Sony’s next PSP, codenamed NGP

Betcha didn’t think this day would come, but it finally has. Sony has just come clean with its next-generation PlayStation Portable. It’s actually codenamed NGP and will revolve around five key concepts: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual (augmented) Reality. It will be compatible with the PlayStation Suite and is backwards-compatible with downloadable PSP games and content from Sony’s PlayStation Store.

Specs include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks (not nubs as on the current generation), 3G, WiFi, GPS, a rear-mounted touchpad, the same accelerometer / gyroscope motion sensing as in the PlayStation Move, an electronic compass, and cameras on both the front and back. Available this holiday season. Wait… what?!

Games will come on “new media,” not UMD anymore, but we’re unclear on what sort of flash memory is being used. Sony’s rather proud of the fact it’s offering the world’s first dual analog stick combo on a portable device, though we’re more geeked about the quadrupling of pixel count from the original PSP.

Sony’s live event has been graced by demos of some pretty popular games, including Killzone, Resistance, Little Big Planet, and Uncharted — with the latter serving as a demo platform to show off how the NGP’s rear touchpad can be used to more intuitively climb up some vines. That touch panel on the back is the same size and positioned directly under the front OLED touchscreen, which allows for some pretty sophisticated controls when using the two simultaneously.

The new console’s UI will be called LiveArea, which has a bunch of vertically navigable home screens and built-in social networking through PlayStation Network. You can jump between games and the LiveArea without losing your progress and comment on your buddies’ great feats of mobile gaming.

In closing its presentation, Sony trotted out Hideo Kojima to show off a cutscene from MGS 4 rendered in real time on the NGP. It was pulled directly from the PS3 version of the game and ran at 20fps, which looked very smooth indeed to our liveblogging eyes. Videos and Sony’s full PR are now available below.

Continue reading Sony’s next PSP, codenamed NGP

Sony’s next PSP, codenamed NGP originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony reveals PlayStation Suite framework, store for Android gaming

Sony just dropped a bomb on the Japanese stage — not a single PlayStation Phone, but a PlayStation Phone experience for everybody. The company unveiled a cross-platform software framework called PlayStation Suite, which sounds rather boring in those words, but what it amounts to is an official PlayStation Store filled with games for your Android tablets and cellphones. Sony’s starting with an emulator for existing PSOne titles and is promising an Android game store later this year, but soon it might be much, much more: the company’s calling PlayStation Suite a “hardware-neutral” development framework to make games portable for all sorts of handhelds, and says that “new and exciting content” is also on the way.

Sony will sponsor a first-party licensing and quality-assurance scheme called PlayStation Certified, and provide the marketplace as well, likely hoping to attract major game developers to build top-tier titles for mobile and get a piece of the action too. If your device doesn’t have have a pop-out gamepad handy, it looks like PlayStation Suite will emulate touchscreen controls, and you won’t necessarily need a phone to get in on the action, as Sony says the next-generation PlayStation Portable will be compatible with games developed for PlayStation Suite right off the bat. Doesn’t look like we’re getting any details on game prices or compatible devices, but we imagine one particular phone will change all that at Mobile World Congress next month.

Update: Looks like PlayStation Suite requires Android 2.3 at a minimum, and it’s PSOne, not PlayStation Portable titles that will be emulated here, despite Kaz Hirai’s quote during the festivities. PR after the break!

Continue reading Sony reveals PlayStation Suite framework, store for Android gaming

Sony reveals PlayStation Suite framework, store for Android gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live from Sony’s Tokyo event

We’re gonna level with you, we’re not entirely sure what (if anything) Sony will show off at its Tokyo meeting today — other than “business [overview] and strategy,” of course. All the same, with the rumor mill in high gear about a possible PSP2 debut, we decided to take a chance and fly halfway across the world. Will it end up a worthy excursion with momentous payoff? Some fiscal and corporate chatter? A new Japanese ad campaign featuring a terribly dubbed Kevin Butler? Follow along!

Continue reading Live from Sony’s Tokyo event

Live from Sony’s Tokyo event originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reminder: we’ll be live from Sony’s Tokyo event tonight at 1AM ET!

Heads up: we’re the sort of people who’ll drop everything and get on a 12-hour flight (sometimes longer) to Japan just in case Sony’s “business strategies” meeting turns out to be the platform from which the company unveils its oft-rumored PSP2. If you happen to be awake, the fun starts around 1AM ET tonight (which is actually tomorrow, but hey, you get the message). Link to our impending liveblog? Why, we never thought you’d ask: here you go!

Reminder: we’ll be live from Sony’s Tokyo event tonight at 1AM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More PSP2 Pics Leak Ahead of Launch – Rumors

psp2 details.jpg

Is that the Sony PSP2 reportedly set to be unveiled in two days? The hardware certainly looks like images we’ve seen in the past, and the inclusion of the stylus backs up those recent rumors we’ve heard about a touchscreen on the device–though, frankly, I think we’d all be surprised is the thing didn’t rock the old touchscreen. The console image also squares with rumors that the PSP2 will support dual analog nubs.
The inclusion of the SD card and PSP2-branded memory stick are in-line with the likely rumors that such a device would abandon the proprietary UMD format that nobody outside of Sony ever really seemed to like.
As Kotaku (who first got ahold of the image) points out, the shot is pretty low-res, meaning that, if it did indeed come from Sony, it’s likely not “official art,” so much as something pulled off an internal memo.
Adds Kotaku,
The buttons and the d-pad look to be at a slightly different resolution. The copyright in the bottom left, which appears on official Sony images, is cut off, too. Likewise, odd. However, as mentioned above, this purported PSP2 image could be photo taken of official Sony art or of an official Sony handout, hence these resolution inconsistencies.

Nikkei: PSP2 will have 3G cellular data, OLED touchscreen

We’re only four days away from a supposed January 27th unveiling, but apparently there are still more juicy PSP2 rumors left to dole out — Japan’s often-reliable Nikkei newspaper reports that the handheld machine will sport a crisp OLED touchscreen and 3G data from NTT DoCoMo when it arrives later this year, with the latter enabling multiplayer action and even full video and game downloads over the Japanese cellular network. What’s more, the paper confirms that the screen will be physically larger and powered by some potent new silicon. So, how will Sony differentiate this PSP2 from the PlayStation Phone and tempt you to buy both? The game system won’t make calls.

Note: In case you’re not familiar, the image above is a relatively ancient reader mockup, and likely not representative of the final product. It is pretty sexy, though.

Nikkei: PSP2 will have 3G cellular data, OLED touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lag-free Wii on PSP episode II: Mario Kart strikes back

It looks like our favorite PSP Fanboy, Obiwan222222, is up to his old tricks once again, and his latest video shows that he has finally eliminated the lag problem that plagued his first attempt to play Wii on a PSP four years ago. Using a Wii emulator on a PC, some custom firmware, and a program called PSPDisplay, he has managed to stream video and sound to his PSP Go in real time. He also mapped the Wii controls (Wiimote waving excluded, we presume) to the handheld to complete the full Wii-on-PSP gameplaying experience. To see the slick mod in action, check the video after the break.

Continue reading Lag-free Wii on PSP episode II: Mario Kart strikes back

Lag-free Wii on PSP episode II: Mario Kart strikes back originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony to announce PSP2 at January 27th Tokyo meeting?

Sony has a January 27th meeting in Tokyo to discuss “business [overview] and strategy.” That much is true (and confirmed by Joystiq to Sony). What we don’t know is whether MCV and VG247’s sources are worth their weight in Lucida Grande. Both sites claim to have heard this meeting will be the launch platform for the PSP2. (VG247, for its part, has previously published pictures of an apparent PSP2 dev kit.) No major trade show debut, just a Tokyo meeting of unknown spectacle… then again, 3DS’ unveil was a random press release, so stranger things have happened. We’d wager on another PlayStation Phone non-confirmation at the very least, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Sony to announce PSP2 at January 27th Tokyo meeting? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Phone torn apart, found to not contain actual PlayStations

PlayStation Phone torn apart, found to not contain actual PlayStations

What must surely be the industry’s worst-kept secret just got even further out of the closet with a new suite of pictures showing not the outside but the inside. After all, we’ve already seen the outside at every possible angle, even in motion playing games. TGBus is the source here again, its disembodied hands apparently completely bored with actually playing games, so they broke out the Torx and spread it asunder. See for yourself on the other end of the source link, and feel free to contact your local Sony representative and tell them what a great job they’re doing on keeping this thing quiet.

PlayStation Phone torn apart, found to not contain actual PlayStations originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Phone captured in the wild, on video

Well, the leaks have been flying fast and furious: the presumed PlayStation Phone has been in the hands of folks for a hot minute, and now a video has popped up showing one lucky hombre playing Resident Evil 2 and Rage Racer on the device. The hardware is apparently on the up and up, although the fact that the titles had to be loaded through ROM Buddy (a third-party Android app for running ROMs) suggests that the software is still being tinkered with. Or that this is all a terrible hoax. That said, it looks like this thing is pretty much a done deal. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks, Dan]

Continue reading PlayStation Phone captured in the wild, on video

PlayStation Phone captured in the wild, on video originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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