Hasta La Gadget!

Behold, the Sony NGP. This is the artist formerly known as the PSP2. NGP, incidentally, stands for “Next Generation Portable.” Never let it be said that Sony doesn’t know how to be blunt when it comes to product naming.

After several years of concept shots, rumors, and blurry photos, the Japanese consumer electronics giant finally gave the world its first glimpse of the future of its portable gaming business this morning at a press event in Tokyo. The company’s president, Kaz Hirai called the device’s interface “revolutionary.”

The NGP is socially connected, location aware, does augmented reality (a la what will surely be its chief competitor, Nintendo’s 3DS), and is compatible with the PlayStation Suite, a development platform for the PlayStation and Android handsets.

The console features a five-inch, 960 by 544 multitouch OLED screen (the current PSP’s screen is 4.3 inches, incidentally). It also features a touch activated backpanel, so your fingers can interact with the device while you’re gripping the thing. Also, as expected, the device has dual joysticks on the front that the company is calling “micro analog sticks.”

More details? My guess is that we’re going to have to wait until E3 for those. After all, this thing isn’t due out until some time before the holidays.