Before anything else I’d like to say, Sony, well played sir *slow clap* well played.
So moving on, in the Sony event at Tokyo today, the company FINALLY revealed it’s newest portable platform, the Next Generation Portable or NGP. To start things off, here’s what the unit looks like:
Basically almost all the rumors about the unit are true. The game runs on the Android OS (POSSIBILITIES!), it has two analog sticks, not nubs, sticks. It has 3G and wireless connectivity. It has an OLED touchscreen which is bigger than the PSP. It has a tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls and has a front and back camera mount plus the ever notorious touch sensitive back panel.
Here’s the rundown of some of the tech specs coming from The Playstation Blog:
- 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 รขโฌลรขโฌลLiveAreaรขโยขรขโฌย, รขโฌลNearรขโฌย and รขโฌลActivityรขโฌย log features Trophy Support
- NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store.
Now, the technical specs:
| CPU | ARMรยฎ Cortexรขโยข-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 |
| 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 = 1รโ1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetoothรยฎ 2.1+EDR รฏยผหA2DP/AVRCP/HSPรฏยผโฐ |
The unit is also backwards compatible since there was a demo of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd during the presentation. Also, another surprise is that Uncharted is coming to the NGP. Sony boasts that the NGP runs at par with the PS3.
The NGP also doesn’t support UMD too (which as Billy states was bound to happen).
Here’s the lineup of games coming for the NGP as well (not final):
- Killzone
- Uncharted
- WipEout
- LittleBigPlanet
- Resistance
- Little Deviants
- Hot Shots Golf
- Reality Fighters
- Gravity Daze
- Smart As
- Broken
- Hustle Kings
- Call of Duty
The question now is that if they’re actual ports of their PS3 versions or the are new games altogether is still pretty moot. The press event also didn’t disclose the price or even the battery life of the unit. They did report however that the NGP is going to be sold this holiday (at Japan at least). Also as a side note, Kojima announced that he will be showing more come E3 while he was showing an MGS4 reel during the event.
So it would seem that people will be looking forward to Sony’s presentation in E3…. so let’s wait and see!
[UPDATE] Trailer:[UPDATE] HI-RES PICS! [nggallery id=76]
