Sony’s having a Playstation-centric conference, which I’ll be commenting on. Hit the jump for my thoughts (along with some sexy shots) as new information becomes available!
10:25 PST: Sony just announced that Sony content (labelled as “Playstation Certified”) will be appearing, for the first time, on non-Playstation branded mobile devices. Examples given included the Android market (!), and I would suspect that iOS is in the cards too. That’s major news to Playstation developers, and Sony claims to be looking into bringing PSOne classics to mobile devices.
10:30 PST: Sony officially has unveiled its new portable, codenamed NGP (Next-Gen Portable)
10:33 PST: Dual analog sticks, forward and rear facing cameras, rear-facing touch pad, and a sexy, sexy huge screen. Expect pics soon.
10:34 PST: You read that right, actually friggin’ sticks. No more of this sliding pad crap. Don’t have a pic for you guys yet, but it resembles a PSP-3000, but slightly sleeker corners. I’m hearing reports of 3g and GPS services.
10:36 PST: OUT THIS HOLIDAY! Update your Christmas list accordingly.
10:37 PST: Sony is claiming PS3 quality graphics. We’ll let you guys argue that one out when we get some media up.
10:38 PST: Lots of PS3 franchises making the jump to NGP, including LITTLEBIGPLANET, UNCHARTED, RESISTANCE, KILLZONE… No word on if they’re ports or unique titles.
10:40 PST: Game media are flash-memory cards. UMD is out, but the system isn’t 100% digital distribution. Uncharted is being demo’ed at the moment.
10:46 PST: Kotaku is reporting that the Uncharted demo looks to be a port of the first game. Their guy on the scene describes it as “very pretty…very impressive.”
10:48 PST: Joystiq is saying that the front screen is also a touchscreen. Looking for confirmation elsewhere. That looks to be confirmed.
10:53 PST: Looks to have a new user interface (goodbye XMB?) called “LiveArea”. Lots of social features, including friends lists. Access to the Playstation Store is also there.
10:57 PST: Sony is talking about “Near”, an app that shows you what games people are playing / talking about in the nearby area. This is the first feature that feels, to me, like one of those mythical Sony features that gets scrapped before launch.
I’ve got a feeling that we’re not getting a price tonight. Most likely going to be an E3 or TGS announcement. Getting scared though (flashbacks to E3 2006).
11:02 PST: “Hot Shots Golf” time, apparently. One franchise I’ve never tried. Is it worth it?
11:07 PST: NGP will play the “Playstation Suite” content, so you can load whatever the Playstation-equivalent of “Angry Birds” is onto your NGP.
11:08 PST: Downloadable PSP titles will work on the handheld. For the seven of you that bought the PSP Go, that’s great news.
11:14 PST: Lots of developers are discussing the system, including the usual third parties like Konami and Capcom. Surprisingly, Epic Games, who typically make 360-oriented content like “Gears of War”, is supposedly going to talk.
11:16 PST: Capcom is showing off some framework demos, including a short bit of “Lost Planet”. They’ve apparently forgotten how few people really care about that franchise.
11:18 PST: Sega is there, talking about the overseas favorite “Yakuza” franchise, as well as a sequel to “Shadow the Hedgehog”!
11:19 PST: Only one of those titles is real, for the gullible. Sorry, “Yakuza” fans!
11:20 PST: The “Yakuza” developer is suggesting that porting PS3 titles to the NGP is incredibly easy. If true, that’s really going to change the home console / handheld marketplace.
11:28 PST: Hideo Kojima is on stage, showing “Metal Gear Solid 4” running on the system. No announcement of a new title, but the port looks really sexy.
11:30 PST: Kojima is adding to the suggestion that porting titles to the handheld is easy. He claims the demo is using the same models and environment data as the original PS3 title.
11:35 PST: Kojima hints at a cloud-based computing solution where a gamer can take their PS3 game on the go using NGP. He claims that he’ll elaborate more at E3 with the unveiling of a new title.
11:36 PST: You hear that? That’s the sound of Epic cashing in more Unreal Engine licenses. A demo of an Unreal-powered game is being shown.
11:39 PST: One of gaming’s strongest series, “Call of Duty”, is getting a NGP title. Sony’s really pulling no punches in terms of software developers / franchises. Guess they learned from the somewhat tepid PSP software announcements over the last few years.
11:45 PST: Kaz Hirai just wrapped up the conference. Lots of talk about PS3-NGP connectivity, but no real examples. Feel like there were a lot of really neat features announced, but this feels very similar to the 3DS E3 conference where not much was talked about from a software perspective. I bet we get our fill at E3 and TGS this year in preparation for Holiday 2011.
3 Comments
Pretty interesting. Makes me excited to see what happens on this front at E3. I’m interested to see more of the Ps3-NGP connection as well as get one in my hands to see how it feels.
Wiiiiild shit. Did Sony actually say it’ll be both US and Japan by end of year? I didn’t see that the US or a worldwide release was specifically mentioned, but even the AP seems to think it may be out in the US this year.
Cool -I think it’s great that more titles are going to be easily transferable from the less-portable systems -I say “LESS portable” because almost every time I see Erik he’s toting around an X Box or large hard drive. 🙂
I’m not really a portable gamer (except for the occasional poker game on my iPhone), but these new systems are sparking my interest. I’m still waiting for someone to prove to me why I NEED a portable gaming system -I’m not a frequent flier nor a student often stuck on campus with time to kill. Nintendo or Sony hasn’t done a great job at seducing me yet…..maybe 2011 will be different at E3.