NGP, PlayStation Suite Announced at Major Sony Press Event

Here's a breakdown of the event covering Sony's upcoming mobile strategy.

Today in Japan, Sony unveiled their newest handheld gaming platform, the Next Generation Portable, or "NGP," for short. Immediately before this announcement, Sony revealed the PlayStation Suite, an Android gaming platform for PlayStation-quality titles.

In brief, the NGP is Sony's follow-up to the PSP. With an oval shape, two full analog sticks, a touchscreen, and a touchpad on the back, the platform could be considered Sony's contender against Nintendo and Apple to contain and expand their share of the handheld market. The 5" screen is an OLED, and according to several of the on-stage speakers, it is incredibly sharp and crisp. The size and placement of the back touchpad matches the screen, for proximity purposes.

At Sony's press event, the NGP was shown playing ports of PS3 titles, specifically Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid 4. Touchpad controls were used in Uncharted to make Drake climb up a vine, where the demonstrator alternated rubbing the left and right side of the touchpad to simulate the climbing motion. Kojima noted Metal Gear Solid 4 was using a direct port of the character and land models from the PlayStation 3 game, mentioning that the game being used as a tech demo for the platform's unveil. Sony was certain to mention that no other new games aside from Little Deviants, a platformer, would be showcased at the event. Also shown was a port of the PS3 version of Trendy Entertainment's Dungeon Defenders, intended to show off Unreal Engine 3's viability for NGP development. Other games shown or mentioned include Lost Planet, LittleBigPlanet, Hustle Kings, Hot Shots Golf, Resistance, Wipeout, and Killzone.

PSP games can be purchased over PSN to play on the new platform, with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd being shown on the device. The camera was mapped to the right analog stick, showing it was possible for older PSP games to receive cross-platform upgrades. The PlayStation Suite will also be available, like PSP games, to play on the handheld.

The PlayStation Suite is essentially an Android platform bearing the PlayStation name. Sony's goal is to create a method for developers to create PlayStation-quality games, which will then be "PlayStation Certified," similar to the Nintendo seal. While the fine details of the platform were not revealed, several developers and publishers, like Capcom and Konami, appear to be on-board with Sony and their new mobile platform.

The NGP is expected to be released sometime this holiday season, and the PlayStation Suite is due to have games available sometime in this calendar year.

Press Release

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.

* l 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.

* l 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.

* l LiveAreaTM
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.

* l 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.

* l 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 AndroidTM 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.

Next Generation Portable Entertainment System (codename: NGP)

CPU
ARM® CortexTM-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?

Jason Ross Senior Editor

01/27/2011 at 03:50 AM

Forgive me if there's any minor errors in here, it is pretty early in the morning, but I think everything is accurate.

Really? I think Sony blew it this time. Sort of. I love the idea behind the PlayStation Suite. That's great. I'll be excited to see high-quality games come to my phone.

The NGP? Well, right now, Sony's laid the framework. The device, to me, seems to be a PSP2, which, in all fairness, is exactly what it is. What I mean to say though, is that this game does exactly what the PSP did. It plays games with great graphics on the go. Sony added in a touchpad, then exhibited it with the equivalent of Wii-style waggle to climb a vine. The lack of 3D, itself, is the most disappointing aspect. After having seen the 3DS in person, I really can't see anyone wanting a portable machine built only for gaming that isn't also 3D. Maybe it will be a reintroduced feature at E3, but if it isn't, I don't think they'll fare well against Nintendo. So far, and yes, I'll admit, I'm biased, but the NGP isn't a device I want. No price tag was mentioned, but if it is as powerful or nearly as powerful as a PS3, we should expect it to be way up there, especially if it can access phone networks in North America. I would imagine we're looking at a $350-$400 device here, personally. I really just can't see how Sony expects to gain any ground here.

Matt McLennan Staff Alumnus

01/27/2011 at 12:57 PM

They may have added a second analog stick, but god they still look uncomfortable.

So... who is going to drop the spending moneys on this beast?

01/27/2011 at 02:07 PM

I have a brother-in-law that might. He likes fancy techy stuff, even if he doesn't use it. As of now, I don't plan to buy it. Sad thing is, a PSP actually does have a lot of tempting games on it, but like the DS, its price refuses to go down into a viable range. I could see myself tempted to buy the first revision of the NGP whenever the price shoots down if there's quality games there that aren't just PS3 ports, but even then, I'd want a lower price than what the PSP is at now.

Our Take

01/27/2011 at 02:46 PM

Various news outlets are reporting the Uncharted game at Sony's event is a new title, not a port of the first game, something that was unclear at the time of press last night.

PixlBit