01.JPGSony unveiled the successor to the PSP at its PlayStation Meeting in Tokyo today. While Sony spokespeople continually referred to the device by its codename of Next Generation Portable (NGP), it's not yet clearwhether this will be the name of the device when it is brought to market.
Here's what we know so far:
5" OLED touchscreen (960 x 544)
5" touch pad on the rear of the device
Two "real" analog joysticks (unlike the "nubs" on the PSP)
3G, Wi-Fi and GPS
Accelerometer & gyroscope motion sensing
A new physical media format to replace the aging UMD
PS3-caliber graphics
An app called Near allows you to see what people nearby are playing, and purchase the title from thePlayStation Store. A very cool feature - I've been dreaming of technology like this making it into music players for over ten years.
Confirmed games include Lost Planet, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, WipEout, Killzone, Resistance, Hot Shots Golf and Hustle Kings. Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega showed a demo of Yakuza 4 running on the device, and claimed that it was ported in a very short period of time, so expect strong software support from the third parties.
The PSP2 will be available this holiday season, and while we can't confirm the price just yet, we're guessing it'll be at least US$299.
