All You Need To Know About Sony’s Next PSP – Codenamed NGP

As well as our outline of this device below, we’re going to keep our readers informed of all the latest rumors that are going to start flowing around now until the end of the year regarding Sony’s NGP. First up, price, apparently, Sony are prepared to make a loss of £200 per unit sold. This makes you wonder how much it may cost in the first instance, analysts are busy throwing figures around of between £188 and £220. Don’t forget of course that the new Nintendo 3DS which is due in March 2011 is expected to retail for £220. When the Sony PSP first launched in 2005 it was sold for £180. So it remains to be seen, perhaps Sony need to remember that customers will pay a premium for products if they work well, think of the iPhone and iPad for example.

Battery life is the next rumor doing the works, Eurogamer have apparently been told that Sony is aiming for between six and eight hours off of a single charge, so stand by for more news on this.

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.

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.

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.

Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called "LiveAreaTM" 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.

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.