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Next Generation Portable announced by Sony as codename for PSP2

Sony officially announced the NGP or “Next Generation Portable”, which will be the official “codename” for the PSP2 or the follow-up to Sony’s current line of portable systems (the PSP 3000 and PSP Go). This was officially announced at the PlayStation Meeting 2011 event in Japan.

As previously reported, the NGP is a super-advanced, high-tech device that is truly a next-gen portable system.

Here are the key features:

960×544 OLED resolution touchscreen (twice the resolution of the original PSP!)

3G wireless connectivity built-in (along with wi-fi)

“Sixaxis” tilt control (which is now in every gaming handheld, from 3DS to iPhone)

High-definition cameras on the front and rear.

A “Touch-panel” on the rear of the system.

Dual-analog thumb-sticks and facebuttons that mirror that of the DualShock 3.

“Location-Based Entertainment” system built-in; Tracks where you are in the real-world, and what you are doing on your system/what games you have played, etc. through an app called “Near”. Using this data, the NGP shows you which games are the most popular in your surrounding area, the exact number of players around you that are playing said games, and allows you to instantly purchase these popular titles so you can join in on the fun.

The XMB (Cross Media Bar) from the PSP and PS3 has been replaced with a “LiveArea”, icon-based touch menu. This menu has Apps unlocked Trophies that you’ve earned in NGP games (woot!), PlayStation Store, PlayStation Network Friends, Messaging, Internet Browser, Near App, etc. This system is much easier to use than the XMB and makes more sense given the touchscreen of the Next Generation Portable.

Backwards compatible with downloadable PSP Go games.

PS1 titles will be playable on the system via the “PlayStation Suite platform”.

Sony says the system is as powerful as PS3, but reports say the graphics seen thus far aren’t quite that high, but close.

Games will be sold digitally although they can be stored on flashcards, Sony promises that these cards can be ever increased in size allowing for developers to create even bigger games without worrying about memory limitations. Does this also mean that games can be sold in stores on said cards?

Here is the official word from Sony:

“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.”

As you can see, the official name of the next-gen PSP2 is “Next Gen Portable”, NGP for short, and that is what Sony is officially calling the platform. Although they also stress that this is still a codename and that an official name could still be forthcoming. Although the industry is known for adopting “codenames” (Like “DS”) and keeping them as the official name of the system, so we’ll see if this NGP sticks, since everyone and all media will be referring to the system by this codename.

Here are the official specs for the NGP:

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 = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?

Here is the very weird announcement “concept” video for the NGP.