:
- Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display
- Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device
- Dual analog sticks
- Two cameras (front and rear)
- Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards
- Three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass
- Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity
- PlayStation Network access, including ““LiveArea™”, “Near” and “Activity” log features Trophy Support
- NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store.
System Specs:
CPU ARM® Cortex™-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)
Screen
(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
Sound 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
You can follow me here: @KevinMinott
