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Music Unlimited platform coming to PSP, NGP and Xperia Play
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, COO of Sony Network Entertainment Shawn Layden confirmed that the company's Music Unlimited platform would soon make its way to PSP owners living in the UK in "a matter of weeks," and would appear on the NGP and Xperia Play later this year. The cloud-based music streaming service (which kicked off in the U.S. this year as part of the PS3's Qriocity application) will let listeners access their music and genre channels set up on a PC or PS3 on-the-go -- for a monthly fee, of course. We've contacted Sony to see if this info applies to the States as well. Layden explained the inspiration came from the PSP and PS3's ability to share games between one another, adding that Sony hopes to, "bring all those different content domains into a more comprehensive space for the user." Hey, we're all about synergy, here. We just hope Sony finds a way to add Qriocity support to our most anticipated NGP launch title, Now That's How I Touch Music: Vol. 6.
Sony's Music Unlimited streaming service coming to NGP, will hit Xperia Play this year and PSP 'in a matter of weeks'
It may sound patently obvious at this point, but there's still cause to celebrate -- Sony's streaming subscription music service, Music Unlimited, is headed to both the PlayStation Portable and its pair of divergent spiritual successors the Next Generation Portable and Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play. Eurogamer sat down with Sony Network Entertainment VP Shawn Layden, who spread the news readily, confirming that the service would be activated (at least in the UK) on PlayStation Portable "in a matter of weeks." Meanwhile, Android phones including the infamous PlayStation handset will get Music Unlimited "this year," and SNE "will make it happen" on the NGP as well, presumably sometime after the company reveals when its beast of a portable game station will actually come out. All in the name of taking your tunes with you wherever you happen to travel -- a concept that's getting rather popular right now.
Falcom announces NGP launch RPG, Trails in the Sky sequel
Nihon Falcom, creator of the Ys and Dragon Slayer series, has ardently supported the PSP with games, and will continue this trend into the next generation. According to an interview with Dengeki PlayStation magazine summarized by Andriasang, Falcom is developing a new role-playing game for the NGP, for release in that system's launch window. Dengeki also announced a sequel to Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, a game that happens to be coming out on PSP in North America. The sequel's name translates to Legend of Heroes: Trails of Blue. If you'd like to read more -- a lot more -- about that series, we can help with that. [Image: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky]
Sony: every NGP game will be available to download, some might not even make it to physical release
We're filling the time between now and the NGP's holiday season release the best way we know how: by hunting down yet more information about it. Andrew House, the man in charge of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, has delivered the latest tidbit in an interview with MCV, where he states unequivocally that every game on the next PlayStation Portable will be available to buy as a download. Notably, he also expresses Sony's desire to have simultaneous distribution in both digital and physical channels, but that sounds a lot less concrete than his promise that every game will be downloadable. Digital-only games also figure prominently in Andrew's vision of the NGP's future, as he expects them to diversify choice for consumers alongside the big time titles like Uncharted. To learn more about Sony's replacement of UMDs with flash memory and the reasoning behind the PlayStation Suite, follow the source link below for the full interview.
NGP games will be downloadable day-and-date with retail releases
SCEA hasn't managed to deliver all PSP UMD releases digitally -- let alone simultaneously with retail -- and even said the likelihood of making such parity would be several years off. That doesn't appear to be the case with PSP's sucessor, the NGP, based on comments made by SCEE president Andrew House. "One thing we learnt from PSP, is that we want to have simultaneous delivery in digital and physical for NGP," House told MCV. "Just to clarify that, all games that appear physically will be made available digitally." While that's certainly positive news, we're still waiting on word about Sony filling in the gaps on downloadable PSP back-catalog games -- which will run on the NGP, some with patched-in support for the handheld's second analog stick. Then there's the matter of the system's proprietary flash storage media, needed to store downloaded games, being a bit fuzzy. In short: Sony still has a lot to explain about its powerful new portable.
Sony readying NGP for November 11th European release?
Sony's Jack Tretton told us the company intended to launch the Next Generation Portable in "at least one territory" by the end of 2011, and now we might know which one -- MCVUK reports that the quad-core, OLED-equipped handheld may arrive in Europe first, and on November 11th specifically. While it's probably a little too early to drop the hammer on a specific date -- even one as rhetorically pleasing as 11/11/11 -- the publication's anonymous sources say that "development deadlines have been set to ensure key Western releases are finished before the end of the summer for deployment in the autumn." Plenty of time to drop euros in your piggy bank.
Report: 'NGP will arrive in Europe this year'
UK trade site MCV reports that "sources" have told them that NGP "development deadlines have been set to ensure key Western releases are finished before the end of the summer for deployment in the autumn." And if you thought "sources" was vague, try "online leaks" which, according to MCV, " suggest the console will launch on Friday, November 11th." That's awfully specific, no? Speaking with Engadget, SCEA's Jack Tretton already said that while Sony's desire might be for "a worldwide simultaneous launch," a more realistic goal would be to "get at least one territory out by the end of holiday 2011." If NGP only came to one territory this year, Japan would be the obvious choice; however, MCV's sources would indicate otherwise, with the site writing, "third party licensees insist that NGP will arrive in Europe this year." Regardless of Sony's plans, a lot could happen between now and the end of the year.
Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models
The news got a bit overshadowed by some augmented reality demos and a little game called Uncharted, but Sony also talked a bit about the NGP's location-aware capabilities at GDC this past week, which we now know will rely on Skyhook's Core Engine system. What's more, that functionality will apparently be included on WiFi-only models in addition to those with 3G, which means that all NGP users will be able to play location-aware games and take advantage of other various social applications. As explained by Sony at GDC, that could include things like the ability to find nearby NGP users and see what they're playing, and even more elaborate things like real-life treasure hunts -- all of which can presumably be switched off if you prefer to keep your mobile gaming habits to yourself.
NGP in development 'since the beginning of 2008,' first-party Suite games in the works
How long has the successor to PSP been in the works? According to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, "since the beginning of 2008." The timing coincides with the first rumors about the device, which (correctly) predicted the system's lack of a UMD drive, touch screen and dual analog support. Yoshida also explained that Worldwide Studios had been officially involved with NGP game development since then, too, which helps explain the dearth of first-party content for the original PSP beginning in 2008. According to Wikipedia, Sony has released only 16 first-party games for the PSP in the last two years -- about the same number of games it had ready for the system's launch. While Sony is working on delivering triple-A titles for the NGP launch, Yoshida noted that first-party teams are also working on "short form games" for PlayStation Suite, Sony's upcoming cross-platform service for NGP and Android. Given the last game we recall Sony ever developing for a non-PlayStation device was Wipeout 64, that's certainly an historic move.
NGP games will come on 2GB and 4GB cards, with room for save data, patches
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.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: NGP will be 'dead on arrival,' says ngmoco boss
In all honesty, you would expect the leader of a team concerned exclusively with producing games for smartphone platforms like iOS and Android to be dismissive of a new dedicated handheld console's chances, but it's still jarring to hear such a strident dismissal of the Sony NGP's chances. In an interview at GDC this year -- yes, the same place where we were treated to some very impressive demos of the NGP's performance -- ngmoco CEO Neil Young has expressed his belief that Sony's next PSP will be "dead on arrival." Claiming that the new portable will be incapable of competing with the rich ecosystems and affordable pricing models that smartphones now offer, Young says not even the crazy specs or PS3-like gaming will help the NGP survive. This echoes comments from Satoru Iwata last year saying that Apple, not Sony, is the "enemy of the future" for handheld consoles, though Young does close off on a positive note, saying that he sees brighter prospects for the 3DS thanks to Nintendo's rich collection of own-brand franchises and reserves of fan loyalty. So that's it, folks, better start selling those Sony shares while they're still worth something! Or not, it's up to you. [Thanks, Dominick]
Sony's NGP at GDC 2011: more video of the quad-core marvel in action
The headline just about says it all -- we've got some new footage (as opposed to what we've seen before) of Sony's NGP for all you gamers to drool over. Today at GDC 2011, we saw a live demo of Uncharted, Little Deviants, and the NGP's augmented reality capabilities. We were, once again, impressed by Sony's latest piece of gaming hardware, but don't take our word for it, see for yourself in video footage above and after the break. And, oh-by-the-way, we gleaned a few new tidbits about the handheld powerhouse that developers may want to know -- retail game cartridges will be only 2GB or 4GB in size (notable because the average PS3 title is 9GB), and Sony recommends that devs looking to port PS3 titles to the NGP should simplify their models, shaders and textures to make them work. Now if only Sony would spill the beans about how much the thing'll cost. Update: We didn't completely care for how our original Uncharted footage looked, so we uploaded a slightly higher-quality version. Enjoy!
Video from Sony's NGP panel: Uncharted Portable, Little Deviants, and augmented dino-reality
In order to show developers precisely what NGP is capable of – and to break up the fifty plus slides used in the one hour presentation! – Sony shared three live demos of NGP software and we dutifully recorded them. Apologies for the poor quality of the NGP screen – the combination of the bright OLED screen being captured on video, piped to a conference center projector, and then in turn captured by our camera has resulted in some ... less than stellar video quality. But you will be able to glean the input mechanics and the style of gameplay (or in the case of the augmented reality demo, dinosaurplay). Check out videos of Little Deviants, Uncharted Portable, and augmented reality after the break. %Gallery-118245%
Media Molecule hiring programmer for 'portable platform' [update]
Though the handful of promotional videos for Sony's NGP have featured footage of a handheld version of Media Molecule's latest, LittleBigPlanet 2, the game's developer and publisher have remained mum about the series' next on-the-go installment. However, a recent hiring notice on the studio's front page gives us hope: The Guildford-based outfit is currently looking for a graphics programmer to work on a new title, which will land "on a portable platform." It wouldn't be the first time the handcrafted platformer made its way to a handheld -- that would be SCE Cambridge Studio's LBP for PSP -- but the possibility of a totally in-house iteration of the franchise on Sony's next portable is enough to send shivers of excitment coursing through our entire body. We've contacted Media Molecule for a comment! Update: Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans responded, saying,"Well spotted! However, at the moment I'm afraid we've got nothing to announce regarding any projects... sorry. We'll have to leave the world speculating a little longer..."
Imagination Technologies unveils Series 6 PowerVR GPUs -- promises desktop caliber graphics in mobile devices (update)
Imagination Technologies may not be a household name, but they created the PowerVR GPUs that are the gold standard in mobile graphics, and are a part of the ARM SoCs you find in mobile devices like the iPhone 4, Galaxy S, and the Droid 2. Not one to rest on its laurels, the company unveiled its new Series 6 PowerVR chips -- affectionately known as "Rogue" -- that are 20 to 100 times more powerful than its previous handheld offerings. That's right, these GPUs will have the same horsepower as today's desktop computers while needing only a milliwatt of juice to deliver face-melting graphics -- the catch is that this bit of black magic won't be showing up in devices for a few years. Guess we'll just have to settle for the Series 5 chips -- like the quad core beast found in the Sony NGP and the upcoming OMAP 5 platform -- which the company promises will make their way into select smartphones "within three months." Be still, our gaming hearts. Update: Three months? Hardly, ST-Ericsson has announced a series of new SoC processors, including the Nova 9600 that has "Rogue" baked in. The chip delivers HD video at 120 frames per second and can pull off pro-quality 3D video recording as well. Press release is after the break. [Thanks, Rich]
Sony to deliver NGP lecture at GDC
The latest GDC lecture to be announced deals with Sony's sucessor to the PSP, the NGP. David Coombes, platform research manager at SCEA, will speak about the new, still-unnamed handheld's "broad range of input and connectivity options and how these create exciting new opportunities for game designers." This will be the first time Sony is openly talking about the device since its unveiling back in January. GDC takes place February 28 through March 4 in San Francisco. Keep your eyes on this tag for our coverage.
Ubisoft on next-gen portable dev: 3DS / PSP2 first, 'the other machines' next
After some success getting in on the ground floor with Kinect – Ubisoft was gunning to be the "top third-party publisher" – it's looking to repeat that formula with the upcoming 3DS, dropping six games for the portable's European launch. But with increasingly competent smartphones eating away at the dedicated handheld gaming market, what's Ubisoft's long-term plan for supporting the new portable landscape? While the PSP had, at one point, been a solid platform for Ubisoft – Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines has sold roughly 500,000 units, a Ubi exec noted on this afternoon's earnings call – "today it's a bit more difficult as you have the PSP at the end of its cycle," CEO Yves Guillemot said. With a stated goal to invest in "future consoles, notably the 3DS and the NGP," Ubisoft is hoping to extend the lifespan of its portable productions by focusing on two phases of release. "We are working to make sure that the games we create for the portable machines can be adapted for those platforms so that after making good revenue on 3DS or PSP2," Guillemot said, "we can go to a second phase which is going at a lower-price to the other machines." The other machines he's referring to here are the gaming smartphone platforms, typified by the iPhone and its hyper-competitive (and budget-priced!) App Store offerings. Publishers are eager to capitalize on new hardware, and the excitement that inevitably follows, but want to continue to invest in the potentially lucrative phone ecosystems. This two-phase solution might allow them to have it both ways.
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida drops some NGP knowledge: PSP sticking around, PS3 games easy to port
Details about Sony's next-gen portable Playstation, the NGP, have been scarce since we spoke with SCEA President-CEO Jack Tretton about the new device. However, in an interview in the forthcoming issue of Edge, Shuhei Yoshida --who happens to be president of SCEA Worldwide Studios -- revealed a few more tidbits about Sony's NGP strategy (alas, still no official price). Apparently, the PSP will stick around even after NGP's release because of high demand for the older handheld, not to mention a lower price. For those of you concerned about a dearth of titles upon the NGP's debut -- a la the PS3 -- fear not, as Yoshida stated that porting PS3 games was a goal from the very beginning and the process will be simple (relatively speaking, of course). Combine that with a push to make the NGP's development environment "as easy as possible," and we'll hopefully see plenty of available titles upon the device's release. Oh yeah, Yoshida-san also said that NGP is just the console's codename, and the real name will be announced later this year -- PSP2 just rolls off the tongue, now doesn't it?
Yoshida: NGP and PSP will co-exist
Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida recently reaffirmed his belief in an age-old adage: Make new friends, but don't discontinue the old. Speaking to Edge (via CVG), Yoshida explained that the company plans to allow the PSP and its fresh, fresh successor, the NGP, to co-exist on store shelves. He added that the NGP "can't replace a platform that has already been on sale for seven years now." Wait, that's not how that works? We thought new things replace old things, and that's why they call them "new" and "old," respectively. Yoshida said that cost plays a part in Sony's strategy, explaining, "In terms of pricing, we can't sell the NGP for the same price as a PSP." He added, "I think the NGP needs time to mature and get adopted by users. So, for the time being, both platforms will coexist." We smell the origins of a wacky, generational gap-based sitcom, here.
'Badman' character tweet hints at possible NGP title
We've never admitted to actually understanding anything about the game once known as Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? (though we do admit to enjoying it), and so it's probably no surprise that we don't understand the Twitter account associated with the game either. Not only is it in Japanese, but it's supposed to be an in-character account created by the Lord of Destruction -- and we have no idea what he's talking about anyway. But we do recognize the letters "NGP," as seen in this tweet, and a later tweet says that the developers are working on a new game in the "soup shoot zone." Presumably, that means we'll see a Badman interation on the PSP's successor, coming soon. Then again, not only is this Twitter account unverified, but let's not forget this is Satan we're talking about. He's not exactly the type to be trusted anyway.
