PSP Go a failure - Should we buy one.

[Mandingo]

Alright, little update - Looks like the PSP Phone is indeed the real deal, as reputable business publication/website Bloomberg is now reporting on it:

Bloomberg: Sony PSP2 to debut next week, PlayStation Phone at MWC

By Ross Miller
posted Jan 19th 2011 12:46AM

It's nothing that runs counter to the ongoing whispers we've heard so far, but according to Bloomberg and its pair of sources, Sony Computer Entertainment's Tokyo event on January 27th is indeed the platform from which it'll unveil the next PSP, and next month at Mobile World Congress will be where we finally meet -- officially, that is -- the PlayStation Phone. Next week's press conference will also reportedly "outline a strategy to use its networked entertainment services to share games, movies and music among handheld products, TVs and other devices." Not much else to say at this point, so just sit back, relax, and wait for the other guys to do their presentation, first.

source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/19/b...n-phone-at-mw/

[gurpswoo1]

A huge update on the phone from engagdet.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/s...phone-preview/

[Mandingo]

That was a nicely detailed article. Engadget is the greatest. Thanks.

[Mandingo]

Also, this is worth mentioning: The PSP/PSPGo's successor, codenamed NGP, will be arriving this holiday season, so in the next few months, expect Sony to start phasing out its supply of PSPGo's. Hopefully, sharp price cuts will be happening soon with the PSPGo, as Sony readies its next generation handheld, which in a weird way, looks a little too similar to the original PSP:

Specs include a 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks (not nubs as on the current generation), 3G, WiFi, GPS, front and rear touchpads, gyroscope, an electronic compass, and cameras on both the front and the rear. Oh, and the CPU is described as "the most advanced" in its class. Available this holiday season. Wait... what?!

Games will come on "new media," not UMD anymore, but we're unclear on what sort of flash memory is being used. Sony's rather proud of the fact it's offering the world's first dual analog stick combo on a portable device, though we're more geeked about the quadrupling of pixel count from the original PSP.

Games being shown off at Sony's live event right now include Killzone, Resistance, Little Big Planet, and Uncharted -- with the latter serving as a demo platform to show off how the rear touchpad can be used to more intuitively climb up some vines. Breathtaking!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/27/the-sony-psp2/

[gurpswoo1]

Nice update, Thanks Mandingo.

Spec wise this looks impressive, but what will the price be? I guessing $300

[Mandingo]

but what will the price be? I guessing $300

Yeah, I would guess $300, as well. Sony has already stated that they will lose money on each unit sold initially.

More details:

Tokyo, January 27, 2011 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced its next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP), which delivers the ultimate portable entertainment experience. NGP will make its debut at the end of the year 2011.

NGP is designed to offer unparalleled interactive entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation®. This new system offers a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context, made possible by leveraging SCE's experience from both PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 (PS3®) entertainment systems.

Deep and immersive gaming is at the core of PlayStation's DNA, and NGP is the latest embodiment of this vision. By having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, NGP will enable infinite possibilities for users to "encounter," "connect," "discover," "share" and "play" with friends wherever they are. Within the device are a range of features that provide a genuinely cutting-edge, next generation ultimate portable entertainment experience.

* l Stunning OLED and Revolutionary User Interface

NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through "touch, grab, trace, push and pull" moves of the fingers.



* l Super Oval Design and Dual Analog Sticks

While succeeding the basic design philosophy of PSP, NGP adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, created to fit comfortably in users' hands. For the first time, a portable entertainment system will feature two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience.

* l LiveAreaTM

Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called "LiveAreaTM" where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through PlayStation®Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an "Activity" log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.

* l Near



SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called "Near," developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.

* l New Game Medium



NGP adopts a new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for NGP software titles. Taking advantage of the flash memory feature, this innovative card can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card. By adopting flash memory based card, SCE will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data to deliver rich and immersive games.

NGP will also come equipped with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, all of which are designed to enable users to enjoy the world of entertainment that is linked with real life experiences.



PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for AndroidTM based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

SCE will vigorously promote NGP towards the launch as the next generation portable entertainment platform and deploy various measures to further expand the portable gaming market.





?Next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP) ?

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

(Touch screen)


5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED

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 = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)

Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?

Developers already on board:

JAPAN
ACQUIRE Corp. ALVION Inc. AQ INTERACTIVE INC. ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co.,Ltd. ARIKA CO.,LTD. ARTDINK CORPORATION ASCII MEDIA WORKS Inc. CAPCOM CO., LTD. CHUN SOFT CO., Ltd Codemasters Software Company Limited Crafts & Meister Co.,Ltd. CyberConnect2 Co.,Ltd. D3 PUBLISHER Inc. Dimps Corporation Edia Co., Ltd. ENTERBRAIN, INC. FromSoftware, Inc Gameloft K.K. Genki Co.,Ltd. Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. GungHo Online Entertainment,Inc GUST CO.,LTD. HAMSTER Corporation HUDSON SOFT CO., LTD. IDEA FACTORY CO., LTD. Index Corporation(Atlus) IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC. KADOKAWA GAMES,LTD. Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. LEVEL-5 Inc. Marvelous Entertainment Inc. media5 Corporation NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Nihon Falcom Corporation Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. NOWPRODUCTION, CO.,LTD Q Entertainment Inc. SEGA CORPORATION SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION Spike Co.,Ltd SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd. SystemSoft Alpha Corp. TECMO KOEI GAMES CO., LTD. TOMY Company,Ltd. TOSE CO., LTD. Ubisoft K.K. YUKE’S Co., Ltd.

NA
Activision, Inc. Capybara Games Demiurge Studios Epic Games Inc. Far Sight Studios Frima High Voltage Software Kung Fu Factory Paramount Digital Entertainment PopCap Games Powerhead Games Trendy Entertainment Ubisoft® Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment 2K Games 2K Sports

EU
Avalanche Studios Climax Studios Ltd Codemasters Software Company Ltd Eurocom Developments Ltd Eutechnyx Ltd Exient Ltd Firemint PTY Ltd Gameloft SA Gusto Games Ltd Home Entertainment Suppliers PTY Ltd Impromptu Software Ltd Rebellion® Rockstar Games Sidhe Interactive Sumo Digital Ltd Team 17 Software Ltd Ubisoft Entertainment SA Zen Studios Ltd

[Mandingo]

Ok, the PSP Phone is now official:

PlayStation Phone Revealed As Xperia Play

. February 6, 2011 . 7:51pm


Rumours of a PSP Phone have frequently been making the rounds on the Internet for more than a year now. These often tended to be confused with the “PSP2,” which ultimately turned out to be an entirely different device in the form of the NGP.

The PlayStation phone does exist, however. Titled “Xperia Play,” the device has been officially confirmed by Sony on their Ericsson Facebook page, and will be revealed in its entirety on February 13th.

The device runs on the Android operating system, and the PlayStation style buttons probably means it’s going to be the most compatible Android device in terms of control with Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Suite program that allows for PS One and “PlayStation quality” games to be brought to Android devices. Here’s a trailer:

[gurpswoo1]

Ah what, PS1 games and not PSP1 games, that's annoying.

Otherwise this would be great.

[Mandingo]

PS1 games and not PSP1 games, that's annoying.

I agree. I was excited for this new phone, but now, not as much.

[Mandingo]

Update - Sony has apparently lowered the price of the PSPGo to $150 here in the US, even though, lol, I can't seem to find a PSPGo on store shelves anymore.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/03/sonys-psp-go-officially-drops-to-150/