The PSP2, Codename NGP: What You Need to Know

At the PlayStation Meeting 2011 over in Tokyo, technology overlord Sony finally and officially unveiled the PSP2, currently codenamed the Next Generation Portable, or NGP. The PSP’s successor looks fairly impressive so far, sporting the long-desired dual analog sticks that the original PSP was missing, built-in 3G and a touch-sensitive OLED screen, among many other neat features.

Current Name

Though most people will most likely refer to the device as the PSP2 well after it receives an official name, the current codename of the device is the Next Generation Portable, or the NGP for short. Not exactly creative, though if you feel a currently unofficial, uncreative codename is a problem, I cordially invite you to whip out your Nintendo DS and remember what those two little letters stand for.

Hardware and Software

• High-resolution, touch-sensitive OLED screen
• Built-in WiFi
• Wireless 3G connectivity
• Tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS (remember that?) controls
• Three-axis electronic compass
• Built-in GPS
• Front and back facing cameras
• Buttons: D-Pad (up, down, left, right), dual analog sticks (finally), action buttons (triangle, circle, X, square), shoulder buttons (left, right), start, select, volume controls, PS button, power button
• New LiveArea service and new application Near (detailed below)
• Built-in mic
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Capacitative multi-touch pad on back of the device (pictured below)

Storage Media

• As we all expected, no more UMD
• NGP uses a small flash memory card, dedicated for NGP software
• The new game cards will store add-on content (presumably downloadable content) directly on the card itself, as well as store save data directly on the card (like game cartridges have done in the past)

Battery Life

• It is supposedly around the same as the original PSP, which means anywhere from a few hours to ten hours, depending on what features are being used
• It would seem to average out at around four to five hours, which makes it on par with the battery life of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS

Specs

• CPU: ARM Cortex-A9 core (quad core)
• GPU: SGX543MP4+
• Dimensions: Approximately 182.0 width x 18.6 height x 85.3mm depth
• Wireless: 3G, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• 5-inch OLED touchscreen, with a 960×544 resolution (by comparison, the current PSP has a 4.3-inch screen with a 480×272 resolution)

Size Comparison Chart (via Kotaku)

• Left off this comparison chart that the guys over at Kotaku lovingly crafted for the rest of us, is the Nintendo DSi XL, the current monstrous beast of portable gaming, which is (hilariously) the bigger version of the smaller version of the bigger original DS

LiveArea and Near

• Near app can detect all other NGP owners in your area
• Shows other NGP owners are playing
• Can chat with other NGP owners
• Display NGP owners’ rankings for games

Games Shown

• Based on existing franchises: Uncharted, Killzone, WipeOut, Resistance, LittleBigPlanet, Hustle Kings, Hot Shots Golf, Monster Hunter, Call of Duty
• New franchises: Little Deviants, Reality Fighters (supposedly an augmented reality game, Virtua Fighter pun?), Gravity Daze

Trophies

• NGP games will feature trophies

Backwards Compatibility

• Can play any downloadable PSP game
• Can play any PSOne game supported by the PlayStation Suite

PS3 Exportability

• Real life Big Boss Hideo Kojima showed off the PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 running on the NGP, and it reportedly looked almost as good as the PS3 version
• Kojima said the NGP demo of MGS4 took the model and data environments from the PS3 and exported them directly to the NGP
• Though the NGP isn’t exactly as powerful as the PS3, this sort of portability suggests it’s fairly close, and could seemingly lead to playing proper PS3 games on the NGP
• Example: If the PS3 and NGP can share save data, less powerful PS3 games (many of the PSN games) could surely be played with both devices, allowing a user to bring their PS3 game with them after they leave the house

Interesting Notes

• A price has not been announced
• The window for a Japan release is during the 2011 holiday season, no other details about release dates have been mentioned as of yet
• No word yet on internal memory, or what kind of memory card will be used for external memory (for videos, music, downloadable games, etc.)
• The device seems like a Frankenstein of popular technology, but doesn’t include one of the most popular (semi-obnoxious) recent tech trends, 3D, which I personally feel isn’t appropriate for a portable device, since one has to look at a 3D screen from a pretty specific angle, and no one in the history of portable gaming devices has ever used their device at anything but some less-than-perfect angle
• Even more interesting regarding the lack of 3D, Sony has previously said they were going to bet big on 3D, which lends further credence to the potential angles of playing a portable device not lending itself well to the proper viewing angles 3D requires
• The Uncharted game is supposedly a brand new one, not a port, with graphics so incredible that it apparently looks like regular PS3 graphics at a glance

(details and pictures via Kotaku, Gizmodo, Eurogamer, CrunchGear, AV Watch, PlayStation Blog)

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