Sony PSP 'Next Generation Portable' Looks Stunning, Plays PS3 Games

from -www.pcworld.com
Touch Me Two Times
Let's start with the NGP's new OLED screen, clocking in at 5-inches and running at 960 by 544 pixels. Contrast with Apple's iPhone 4, which employs a 3.5-inch 960 by 640 pixel LCD, or the current PSP, with its 4.3-inch 480 by 272 pixel screen. Sony claims you'll be able to view the NGP's screen clearly from any angle.
That's not all, it's also (capacitative) multitouch capable, allowing you to articulate multiple finger input by touching, grabbing, pushing, or pulling the screen.
Flip the NGP around and, lo and behold, there's another 5-inch multitouch surface (not a screen, but a surface that recognizes touch input) displaying a field of PlayStation geometry symbols (very stylish, Sony). Wrap your hands around the NGP and you'll be able to use your fingertips to interact with the device's back plane as well as its front.
Now imagine touching the front and rear panels at the same time to pull off moves in ways no one's experienced before. It sounds kind of wild, but also kind of cool. Sure, the Nintendo 3DS has dual screens, but they're both front-facing, and only one's capable of touch input
Sticks Not Nubs
Sony admitted the most requested feature for its next handheld was dual joysticks. The NGP has them. And not just thumb nubs flush with the surface of the unit like the textured rubber disc on the PSP, but actual thumb sticks, rising above the front plane.
Sony calls these "micro analog sticks," and claims they'll deliver a Dualshock experience. Well, minus the vibration feedback. Maybe I missed it in the presser clang and clutter, but I don't think the NGP includes haptic technology at this point.
The rest of the input layout should be familiar to anyone who's picked up a PSP: The four geometry buttons on the right, the d-pad at left, the shoulder buttons along the top, and the START, SELECT, and PlayStation (menu) buttons tucked off to the side in corners

Sony NGP is “next generation portable” PSP2

from - www.slashgear.com
Sony NGP is “next generation portable” PSP2

As expected, Sony has outed its “PSP2“, currently codenamed the Sony next generation portable entertainment system or NGP, and expected to go on sale at the end of 2011. Based on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU, the NGP has a 5-inch OLED 960 x 544 multitouch-capable touchscreen on the front and a multitouch pad on the back, for what Sony describes as “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” gestures in gameplay.

There are also two cameras, one front and one rear, and a suite of sensors including six-axis motion-sensing (pairing gyroscope and accelerometer), a three-axis digital compass, GPS and WiFi. There’s also 3G, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR with support for A2DP stereo headphones. Sony is now using a flash memory card to store games, but there’ll also be access to the new PlayStation Suite, also announced today, which offers titles for the NGP and for Android smartphones.

As with the 3DS‘ StreetPass feature, the Sony NGP will use a new service called Near, part of the PlayStation Network, to flag up gamers in the vicinity and show what they’re playing now or having been playing recently. There’ll also be wireless multiplayer support. Each NGP game will LiveArea access, with a log of activity and other information.

The whole thing measures in at 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5 mm and has dual analog sticks, the usual directional buttons, action buttons and shoulder controls. No word on pricing; that won’t be revealed until closer to launch at the end of the year

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

NGP NEXT GEN PORTABLE

NGP  NEXT  GEN PORTABLE
Official Spec

CPU: ARM Corte-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 = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth� 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

JAPAN
ACQUIRE Corp. ALVION Inc. AQ INTERACTIVE INC. ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co.,Ltd. ARIKA CO.,LTD. ARTDINK CORPORATION ASCII MEDIA WORKS Inc. CAPCOM CO., LTD. CHUN SOFT CO., Ltd Codemasters Software Company Limited Crafts & Meister Co.,Ltd. CyberConnect2 Co.,Ltd. D3 PUBLISHER Inc. Dimps Corporation Edia Co., Ltd. ENTERBRAIN, INC. FromSoftware, Inc Gameloft K.K. Genki Co.,Ltd. Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. GungHo Online Entertainment,Inc GUST CO.,LTD. HAMSTER Corporation HUDSON SOFT CO., LTD. IDEA FACTORY CO., LTD. Index Corporation(Atlus) IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC. KADOKAWA GAMES,LTD. Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. LEVEL-5 Inc. Marvelous Entertainment Inc. media5 Corporation NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Nihon Falcom Corporation Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. NOWPRODUCTION, CO.,LTD Q Entertainment Inc. SEGA CORPORATION SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION Spike Co.,Ltd SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd. SystemSoft Alpha Corp. TECMO KOEI GAMES CO., LTD. TOMY Company,Ltd. TOSE CO., LTD. Ubisoft K.K. YUKE’S Co., Ltd.

NA
Activision, Inc. Capybara Games Demiurge Studios Epic Games Inc. Far Sight Studios Frima High Voltage Software Kung Fu Factory Paramount Digital Entertainment PopCap Games Powerhead Games Trendy Entertainment Ubisoft® Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment 2K Games 2K Sports

EU
Avalanche Studios Climax Studios Ltd Codemasters Software Company Ltd Eurocom Developments Ltd Eutechnyx Ltd Exient Ltd Firemint PTY Ltd Gameloft SA Gusto Games Ltd Home Entertainment Suppliers PTY Ltd Impromptu Software Ltd Rebellion® Rockstar Games Sidhe Interactive Sumo Digital Ltd Team 17 Software Ltd Ubisoft Entertainment SA Zen Studios Ltd