Earlier today, Sony held their PlayStation Meeting 2011 where Kaz Harai announced two things. One was expected. The other came as somewhat of a surprise.
What we should have expected was the next version of the PlayStation Portable. Since “leaked” photos yesterday showed the device, the enthusiast press were on hand to see just that. They weren’t disappointed.
The official name is the Next Generation Portable and has a form factor very similar to the original PlayStation Portable devices before the PSP Go. It has dual analogs sticks(not nubs), a five inch OLED display, touch pad on the back, GPS, front and rear cameras. Supports both 3G and wi-fi and uses a “new” form of media that looks like an SD card or cartridge. Specs can be found at http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/01/27/next-generation-portable-ngp-all-the-early-details/
Some of the franchises featured include Killzone, Uncharted, Little Big Planet and Resistance. The system itself will be available for the holiday season, 2011.
That’s all well and good, but the surprising part of the presentation was the announcement of PlayStation Suite. This is Sony’s cross-platform initiative to bring PlayStation content to Android-based smart phones and tablets. First out the gate are emulated first generation PlayStation Portable titles and PSOne games like Cool Boarders 2, Syphon Filter, Rally Cross, Wild Arms, and MediEvil. They will be available, of course, through the PlayStation Store on Android.
With this announcement, Sony seems to be moving in an unexpected and exciting direction. Yes, they’ve had experience with mobile hardware, but are now introducing a game development environment that smart phone developers have been enjoying for some time. No official release date was given other than some time in 2011.
It’s very convenient that the announcements come hot on the heels of Nintendo’s 3DS price and availability reveal earlier this month. Although the perception is that the Next Generation Portable will be the 3DS’s direct competitor in the handheld market, Sony seems to have upped the ante by extending their brand outside of Sony hardware and into the mobile space which arguably, shows more growth than traditional handhelds. Considering this is outside of Sony’s wheelhouse, it will be interesting to see how their new initiative bears out.
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