Sony Reveals the Next Generation Portable Console

UgLyPuNk writes "Of course it's not called the PSP2, because that would be too obvious and straightforward for the games industry. For the moment, at least, you'll be looking forward to news about the NGP – the Next Generation Portable." ARM® Cortex-A9 core (4 core), SGX543MP4+, Front and Rear camera. Rear touch pad, GPS.

Rear touch pad

[HelioWalton]

Putting a touch pad on the back is actually rather clever. The back is almost never used for anything but battery compartments and whatnot. Of course, having input devices on the back means that when you put it down, it'll either be screen down, or touchpad down. That touchpad had better be ready to last through explosions, otherwise they are probably going to start being broken quickly.

Re:

[DrXym]

I think it's clever and will be effective for gaming since people will have a surplus of fingers holding the device doing nothing. Putting the touch on the back means they can swipe, touch or whatever without taking their thumbs off the control pads.

I'm not so sure it would be useful outside of games though e.g. to click on a link in a web browser probably means feeling around the back, presumably with some onscreen feedback and tapping or something.

Re:

[delinear]

Not useful for clicking in a web browser but much better for scrolling - rear pad for scroll, thumbstick for cursor and button or stick click for page click sounds like a combination which would make reading documents or using the web on a handheld device a lot more comfortable than it currently is. Maybe they're thinking outside the gaming realm (although I can also think of ways they could start to incorporate it into games, too).

Re:

[vegiVamp]

One of the things I remember seeing this being demoed with quite some time ago, was using the rear camera to do augmented reality stuff - your fingers on the touchpad basically appear on top of what the camera sees, creating the illusion of a see-through device.

Re:Rear touch pad

[CastrTroy]

3D is a gimmick, and doesn't really enhance gameplay that much.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the same thing was said about the DS

Re:

[grumbel]

Has the double screen actually enhanced any games? The touchscreen, sure thats important, but having two small screen instead of a big one really seems to provide little to no benefit in most games.

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[twidarkling]

Actually, it greatly improved Crono Trigger DS, and similar games, since it allowed you to access menus directly, and quickly, streamlining the crap you had to go through to get back to playing, then you had The World Ends With You, which used the screens independently, with differing control schemes, and then Metroid Pinball, which scrolled the top screen, while keeping the lower (with your paddles) static so you could always have those in view, then there's Trace Memory DS and other puzzle games that bene

Re:

[delinear]

I think the point is: do Nintendo care if it's a gimmick, so long as it's as successful a "gimmick" as the DS. Whether the dual screen helped or not (I've always been kind of "meh" about it, even though I own one and enjoy the games) you can't argue it sold boatloads. Of course, price may have helped there, at more than twice the cost (and during not exactly great times for the world financially) it will be interesting to see both a) how many people jump on the 3DS right away and b) how competitively any So

Re:

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

The World Ends with You would've been a much different and maybe weaker game on a single screen console. Although between the touch screen and the touch pad on the back I hope the NGP brings us a sequel to TWEWY.

Re:

[Tetsujin]

Has the double screen actually enhanced any games? The touchscreen, sure that's important, but having two small screen instead of a big one really seems to provide little to no benefit in most games.

To me the biggest asset of the second screen (as opposed to, say, the lower screen being replaced with just a trackpad) is that it allows games to use the touch-sensitive area to display specialized controls. Games can essentially define custom, labeled buttons as the need arises. (With limitations, of course- the touch screen doesn't have any tactile response - and of course you can't see what's on the screen if your finger's on it...) It's great for menus in games that have 'em (turn-based RPGs or adven

Re:

[hedwards]

I'd prefer to wait until I see the 3Ds before I weigh in on it. 3D might end up being a gimmick or industrious developers might find a way of making it a valuable feature of a game. At this point, I tend towards it being a gimmick, but I'm going to reserve judgment until I have one in my hands to try.

Re:Rear touch pad

[MozeeToby]

Any stereo 3d system pretty much by definition involves asking me to focus my eyes at one distance while converging my eyes at a different one. This is, for me at least, almost instantly uncomfortable and long term becomes very much so. I was able to get through Avatar without a screaming headache, but even so, it isn't the kind of thing I'd like to do on a regular basis.

Re:

[delinear]

Agreed, and especially not for a major gaming session (like a looong plane/train/coach/car journey). Having said that, I can see more possibilities for 3D in games than I can for 3D in movies right now, I'd expect this to be marginally the more popular of the two formats in the immediate future.

Re:

[Beardydog]

I'm the other guy. I've been semi-obsessed with 3D since my formative years. I was a cinch at random dot stereograms, and when I doodled in class, it was often in the form of a stereo pair. Now I can watch 3D movies til the cows come home and do all of my gaming on an iz3d monitor. Even the heavy ghosting doesn't upset my brain. I'm thrilled that 3D is catching on. Anything less, to me, feels incomplete and hard the navigate. "Prototype" in particular, I think, benefited enormously, both artistically and in

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[Tetsujin]

"Dual screens is a gimmick, and doesn't really enhance gameplay that much."

Well, you could actually make a very strong case for that argument, I think...

Re:

[OwP_Fabricated]

Being profoundly blind in one eye, glasses-free 3D means precisely fuckall to me.

3D can enhance the experience of playing by providing more immersion, but it's not nearly the same kind of enhancement the second screen was.

Re:

[djlemma]

First person shooters might benefit greatly from a touchpad. I can't stand trying to aim with an analog stick, but a touchpad is just a small step away from a mouse.. so if it's ergonomic, it might make this handheld one of the best devices around for playing shooters...

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[Tetsujin]

First person shooters might benefit greatly from a touchpad. I can't stand trying to aim with an analog stick, but a touchpad is just a small step away from a mouse.. so if it's ergonomic, it might make this handheld one of the best devices around for playing shooters...

Yeah, I like how they used the touch screen in Metroid on the DS - it seemed to me that it was a much better control for FPS aiming than an analog stick would have been, nearly as good as a mouse. The problem, of course, is that when your finger's on a touch screen, you can't see what's under it. The NDS solved that by having two screens, but for the purposes of a FPS game I think Sony's approach (having a touch pad on the back side of the machine) will be equally effective.

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[vegiVamp]

As one possible example, multitouch while holding the device like a console, with both hands. Might be interesting, will probably be both wrongly and over-used by shitty developers.

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[bhcompy]

The PSP and DS are targeted to two completely different markets, much like the Wii and the 360/PS3. People seem to not understand this.

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[Gravatron]

You can do that as well, the front screen is multitouch as well. the demo for 'Little Deviants' showed off the rear touchpad to great effect. Gesturing on it was like pushing 'up' on the gameworld. The front screen did the opposite. That's an interesting way to three dimensionally interact with a game. That could lead to nice puzzles in some games.

Some specs

[teh31337one]

* Quad Core A9 CPU

* Quad Core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU from Imagination Technologies. (They make the PoverVR 530 featured in Motorola Droids, PowerVR 535 in iPhone & iPad, and PowerVR 540 featured in Galaxy S devices, and playbook)

* 5" Multi touch OLED display with 960 x 544 res.

* Rear multi touch pad

* Front and rear cameras

* Three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, three-axis electronic compass

* GPS

* Dual Analogue sticks

* Bluetooth, 3G and wifi connectivity

Re:Some specs

[MacGyver2210]

"Dual Analogue sticks"

About damn time!

GPU same as rumoured new apple SoC

[teh31337one]

hijacking your post but... There are also references to PowerVR 543 in the iOS 4.3 beta. Although the A5 or whatever they call it will probably have a single our dual core GPU.

Re:

[Nursie]

Interesting...

Device convergence is amusing me these days. I'd love to see someone hack iOS onto a PSP2 :)

Re:

[teh31337one]

Oh, For the screen, they've quadruped the pixel count from the original PSP, just like Apple did with iPhone 4. It's backwards compatibe with previous downloadable PSP games.

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[luther349]

i dont think so the psp is mips and the psp2 is arm cortex. it would need to be done in emulation and you knoe how long sony supports that. just keep in mind sont promisis alot and delviers little.

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[Gravatron]

They thev supported Psone emulation for over a decade now, and they already live demoed a PSP game on the PSP2. Heck, they even announced psone games for Android. It's not like the PSP was really powerful compared to the PSP2, heck, even cellphones pack more power then it these days.

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[quenda]

But does it make phone calls? Or is 3G crippled like on the iPad?

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[Enderandrew]

Why does this need to make calls when they're also releasing a Playstation phone?

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[Gravatron]

There isn't just one playstation phone. They announced Playstation Suite for Android that allows them to release psp/psone level content in a platform agnostic format. the result is they could offer the same game on a honeycomb tablet, android phone, and the PSP2. the 'playstation phone' is just one device that can play that content.

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[bhcompy]

PSP has Skype, I imagine they'll keep that going on the PSP2

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[Enderandrew]

I thought Sony was making comments about HD gaming, and comparable to the PS3. Why the odd resolution?

And if you're using the buttons/analog controls in conjuction with the rear touchpad, what is the purpose of the screen being multi-touch as well?

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[Sockatume]

It's exactly double the PSP's linear resolution. Makes scaling easier for back compatibility.

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[teh31337one]

They can easily upscale psp games. It's 4x screen res of psp, like iphone 4 is 4x screen res of previous iphones

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[Tetsujin]

I thought Sony was making comments about HD gaming, and comparable to the PS3. Why the odd resolution?

And if you're using the buttons/analog controls in conjunction with the rear touchpad, what is the purpose of the screen being multi-touch as well?

The touchscreen is for cases where you want to be able to use the screen to provide specific touch-sensitive controls. (For instance, a menu of RPG commands)
The touchpad is for cases where you want the user to be able to use touch controls without obscuring the screen (For instance, aiming in a FPS.)

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[trollertron3000]

You out a cell phone in this thing and people are going to go crazy. Those are nice specs no matter how you slice it. Let's just hope Sony hits a home run and not another single.

I'm torn about Sony. So much great history yet so many fumbles.

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[LoverOfJoy]

Let me guess. GPS is their next move for DRM? Hackers will have to disable that first in a crowded public place before moving on. =)

Re:

[teh31337one]

It's four to five hours [eurogamer.net]

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[VGPowerlord]

>>>Quad Core A9 [ARM] CPU
>>>960 x 544 res.

So it will be less powerful than the PS3, and with resolution barely better than a PS2 (720x480). That would make it better than the Nintendo DS (comparable to a high-res N64).

A resolution barely better than the PS2 on a screen 1/16th of the size? And you consider that bad... why?

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[Garble Snarky]

1/4 diagonal = 1/16 area, "size" isn't a specific term.

And at 220 pixels/inch, the resolution is not quite as fine as the iphone 4 display (330 ppi), but it's close - a lot closer than my 20" 1600x1200 display, which is 100 ppi. I probably couldn't see pixelation on that, but I don't have great eyes.

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[vlueboy]

I do miss our now-defunct anti-aliasing effect of scanlines --emulated 8 and 16-bit games even with software scanlines looks more unnatural the bigger your computer screen is. Plus the sprites and backgrounds were too simple until Playstation and PS2 titles started to better use 480i. I once found a site with some very expensive machine with a digital scanline-adder effect, but can't remember it well.

One way to "blur" pixelation and make up for our big screen's lack of the scanlines is to use the RCA cables

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[DrXym]

So it will be less powerful than the PS3, and with resolution barely better than a PS2 (720x480). That would make it better than the Nintendo DS (comparable to a high-res N64).

That resolution is 1.5x what the PS2 put out and doubtless it has more powerful fill rates too. And 4 cores to do stuff in parallel.

I have no doubt at all that the device will be more powerful than the PS2 by a significant amount, though I doubt it will be comparable to the PS3 despite some of the hyperbole to that effect. It prob

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[CronoCloud]

Most PS2 games run in 480i, not 480p widescreen. And if you own a PSP, you'd know that it some ways the PSP IS more powerful than a PS2. It has a faster CPU (two of them actually), the same amount of RAM and the Graphics chip can do things in hardware that the PS2 has to do in software. (though the PS2's GS is more flexible)

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[tlhIngan]

So it will be less powerful than the PS3, and with resolution barely better than a PS2 (720x480). That would make it better than the Nintendo DS (comparable to a high-res N64).

And smaller than a big competitor too, the DVGA (double VGA) iPhone4, which sports a 640x960 screen. In landscape mode, the iPhone 4 has the same width, but has just under 20% more pixels vertically.

What about the most important thing - does it have a UMD slot or are we forced to pay full price for stuff off of PSN? (Get these amazing

Re:

[jonwil]

Given the fact that its got 3G and WiFi and given that Sony is really pushing downloadable games on the PSP now (and given that making it download-only cuts out the game-store middleman) I cant see Sony putting an optical disk drive in this device.

Re:

[teh31337one]

Those specs are similar to the original droid. Same res screen (almost 15:9 vs. 16:9), same RAM, GPU, Cpu manufacturer and speed.

Pandora backlog

[tepples]

http://www.openpandora.org/

Between this and the PSP2, which will be available for purchase first? Pandora has a huge backlog of backorders.

Re:

[xero314]

Did you miss read the article, it's about a new Sony hand held, not Microsoft.

But you seem to be mixing the companies pretty freely since you did list free online capabilities.

but will it sell?

[redemtionboy]

It's definitely less novel than the 3DS, and a lot more capable, but then again, if I'm going to drop ~$400* on something like that, I might as well buy an iPad or a fancy smart phone. I think by making this thing ultra feature-full, they're blurring the line between the things they're competing against a lot more, and I think that does carry some risk at backfiring. Would I rather have a fancy gaming/media device and a simple phone, or vice versa. It's asking a lot for people to purchase high end devices on both fronts, and so they're going to have to make a choice. I don't think that choice is going to be overwhelmingly in favor of Sony. *Yes I realize there has been no official price announced, but looking at the specs, the device has to cost sony around ~$450 to manufacture. I expect a ~$400 price point.

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[Zerth]

I expect a ~$400 price point.

That is the usual Sony game system pricing method, double whatever your competitor is charging.

Interesting uses...

[TheCarp]

I saw a presentation yesterday by some guys who do health care lab system automation. Pretty cool what they do these days. They were saying that, with some of the work that they are doing in imaging and processing images, Sony actually gave them a top secret next gen playstation prototype to use. So, the advances of the gaming industry, are... already helping research on next generation medicine.

How is that for some unexpected crossover?

Re:

[marcansoft]

Remember, Sony made sure to kill off the use of PS3s as part of research clusters by discontinuing OtherOS-capable models with a false excuse and later pulling the feature outright on even refurbished older units with current firmware.

They don't give a damn about research, they just pretend they do to get free advertising and public karma.

Re:

[TheCarp]

Point. Very true.

However, that said, they are a large company, so to say they don't care at all about research is probably as true as to say the opposite. Frankly, I think the decisions are probably orthogonal to each other. Clearly, as a whole, there are some things that they care about more than research (whether they are things that they should care about, or are absolutely atrocious on a number of levels... well... we probably agree on those points). However, publicity is easy to get and Sony isn't exac

Game quality

[jones_supa]

I hope we get some decent games too. There's way too much half-baked Disney-animation licensed crap on handhelds already.

Re:Game quality

[Jim Hall]

Here's the thing - I own a PSP. Guess what kinds of games I play on it? Puzzle games, short-attention-span games, platformers. I've played the hell out of PixelJunk Monsters [youtube.com] and Lumines. [youtube.com] Daxter [youtube.com] and Loco Roco [youtube.com] were each a ton of fun, but honestly was probably the limit for what my attention could bring to a portable device.

Basically, I play this thing when I ride the bus to work. Anything that can be done in short spurts works great.

They're talking about putting some big titles on the "NGP" - Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted. Those are awesome PS3 titles, don't get me wrong. But I just don't know that I'd play them on a portable device. My tastes differ when I'm on the go. A lot of that power will be wasted on me.

Hopefully, someone will come up with a witty game that really takes advantage of the "NGP" without aiming for a port from a PS3 franchise.

Neo Geo Pocket

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Wasn't there already a portable with the initials NGP?

Re:

[Sockatume]

NGP isn't the retail name, it's just what the system's called until they come up with something better than "PSP2".

Re:

[Saint Gerbil]

Which possibly will end up the "P2P" with a 2 that looks like an S just to mess with Peer to Peer.

Storage medium?

[Kaldaien]

The real question is how will they be distributing games to the system? If it is, as some have speculated, download-only, I will skip this platform altogether.

If it uses optical storage exclusively, the battery life and load times will likely be even worse than the PSP. What would be nice is if they actually made use of "Magic Gate" to allow optical games to be installed to compliant MemoryStick for better load times and battery life (given of course that the optical disc is present); probably will not happ

Re:

[tuffy]

It uses Flash-style cartridges, essentially.

Re:

[Kaldaien]

Would it not make more sense to use a form of ROM, rather than block-erasable EPROM (Flash)? Honestly, how often do you need to rewrite the contents of an entire game?

Write enables; mask ROM vs. flash

[tepples]

Some flash memories have two write enable signals: one for a small "settings area" and a separate one for the actual program and its data. The 256 KiB flash in the Nintendo DS and DS Lite is this way; if you've ever bridged SL1 when installing the FlashMe softmod, you'll understand what I mean. So by the time it gets packaged, it is ROM. As for mask ROM vs. OTP memory, is there really much of a price advantage of mask ROM over flash if you're not guaranteed to be making millions of copies?

Re:

[Lumpy]

I'll skip it until it's cracked and I can stuff all kinds of games on the MemoryStick.
My PSP is rarely used except for a couple of the Homebrew games that can only be played via a cracked PSP. all the UMD disks I have sit unplayed.

48hour pong is actually quite a bit of fun when you are playing against random people online.

Re:Storage medium?

[Verunks]

it uses some sort of memory card http://www.kotaku.jp/assets_c/2011/01/110127ngp_media-23816.html [kotaku.jp]

Meh

[damn_registrars]

I was looking forward to the Atari Flashback Portable [wikipedia.org] that sadly never materialized. I really don't have a need or desire for a high-powered latest-generation portable console, but retro portable gaming I would pay for.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

Ben Heck makes his own custom portable Atari 2600 systems all the time.

http://benheck.com/ [benheck.com]

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[damn_registrars]

Ben Heck makes his own custom portable Atari 2600 systems all the time.

I have looked at his stuff before, and it is very neat. The fact that he built portables around the original cartridges is very nice. However the Atari Flashback Portable - at least as it was previously described - was a nice old-school/modern hybrid. It was supposed to download games through a USB port to internal storage - no cartridge slot needed. Personally, I think a portable that could have all 40+ of my original Atari games on it would be very cool, especially if it was made as a commercial syst

Re:

[Enderandrew]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X_Caanoo [wikipedia.org]

Put roms on flash storage, and run all your emulators on that. It is a Linux-handheld device largely designed to run emulators for tons of classic systems.

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[drinkypoo]

(and for those wondering, it is actually possible to buy a GP2X now! just in time for a bunch of handhelds which kick its ass all over the map to come out)

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[Tumbleweed]

So once it's cracked (and it WILL be cracked), you'll probably be able to run some version of MAME on it, or something like it. Problem solved.

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[Mark_in_Brazil]

I was looking forward to the Atari Flashback Portable [wikipedia.org] that sadly never materialized. I really don't have a need or desire for a high-powered latest-generation portable console, but retro portable gaming I would pay for.

What about the Pandora [openpandora.org]?

What can you do with it? [openpandora.org]

Pandora's app site [open-pandora.org]

Emulators [open-pandora.org]

Loads more apps, including emulators and games [openhandhelds.org]

FWIW, I'm going to give Sony a chance to sell me a PSP2/NGP/whatever, but I'm already looking at alternatives. I don't really need all the gyros and accelerometers and multitouch surfaces and GPS and whatnot, and I think those things will jack up the price a lot. What I really want is a portable system on which I can watch videos (the PSP was good enough at that for me) and play

As Powerful as the PS3?

[SJ2000]

...and Sony are claiming that it will be “as powerful” as a PlayStation 3.

Sorry, but in no universe is the Cortex-A9 'as powerful' as a PlayStation 3's CBE.

Re:

[bhunachchicken]

"Sorry, but in no universe is the Cortex-A9 'as powerful' as a PlayStation 3's CBE."

When you're done with your multi-dimensional transportation device, could I borrow it so that I can go to Ultimate Lesbian Model World, please? :)

Re:

[BeardedChimp]

Considering that a 4-core Cortex-A9 isn't even in the wild yet let alone benchmarks how can you make this assertion. Also when it comes to a console the GPU matters more than the CPU and similarly there is no current way to compare the Quad Core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ against the PS3.

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[Tumbleweed]

That only works when you're comparing apples to apples. Comparing what's in a PS3 to whatever process this CPU/GPU thing is going to be built on is apples-to-pomegranates.

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[Tumbleweed]

Which just reinforces what I was saying - they're completely different designs, with completely different design goals, AND completely different generations. Any direct comparison at this point is ridiculous. Benchmark actual working silicon in real games and then you'll know, especially when you have to take into account things like RAM amount/type, storage amount/type, etc.

My favorite part of the reveal...

[JustAnotherIdiot]

...was showing that it won't be using the UMD, but what looked like an SD card of sorts. I'm excited about this mostly because the UMD is terribly annoying, it sounds like the PSP is snorting every time a game loads from it.

Never thought...

[pizzach]

I would hear a Sony boy complain about something using optical media. Maybe there is hope game systems will move away from media that requires load times again. :3

will the built-in 3G make it fall under the law th

[Joe The Dragon]

will the built-in 3G make it fall under the law that says you can hack a phone to any network and to run any app?

So sony can't sue you

Let's say it's at&t data only and you hack it to run on t mobile what will sony do about that?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Same market, different audiences

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[redemtionboy]

I highly disagree. Sony has blurred the line between the devices it's competing against rather than making a distinction, and I don't think that is going to translate into success. I think the hardware looks great, and I plan on buying one. I'm a tech nerd afterall, but they're launching a device pushed at media success that is going to have to compete much more directly with the smart phone and tablet market which gets frequent updates and a much clearer value proposition. Do I want a simple smart phone an

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[wisty]

I see a flaw in their plan:
ultra mobile devices ought to fit in your pockets.

just sayin'.

Rumour has it, there's an unnamed Japanese consumer electronics giant who has absolutely no idea what their strategy is. It seems they want all their platforms to "converge", but no business unit will give an inch in case another business unit starts to cannibalize their sales.

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[JustOK]

will it run OS/2?

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[antifoidulus]

Yes, because with a few notable exceptions, cell phone game suck, esp. for "serious" games. You ever try to play an action/arcade game on a smartphone? It isn't fun, and unless someone develops a haptic display, it will never be fun. The reason is simple, it's impossible to make an interface that gives you the physical feedback you need for gaming(ie making sure your hand is on the right buttons and whatnot) with an interface that works well as a phone.

So until we have true tactile feedback from a touc

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[realityimpaired]

Who says you need a controller for something like a racing game or a flying game? Cell phones have 3-axis gyro sensors, and there's several games out there in either genre that are able to use a cell phone's built in motion sensors as input, rather than resorting to old-school push-button controls.

I though the Nintendo Wii proved pretty effectively that games can be fun without having to push buttons to play....

Game Gripper

[tepples]

The reason is simple, it's impossible to make an interface that gives you the physical feedback you need for gaming(ie making sure your hand is on the right buttons and whatnot) with an interface that works well as a phone.

If your web browser supports Flash, please look up the Game Gripper [game-gripper.com]. It turns your phone's slide-out keyboard into a gamepad.

599 US dollars

[tepples]

Three reasons:

• Google Product Search lists unlocked smartphones for between $500 and $600. Unless Sony gives gamers another 599 US dollars [youtube.com] announcement, handheld video game systems will remain substantially cheaper than an unlocked smartphone.
• Very light callers, such as those who still have a home phone, tend to stick with cheap phones on prepaid plans rather than the $40 per month plans that the major carriers push. Only lately have prepaid carriers such as Virgin started to offer low-end Android phones s

When does outdated information become lies?

[tepples]

You are a liar.

At what point does somebody with outdated information become a liar?

I just did a Google Product search and the very first results for "unlocked smartphone" are under $200 USD.

(searches for unlocked smartphone, price range $150-$300, operating system Android) So it's changed since the last time I checked. But I've been told the cheaper Android phones have a dated CPU and GPU, which limits the complexity of compatible games. Most of them appear to have no slide-out keyboard, which means gamepads like the Game Gripper won't have anything to clip to.

I've been using my unlocked smartphone with T-Mobile prepaid for a long time without any problems.

A lot of the market for video games is parents of school-age childr

Re:

[CastrTroy]

A laptop is considered portable. But it's much bigger than this device. I see people with laptops all the time on the bus. This thing is at least as portable as an iPad or Kindle, if not more so. To me, portable means I can put it in backpack and it doesn't hurt my shoulders when I carry it around. By specifically not limiting it to the size of a pocket, they are able to get a lot more out of it.

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[rwven]

It's roughly the same size as the original PSP, but thinner. The interface is supposedly completely new as well. There's some screenies over at kotaku I believe.

Re:

[rwven]

Why would it be any different than what Sony already uses on the portable devices? It's been pretty much completely effective...

Not everybody drives

[tepples]

driving (can't play)

A lot of people carpool, ride the bus, ride the train, or fly often.

at home (prefer the full screen console)

I don't know whether this system will have TV out, but PSP-2000 had EDTV out and PSP-3000 had EDTV and SDTV out. Besides, I've gathered from comments to articles about the PC vs. console war that a growing number of PS3 and Xbox 360 games have only online multiplayer, not local multiplayer. If someone else in the household is playing the full-screen console, and the game lacks offline multiplayer, you need to wait your turn, and one way to

Re:

[realityimpaired]

But why on earth would I buy a $300 handheld console when my $300 cell phone plays games? The cell phone also makes phone calls (obviously), takes pictures, plays music, sends/receives e-mails, is able to go online for social networking, has an FM radio, has a GPS and maps, etc.. And if you're willing to sign on to a term contract you can probably get that phone for much less, if not free.

If I just want something to kill time while I'm travelling, the cell phone seems a much better investment. Especially wh

Do you have children?

[tepples]

But why on earth would I buy a $300 handheld console when my $300 cell phone plays games?

It doesn't play games if the battery is dead from making calls. Nor can you make calls if the battery is dead from playing games. And a lot of phones don't have keyboards onto which one can clip a Game Gripper.

And if you're willing to sign on to a term contract

Which would cost at least $60 per month. I currently play less than $60 per year for cell phone service from Virgin Mobile USA because I split the cost of a land line with others living with me.

nor do I have a landline phone.

Do you have children? Would you trust each with a cell phone? Could you afford a family plan with a term con

Re:

[Verunks]

backward compatibility was already demoed during the presentation, of course since there is no UMD only games downloadable from the psn will work, anyway most portable(both psp and ds) games are shit that last a couple of hours, very few have the quality of pc/ps3 games(an example is metal gear peace walker) so this "expansive library" is not a big deal especially since top quality games like uncharted, lbp2 or mgs4 have been demonstrated on the NGP

the only thing bugging me is the price, a 1-2 core phone

Re:

[teh31337one]

Seems like it's styled similar, but it won't be android. The android PSP (Xperia Play) will be announced at MWC