PSP2 ( PS Vita ) Announced: Release Date, Specs, Pictures

Just recently I wrote about Nintendo 3DS announce, and now Sony makes their own turn in epic battle for gamer's hearts, souls and wallets. Yep, that's it — PSP2 ( for now codenamed NGP, Next Generation Portable ) was announced on PlayStation Meeting conference in Tokyo. Many journalists gathered to this event, ready to behold upcoming Sony masterpiece, and their expectations was fulfilled — actual device was showed with running game prototypes. Company published technical specifications for their upcoming portable console and supplied some promo images of NGP. Also Sony stated directions, in which company will promote and develop NGP for next years.

Be sure to also check my latest blog post about NGP, that was officially named PlayStation Vita at E3 conference on June, 6th.

Next Generation Portable Entertainment System ( NGP )

So, what is Next Generation Portable in Sony view? Accordingly to staff, NGP will combine rich gaming features along with some social interactions in real world context, using company experience in developing, usage and support of PSP and PlayStation 3. New console will have Wi-Fi and 3G ( optionally ) modules, what will allow to implement some network features, such as friends search, information share, playing together and like that. In other words, we can expect something similar to PlayStation Network, and for NGP this "service" will be called LiveArea.

In addition NGP will be supplied with pre-installed Near application. As the name implies, this app will search for NGP devices in local area, allowing you to invite neighbors to play together, arrange a meeting or simply chat about something, such way uniting consoles in some are into gaming network.

 To help puny humans understand all might and beauty of NGP 5" OLED display was summoned from the depths of hell, crushing enemies with 960 x 544 pixels of resolution. On the rear side of console some naughty multi-touch pad was placed by devil hardware engineers, allowing to implement new game control schemes and some additional in-game actions, like pulling, pushing, sliding, etc., making soft strokes with your fingers on touchpad surface. Erotic games developers will benefit most from this feature I belive, especially in Japan, where date simulators and hentai games are pretty popular. Now this kind of games lovers could not only see their precious kawaii girls in better colors and details, but even touch and caress them.

  
  
Console design also received some changes — Sony claims Super Oval Design usage in NGP and places on console two analog sticks ( hentai lovers — I know what you drooling about, do not think of them as the nipples ). It's worth to mention that this is really good decision, because in this case two is twice better than one. Game developers will be able to make controls more convinient with two analog sticks and port some older games from PSOne to NGP, featuring same control schemes. In overall new design looks really good and attractive, so one point in the piggy bank of Sony for this. 

As media, information and game carriers Sony plans to use flash-based memory cards, what will allow in the future to extend their storage capacity and keep more porn games and additional content on them, making possible to create better looking and richer gaming experience. NGP also will have two cameras ( rear and front ) and three motion sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope and electronic compss.

PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite)

Besides the NGP itself new software framework was announced — PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite). It will allow to port Android games to NGP, bringing small, casual games to Sony platform in addition to "big" full-scaled games. Also among the priorities Sony mentioned that some games form PSOne will be ported to NGP in first place — so for the release time we will probably see PlayStation classics available on NGP. For purpose of more simple distribution of such kind of games ( but not limited to ) PlayStation Store will be launched, which will work similar to Apple AppStore and Android Market Place.

82 third-party developers have already signed up to work on the NGP. There are 14 titles confirmed so far, including iterations of Killzone, Call of Duty, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance and WipEout. Japan release of NGP planned to late 2011.

NGP ( PSP2 ) Technical Specifications

CPU	ARM® Cortex™-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)
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 = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）

See some videos about Next Generation Portable ( NGP ):

PSP and NGP comparsion

 

See also what will be look like games on Sony NGP.

Update on 15/09/11: All right, PlayStatio n Vita Japan Release Date was set to December, 17.