Sony has tried to pour cold water on rumours of the newly unveiled Next Generation Portable will not cost $699 – and has said it will be ‘affordanble’ when it’s available.
Speaking to Game Informer, Sony Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios, Shu Yoshida said, "from the very beginning of the project – since 2008 – pricing was one of the considerations that we had."
This follows on from a pre-order price at Gamestop of a $1000 – which is just insane. Have a gander at the pre-order page.
In an interview with Engadget, Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Jack Tretton revealed,”You want to have a worldwide simultaneous launch. Having said that, this’ll be our sixth platform launch, and it’s very difficult to have the quantities to be able to launch on a worldwide basis on the same date. So while that’s the goal, the reality might be something different. I think our goal is, we would get at least one territory out by the end of holiday 2011.”
The new handheld is much larger than PSP-3000 but was is still "surprisingly light," due to the UMD drive being replaced with flash memory-based cards and digital downloads.
Unlike the smaller PSPgo, the NGP fits comfortably in the hands. On the back, there is a touch pad, which is glossy and slick to the touch. Initial worries are that it'll get guncky with dirt and grime. Using it, however, felt quite natural as my finger movement responded directly to the onscreen action. There are Sony's iconic button icons as a monogram. Next to them are grips for one's hands.
The entire handheld is sealed like an iPhone, so players will not be able to change the battery. The reason for this, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says, is because of the rear touch pad. It's apparently not possible to have a rear touch pad and changeable battery like on the current PSP-3000.
On the top of the console, there is metallic trim on which there is a power button as well as volume controls. The PSP2 will come in two flavours – one with 3G and one without.
Sony's just released the tech specs for NGP, the next-gen successor to PSP that was announced yesterday morning. Get them below.
What do think of the Next Generation Portable PSP2? Are you going to get one ? What price would you pay ?
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 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED (Touch screen) 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 = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetooth 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?