In the wee hours of the morning, while the northern east coast cowered in fear from some serious thundersnow, the far east coast was setting off some big things. Big as in PlayStation Portable 2. The curve ball though, is that Sony has avoided the branding of PSP, instead opting to codename it "NGP", or "Next Generation Portable." Will it be renamed to PSP2 at some point down the line? Damn if I know. These companies and their naming conventions these days, drive me crazy! For sanity's sake (as in, making you as insane as I), I'm just going to call it the NGPSP2.
Hardware
Most of the rumors that have surrounded the device before its reveal have rung true; 5-inch touch sensitive OLED screen, dual analog thumbsticks, rear capacitive multi-touch pad. That's a lot of control options, meaning developers can never ever make another PSP game with shitty camera controls and blame it on anything else but their ineptitude.
Some of the other hardware additions to the Old Generation PSP -- referred to as OG from here out -- are a front and rear facing camera, SIXAXIS motion detection, built-in GPS, 3G connectivity (one model will be sans 3G), and Bluetooth support. For the technical amongst us, the CPU is a heavy ARM® Cortex™-A9 core,with a SGX543MP4+ GPU. Honestly, I have no idea what that means, but it sounds CRAZY. Keep in mind that ain't just one quad core, it's two son! What's good Apple? Step your game up if you expect to keep pace! Sony promises the power of a PS3 on this little bad boy, and seeing as how most of the latest OG PSP games rival or surpass PS2 graphics, I can believe it.
Size
With all that deliciousness on the inside, how big is the NGPSP2 going to be? The exact measurements are 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth). That's just a tad larger than the PSP-3000, and by today's standards, that's frickin' huge! The NGPSP2 is still not a pocketable portable device, meaning you might want to be wearing a coat or carrying a bag if you plan on getting your gaming on the go. The size of the OG PSP is one of the reasons I fell out of love with it. It was nice to have all that graphical and processing power in my hands, but I didn't want to lug around a bag on the days where I didn't need to. And once I got an iPhone, all I needed to game was my celly cell. The PSP became more of an 'in bed' or 'on the toilet' device, and Lord knows I was not about to throw away money on the PSP Go. So it's wait and see mode until we know if the specs and games of the Next Gen will marginalize it's bulk. See the graphic (via Kotaku) for a better understanding.
;)
Operating System
Before games, let's talk what this beast runs. It ain't the XMB you've become familiar with on the PS3 and PSP of old. The NGPSP2 runs LiveArea, a "game oriented communication platform," as Sony puts it. What does it do? Well, it looks pretty, and it's touch-controlled. Welcome to the new age! With LiveArea, you'll be able to access just about anything PSN related; PlayStation Store, Trophies, PSN friends, messaging, web browser, etc. LiveArea is also where you'll fine "Near," the neat little built-in location service that lets you see who else is walking around with a $400 console. It also tracks where you've been, so you'll have a creepy little map of your past destinations on hand. Better leave the NGPSP2 at home before you go to the strip club, boys!
Storage
The UMDs of the OG PSP are now a thing of the past, giving way to a proprietary flash memory cart system. Games will be sold exclusively on these flash carts (with the exception of downloadable titles, I assume) that will house both the game, and as well as relevant save information. By using this system, Sony opens the door for creating larger carts to house bigger games, meaning MOAR GRAFXZ! Since media such as images and movies will undoubtedly be a huge part of the NGPSP2's success, there is another slot for additional memory, but Sony ain't snitchin' on it yet. Memory Stick or microSD? If I were to guess, I'd say Sony's proprietary Memory Stick, because Sony is thinking, cha-CHING!
Battery Life
Battery life is said to be on par with that of the OG PSP. The departure from UMDs (less moving parts) as well as the power-saving OLED display technology helps to balance the power-hungry features out. All in all, it should range from 3 to 5 hours, in the worst case and best case scenarios, respectively. With what you have under the hood, along with a 5-inch screen, I guess you could assume worse.
Price
So all this is going to cost a fortune, right? No matter what Gamestop tells you, it won't be $1000. Learning from past mistakes, Sony wants this bitch to be both profitable and affordable, which means no $599 fiascoes. The magnanimous Eurogamer trapped Sony Computer Entertainment Europe head Andrew House in a corner, where he said, "I can't put a ballpark on it in terms of figures, but what I would say is that we will shoot for an affordable price that's appropriate for the handheld gaming space." Of course, they could still decide to give it a $499 price point, but let's stay hopeful that it hovers more about the 3DS price. Though I'd say $350 may be wishful thinking at this point.
Software
Blah blah hardware, blah blah price, where da games at? Don't worry your precious little heads, because the NGPSP2 has got 'em. Known first-party franchises for the portable that were shown or talked about at today's conference include Killzone, Uncharted, Wipeout, Little Big Planet, Call of Duty, Resistance, Hot Shots Golf, and Hustle Kings. Unknown franchises include Little Deviants, Reality Fighters, Gravity Daze, Smart As, and Broken. I'm just as clueless as you on those. And for those of you worried about third-party support, never fear. Sega, Capcom, Konami, Koei Tecmo, Epic Games, and Activision were all present at the conference, to reassure the consumer that they will be spending a lot of money on games. Check out VG247 for some low quality footage.
If you want a release date, you're asking for too much, don't push your luck. However! In speaking with Engaget, Sony Computer Entertainment America honcho Jack Tretton states Sony is targeting a holiday 2011 release for "at least one territory." Ambiguous, yes. Grain of salt, also yes. We'll have more on the NGPSP2 as it comes, which I'm certain will be sooner than I'm prepared for. Stay tuned!