Sony Release Next Generation Portable Gaming - Yes, A Game Changer

In my family, I have always had respect for much of what Sony delivered in terms of electronics and innovation. And yes, the PSP was innovative. And with NGP, next-generation portable, Sony has once again showed that it is alive and well, and ready to kick sand in the eyes of Nintendo, Apple, and anyone else who says that its better days in mobile gaming was in the past.

Here's a rundown of the specs that is already rocking mobile gaming. You're going to get blown away big time.

• Quad-core CPU - that's right. Dual-core mobile chips from Nvidia just came out on the market. Sony is brilliant for future proofing its next generation portable gaming machine.
• It has a touch input control on the rear of the device. I had speculated that Apple will offer a similar rear touch input in the next generation iPhone or the one after that. Looks like Sony will beat everyone else to this.
• 5" OLED screen supporting multi-touch input
• New tag line: "touch, grab, trace, push, and pull".
• Dual analog control
• LiveArea - a social environment for gamers to interact
• Location-based gaming and supports multi-player gaming based on location - hmmm, interesting
• Dual Cameras
• Games developed using Playstation Suite for Android will also work on NGP. Brilliant move.
• 3G support - I know the iPod touch has no 3G support and it does not appear that Nintendo's 3DS will also support 3G either.

This is so far. As powerful as the NGP is, we'll have to see what the pricing, storage, and availiblity is going to be when it's released later this year. Clearly, Sony has a portable gaming beast in the NGP and it has the specs to back this up and this will have Sony fans eager to get their hands on this.

We know Nintendo is set as far as their next generation portable gaming device goes, the 3DS, we'll see if Apple and Microsoft respond in kind.


Here is the full press release:

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES ITS NEXT GENERATION PORTABLE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

Ultimate Portable Entertainment System Makes Its Debut This Year,
Further Expanding the PlayStation® Business in the Portable Gaming Market

Tokyo, January 27, 2011– Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced its next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP), which delivers the ultimate portable entertainment experience. NGP will make its debut at the end of the year 2011.

NGP is designed to offer unparalleled interactive entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation®. This new system offers a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context, made possible by leveraging SCE’s experience from both PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 (PS3®) entertainment systems.

• Deep and immersive gaming is at the core of PlayStation’s DNA, and NGP is the latest embodiment of this vision. By having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, NGP will enable infinite possibilities for users to “encounter,” “connect,” “discover,” “share” and “play” with friends wherever they are. Within the device are a range of features that provide a genuinely cutting-edge, next generation ultimate portable entertainment experience.
• Stunning OLED and Revolutionary User Interface - NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” moves of the fingers.
• Super Oval Design and Dual Analog Sticks - While succeeding the basic design philosophy of PSP, NGP adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, created to fit comfortably in users’ hands. For the first time, a portable entertainment system will feature two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience.
• LiveArea™ - Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called “LiveArea™” where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through PlayStation®Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an “Activity” log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.
• Near - SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called “Near,” developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.
• New Game Medium - NGP adopts a new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for NGP software titles. Taking advantage of the flash memory feature, this innovative card can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card. By adopting flash memory based card, SCE will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data to deliver rich and immersive games.
• NGP will also come equipped with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, all of which are designed to enable users to enjoy the world of entertainment that is linked with real life experiences.
• PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for Android™ based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

SCE will vigorously promote NGP towards the launch as the next generation portable entertainment platform and deploy various measures to further expand the portable gaming market.