PSP2 finally announced

[fatpat268]

If I remember correctly, Sony originally sold the PS3 at a loss to help pull in more potential customers. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the same thing here. They know that they can't just rely on the "fanboys" (hate to use the word) and people with plenty of disposable income as that's not nearly large enough of a user base to make this thing sell enough. Not to mention that they have to "convince" developers that this platform will be viable enough to develop for as the PSP did not do terribly well in the US.

Well, they sold the PS3 at a loss because Sony was more concerned in getting Blu-ray marketshare and butting out HD-DVD. It worked, as standalone Blu-ray players were insanely expensive at the time, and here you have the PS3 that could play Blu-rays, play games, and more for a similar or less price.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

This is what would make me wanna buy the PSP2:

-since it is "as powerful as a PS3", i would like it to have an HDMI out to hook up to my big screen.
-it already has bluetooth connectivity, so i would like to use SIXAXIS controllers on it.

so then you would essentially have a portable PS3, that you can play at home one the big screen and on the go.

Maybe I'm in the minority about this, as this is the same concept as the SEGA nomad. And i would have killed for one when i was 5.

 

[dpodblood]

If the PSP2 truly will be able to output 720p then yes I agree. I would be nice to be able to play a game on your big screen, then walk away and keep playing elsewhere.

 

[Anarchist420]

I seriously doubt that. Im sure it will be magnificent for a portable device, and have a decent feature set, but it won't be on the same level of throughput as even the 4 year old ps3. Certainly not a LOT more powerful. Where are you getting that info?

Yes it is more powerful, because it is a quad core Power VR. Say the cores are only 250MHz each, that's 1GHz of power vs. the PS3's 550MHz GPU. It will have 32 bit Floating point depth testing via shaders, vs a 24 bit fixed point z buffer on the PS3. It also has VQ texture compression which is superior to the TC used by the PS3. The Power VR will have at least 50% more shading power than the 7800GTX.

It can also do MSAA with deferred shading, while the PS3 can't.
The CPU certainly isn't a Cell, but the GPU is more powerful than the RSX in the PS3 which is close to a 7800GTX. The Cell makes up the difference.

It's Anarchist420....the same place he gets his P&N info.

I'm right about this.

 

[dpodblood]

Yes it is more powerful, because it is a quad core Power VR. Say the cores are only 250MHz each, that's 1GHz of power

Derr I don't think that's how it works. A 3 GHz quad core does not = a 12 Ghz single core...

 

[zerocool84]

This is what would make me wanna buy the PSP2:

-since it is "as powerful as a PS3", i would like it to have an HDMI out to hook up to my big screen.
-it already has bluetooth connectivity, so i would like to use SIXAXIS controllers on it.

so then you would essentially have a portable PS3, that you can play at home one the big screen and on the go.

Maybe I'm in the minority about this, as this is the same concept as the SEGA nomad. And i would have killed for one when i was 5.

If the PSP2 truly will be able to output 720p then yes I agree. I would be nice to be able to play a game on your big screen, then walk away and keep playing elsewhere.

Portable games never translate well to big screens. It would look nothing like a PS3 on a tv. They can keep resolution of the textures very low rez since it's much more difficult to notice on such a small screen. Me personally I wouldn't want to play them on a tv. It'd look like crap.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Portable games never translate well to big screens. It would look nothing like a PS3 on a tv. They can keep resolution of the textures very low rez since it's much more difficult to notice on such a small screen. Me personally I wouldn't want to play them on a tv. It'd look like crap.

I'm not saying it will be as good as PS3 - but I dont see why they cant make the console 720p capable - which IMO would look fine on a HDTV. the psp2 is supposed to be 960 x 544, which isnt that much less than 1280*720.

Even if the games looked slightly better than ps2 on a TV, i would be interested, as long as I had the ability to play at home and on the go.

 

[artemicion]

Portable games never translate well to big screens. It would look nothing like a PS3 on a tv. They can keep resolution of the textures very low rez since it's much more difficult to notice on such a small screen. Me personally I wouldn't want to play them on a tv. It'd look like crap.

Well, if the PSP2's handheld screen is 960 x 544, its "natural" resolution is technically higher than what the Wii can output, no? The Wii outputs at 480p which is (something) x 480, right? So even if the PSP2 can't output higher than it's 960 x 544 natural resolution (not an unusual assumption since why would you program a game to output at higher than that), it'd be better than the Wii, which isn't *too* bad.

 

[BD2003]

Well, if the PSP2's handheld screen is 960 x 544, its "natural" resolution is technically higher than what the Wii can output, no? The Wii outputs at 480p which is (something) x 480, right? So even if the PSP2 can't output higher than it's 960 x 544 natural resolution (not an unusual assumption since why would you program a game to output at higher than that), it'd be better than the Wii, which isn't *too* bad.

It is absolutely better than the Wii. I've seen it described as halfway between the current PSP and the Xbox 360 GPU.

 

[Ross Ridge]

I'm not saying it will be as good as PS3 - but I dont see why they cant make the console 720p capable - which IMO would look fine on a HDTV. the psp2 is supposed to be 960 x 544, which isnt that much less than 1280*720.

In all likelyhood NGP/PSP2 games will render at only one resolution and that resolution will be 960x544. Supporting a different resolution on TV means that the game is going to have go to through a more extensive approval process in order to verifiy it meets Sony's standards at both resolutions. Being able to render at only one resolution simplifies things greatly for developers.

If the NGP does has a TV output then it won't be able to disply the 960x544 rendered image as is, since no TV supports that resolution. It's either going to have to scale down the image to 480i or 480p, scale up the image to 720p, or display it unscaled with black borders at 720p. When playing games on a TV the current PSP does the later, displaying games rendered at 480x272 with black borders at 480i/p. (The builtin functions, like the XMB and video player, will however scale up to the full width of the TV.)

It'll all come down to whether or not the NGP has a scaler chip or not.

 

[zerocool84]

Well, if the PSP2's handheld screen is 960 x 544, its "natural" resolution is technically higher than what the Wii can output, no? The Wii outputs at 480p which is (something) x 480, right? So even if the PSP2 can't output higher than it's 960 x 544 natural resolution (not an unusual assumption since why would you program a game to output at higher than that), it'd be better than the Wii, which isn't *too* bad.

Yea it's higher resolution but the games are made for a smaller screen. They can get away with using very low rez textures since you won't notice it on the tiny screen. Sure it might look better than a Wii but that's not saying much.

 

[badb0y]

Uncharted in my hands? NGP you are already bought.

 

[Fox5]

I could see Sony marketing this as a tablet. It's large, powerful, has crap battery life (for a phone like device), but if it runs some version of android, or at least has apps and a good web browser, it could be a tablet that games.

Still, it's not the direction that the market is going imo. First company to make a real push at games on a smartphone (the xperia play is a good first step, but it needs software backing) will own the market.
Honestly, I half expect Nvidia to produce an android reference game platform that will be adopted by many companies and be aimed at console ports and XBLA style games.

 

[akugami]

Powerful hardware. If they keep the battery life similar to the PSP1, along with the announced features then I think it'll be a fantastic portable system from a hardware perspective. I'm hearing $350 which is pretty good for the hardware you get. Unfortunately it's not good when talking about portable hardware. Don't quote me on it but it's probably the highest priced portable console. And even at that price Sony is likely losing money. That's why Apple (and others) sell premium phones at $500-800. Cause they have to make a profit on it while console makers sometimes sell at break-even or a loss but make it back up with games sales.

My problem when looking at the demoed games is the PSP2 might have the same problem as the PSP1. Mostly console ports or extensions of console franchises. If we all look back, the PSP sold extremely well compared to the Nintendo DS early on but the fact that developers never really made games that catered to the portable market was what effectively doomed the PSP. Nintendo DS games weren't as gorgeous and even derided by the "hardcore" crowd but it had the benefit of catering to the portable crowd.

 

[tk149]

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/sony-ngp-won-t-cost-the-same-as-the-playstation-3-924504

According to Sony's Shuhei Yoshida, who was interviewed by Game Informer, though, it is going to be cheaper than the console, with Yoshida explaining: "It's not going to be $599."
While this could mean that it will retail at $598, Andrew House from Sony also remarked that it will be a bit above the Nintendo 3DS's US price $250.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I'm sorry but unless I can get it for $99 with a 2 year contract I'm not buying. The prices are getting rediculous ;p

 

[zerocool84]

I'm sorry but unless I can get it for $99 with a 2 year contract I'm not buying. The prices are getting rediculous ;p

No way I'd want to get this thing with a contract. You'll end up spending more on it in the end.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The fact that the game cartridges are proprietary is no big deal, it's not like you're going to be able to use them on some other machine. A new memory card format for expanding the storage capacity though would be more than a little ridiculous at this point. Apparently Memory Stick media isn't expensive enough or something.



Well, it's similar to current iPads and iPhones. Just with more cores, an OLED screen, and lots of buttons.

Yeah.

Similar, but if the rumors about the A5 Apple chip are true, then it will be using the exact same GPU and CPUs that are even more similar (the A4 use Cortex A8, whereas these are A9, and the GPU is different, with the dual core one in the A5 allegedly being 4X the performance of the A4's GPU).

This is what would make me wanna buy the PSP2:

-since it is "as powerful as a PS3", i would like it to have an HDMI out to hook up to my big screen.
-it already has bluetooth connectivity, so i would like to use SIXAXIS controllers on it.

so then you would essentially have a portable PS3, that you can play at home one the big screen and on the go.

Maybe I'm in the minority about this, as this is the same concept as the SEGA nomad. And i would have killed for one when i was 5.

That's what I was thinking with this. PS3-esque level of gaming that you can plug into your home theater, but pick up and take with you. It'd be awesome for Lan Parties, as each person would already have their own display and audio system.

As for the debate about it being PS3 quality, well yes and no. Textures will take a hit, but remember, a lot of games on the PS3 and 360 are not rendered at 720p either, so resolution isn't that big of a deal, and it'd be no problem having this upscale to 720p/1080p. In some areas, it would have some performance advantages, but it would likely take a big hit in texturing, but even then, it might be able to handle close to PS3 level of textures. It shouldn't be difficult for them to get a good 1GB of unified memory in it, possibly 2GB.

It could be a viable home console if they make a special dock that can help manage thermals and has two circuits, one to charge the battery and one to provide power for the system while docked. The dock could even allow it to connect to Eye Toy and so you could even enable Move functionality.

They could feasibly make games that would be NGP level, but run on the PS3 as well, which could up their userbase and help sales.

I'll be the first to admit I'm doubtful that Sony will do half the stuff I say they could, and even then, they'll probably still find a way to make it suck.

 

[Renob]

Not sure if its been said only read the first page of posts, but if sony adds a phone they gots a winner on their hands!!!

 

[zebrax2]

NGP games trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqOZIy6Ee6U&feature=player_embedded

 

[zerocool84]

Bump with some more info:

This slide, shown during Sony's Next Generation Portable GDC panel, shed some light on NGP's still-mysterious storage details. Unlike the experimental PSP Go, the NGP doesn't sport any internal storage. Things like save data and patches will be stored on the actual game cards themselves which, notably, will be offered in both 2GB and 4GB varieties, with 5 to 10 percent of the storage allocated to the aforementioned data. On a 2GB card, that leaves 1.8GB to 1.9GB for game data; on a 4GB card, that leaves 3.6GB to 3.8GB.

That puts the NGP's game media storage size between that of the PSP's, whose UMD discs range from 900MB to 1.8GB, and the PS3's, whose Blu-ray discs hold up to 50GB, though "many PS3 games" (i.e., multiplatform titles) remain around 9GB, thanks to the Xbox 360's DVD-ROM size limitation. Of course, as pointed out in a second slide (afer the break), this leaves the NGP with far more storage per game than a "10MB phone game."

But that's not all! As previously suggested, the NGP has another storage option, simply called "removable memory" in this presentation. "Cards will be large to support a variety of downloaded content," the slide says. This includes games available over PlayStation Network; and, thankfully, Sony says it's implementing a "single submission for both formats" to streamline the process of getting games approved for both card-based and downloadable releases.

We're hopeful this streamlined process obviates current embarassments like the continued absence of high-profile games in the PSN catalog of PSP titles, which has crippled the appeal of Sony's PSP Go handheld.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/03/ngp-games-will-come-on-2gb-and-4gb-cards-with-room-for-save-dat/

 

[Soccerman06]

I wouldnt mind an App store if the thing came with a 32gb card, standard 32gb sdhc can be had for under $40 and likely cost $3 to manufacture ($.10 in materials?). If this thing costs anywhere north of $250, most will likely flock toward the 3DS. The hardware is mostly off the shelf, no reason it should be really expensive. Wonder if this will have a ps1 emulator in it, that would be a huge +100 for me.

 

[RPD]

Theres no way that thing can cost less then half a thousand.

 

[Aikouka]

NGP games trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqOZIy6Ee6U&feature=player_embedded

The games look good on the console (if those are truly indicative of in-game graphics), but I'm not sure if I'm really interested in any of the games.

 

[mmntech]

The games look good on the console (if those are truly indicative of in-game graphics), but I'm not sure if I'm really interested in any of the games.

That was Sony's biggest problem with the PSP. Not many games really stood out. A lot of "middle-of-the-road" titles but nothing special.