NGP: What you need to know

Sony recently announced the PSP2 – or the Next Generation Portable (NGP) as it’s decided to call it for the time being. The hardware specs are impressive, but there are still plenty of things yet to be announced. Here’s what Sony has made public, and the most important things yet to be revealed.

It’s got two analogue sticks

Remember how the original PSP just had that one awful little analogue nubbin that was thoroughly useless and mightily uncomfortable? Well, the NGP has got two actual (raised and everything) analogue sticks, on the left and right of the screen, which should make it a lot easier to play most games – especially those big-budget third and first-person adventures.

There are no more UMDs

PSP’s bulky and cumbersome UMD format has been shipped off to the graveyard of bad ideas, and instead the NGP supports a new proprietary flash memory format – kind of like the SD cards which go in your digital camera. The new format promises to allow users to store their saves and additional game content, alongside the game data, directly onto the flash memory itself.

It’s got a five-inch OLED display

OLED screens are all the rage in the mobile phone world at the moment, with the displays easily conjuring up deep, well-lit colours without the need for a backlight. NGP looks like it’ll be putting those five inches of screen estate to good use, too – the resolution of the NGP is 960×544 – which is 16:9, just in case you were wondering.

Some models will come with 3G.

While the specifics haven’t been made clear, Sony has announced that some models will come with 3G support. All versions of the NGP will be WiFi enabled. What 3G means for gaming remains to be seen, but as a minimum you’ll be able to access the handheld’s non-gaming features wherever there’s a 3G signal.

It runs Uncharted!

Uncharted is easily Sony’s strongest franchise at the moment, and it was no coincidence that the NGP was announced with a demonstration of the handheld playing a phenomenal looking demo of the first handheld entry in the series. From these few moments it became clear that Sony’s claim of the NGP being able to push out PS3-level graphics wasn’t complete bobbins.

There are plenty more games to come

Alongside Uncharted, Sony has mentioned the following recognisable franchises getting their own NGP instalment: Killzone, WipEout, LittleBigPlanet, Call of Duty, Resistance and Hot Shots Golf. Most of the major publishers have announced they’re looking into the platform, too. A cutscene from Metal Gear Solid 4 was also shown running on the handheld.

XMB is old and busted; LiveArea is the new hotness

LiveArea is the NGP’s touch-orientated user interface, which allows access to Trophies, PlayStation Network and the myriad of social features we expect from a piece of hardware these days. It also includes the ‘Near’ application, which uses GPS features to track and map your location and tell you what nearby players are up to.

Front and rear cameras are included

The front and rear cameras are suitable for gameplay, apparently, but Sony has yet to reveal the exact specifics of the lenses. We expect these will be used for augmented reality gaming, as Sony tried with the PSP and its camera attachment.

There are two touch screens

Rumours about the NGP having some kind of fancy touch screen on the back of the device have turned out to be completely true, but the NGP also sports another multi-touch display on the front screen. While years of the iPhone and DS have rendered the concept of a front touchscreen completely common, the back panel – which corresponds exactly to the screen – could probably find a few ingenious uses in the hands of the right developers.

Sixaxis is included

Bunging accelerometers and all sorts into handheld devices these days is all the rage, so Sony has wisely opted to incorporate the Sixaxis motion controls into the machine. Fingers crossed for a LocoRoco game that supports it.

What we don’t know…

Sony is still keeping plenty of facts about the NGP out of the public eye. For a start the NGP is only a development name – expect it to change in the next few months. Then there’s the little matter of the price and exact release date. It would also be nice to get some information about the specifics of the hardware itself, such as a firm statement on battery life, clock speeds of the CPU and GPU, and how much memory the device is packing.