Sony unveiled the successor to the PSP at its PlayStation Meeting in Tokyo today. While Sony spokespeople continually referred to the device by its codename of Next Generation Portable (NGP), it's not yet clear whether this will be the name of the device when it is brought to market.
Here's what we know so far:
- Quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU with an SGX543MP4+ GPU
- 5" OLED touchscreen (960 x 544)
- 5" touch pad on the rear of the device
- Two "real" analog joysticks (unlike the "nubs" on the PSP)
- Front and rear cameras
- 3G, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and GPS
- Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
- A new physical media format to replace the aging UMD
- It's "as powerful as the PS3"
An app called Near allows you to see what people nearby are playing, and purchase the title from the PlayStation Store. A very cool feature - I've been dreaming of technology like this making it into music players for over ten years.
Games have been confirmed from franchises including Call of Duty, Lost Planet, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, WipEout, Killzone, Resistance, Hot Shots Golf and Hustle Kings.
Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega showed a demo of Yakuza 4 running on the device, and claimed that it was ported in a very short period of time, so expect strong software support from the third parties.
Later, Hideo Kojima from Konami told the audience that his demo of Metal Gear Solid 4 was using data from the PS3 version of the game exported directly to the NGP. He said his dream is to be able to use the same game on the PS3 and the NGP - and that "this dream is going to come true in the near future".
The PSP2 will be available this holiday season, and while we can't confirm the price just yet, we're guessing it'll be at least US$299.