Aesthetically, the Sony NGP doesn’t look all that different from the original PSP. The fundamental layout and form factor have remained largely unchanged, but the guts are quite the upgrade. And with upgrades come upgraded price tags, right?

Sony has not yet come forward with an official price point for the NGP (PSP2), but Sony President Shu Yoshida has at least indicated that the next-gen portable is “not going to be $599.” I would certainly hope not!

He says that Sony wants the gaming handheld to be reasonably affordable, so now we know it’s somewhere between “affordable” and “$599.” Given the specs, including 3G and OLED touchscreen, the NGP is a bit ahead of modern smartphones… which sell for upwards of $599 unlocked.

And that brings up an interesting point. Sony will surely be working with carriers to get some 3G contract subsidies going, so is it possible that you’ll get a NGP for $99 on contract? Maybe.

At the very least, Sony is taking the same path as the Galaxy Tab and iPad in offering a WiFi-only model for the NGP to cut down the price if you don’t need 3G. My guess? The WiFi-only model will be the $299 range and the 3G version will chime in at $399 (or more).

[Game Informer]

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The Sony PSP2, codename the Next Generation Portable (NGP) was unveiled in Tokyo today. The portable gaming device features a 5-inch OLED (960×544) touchscreen, dual cameras, a touch-sensitive panel on the back adding for extra control, a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX534MP4+ GPU, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and lets not forget dual analog joysticks.

This is quite the little package to be toting around, if I didn’t see yesterdays news I would call THIS the PlayStation Phone.

UMD has disappeared to no ones surprise. It will be replaced by a new format, Sony likes making new formats. SIXAXIS controls, accelerometer, analog D-Pad, four button cross controls, even the Left/Right shoulder triggers will give you full game play in any combination thinkable.

Gizmodo reports that the rear touch-sensitive panel is nearly the same size as the front display and can respond to multi-touch inputs simultaneously. One game demo showed how you could flick beach balls up into the air with the rear panel. When you touch a specific spot on the rear panel, it will respond as though it was in the same area on the front screen.

The Near app will let you see who is nearby and what they are playing and buy that from the PlayStation Store. It wasn’t mentioned, but i’m sure you could just the same play those “Near” people in multiplayer mode.

This is a huge release for Sony, it’s got an insane amount of power in it and if it sells for around the $300 price point like we hope it will, it’ll be quite the steal. Surprising too that it came the day after engadget released hands-on shots of the Playstation Phone, akak Xperia Play.

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According to the rumors, Sony is hosting an event in Tokyo on January 27 and it is there that they will take the cover off the of the real next-generation PSP. Rememeber that the current PSP Go isn’t really a PSP2. Even Sony itself has been quoted as saying that the PSP Go is more akin to a PSP 1.5 than anything else.

I’m not entire surely what to expect with the next-generation PSP, but I imagine the form factor will remain much the same. They might toss in a touchscreen, but for the hardcore gamers in the audience, a second thumbstick would be much more appreciated.

On a related note, the rumors are saying that the XPERIA Play will make its debut at MWC 2011. That happens from February 14 to February 17. I wonder if the new PSP2 will have pre-emptively taken the wind out of the PSPhone’s sails by then.

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As you may have heard, Sony is filing a lawsuit against Hotz and the rest of the fail0verflow team for “jailbreaking” the PlayStation 3. The DMCA has been updated to allow for the jailbreaking of “closed OS” devices, but the wording is restricted to mobile phones like Android and iOS. That’s the loophole that Sony is trying to use in this case.

In the video interview posted below from G4′s Attack of the Show, Hotz says it’s all because he made Sony “mad.” You see, it’s not even really an issue of piracy; Hotz just wanted to unlock the “Other OS” feature that was taken away in a recent PS3 firmware update. He wants to run homebrew. “The way piracy was previously done [on PS3] doesn’t work in my jailbreak”, he says. “I made a specific effort while I was working on this to try to enable homebrew without enabling things I do not support, like piracy.”

Considering that Hotz was able to set quite a precedent with the iPhone jailbreak and the subsequent win over the Apple lawsuit, I don’t see why his lawyers can’t extend that precedent to non-mobile closed-OS devices like the PS3 too.

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About a month ago a few grainy pictures of what looked like a PSP2 were leaked, and following that the rumor mill started to buzz with speculations on what the actual product will look like. Now we have been treated to clearer, more official looking images of a mock-up PSP2, though take note that these images are not from Sony.

They were commissioned by PSM3, and were made by a third-party designer, to add to their recent magazine article highlighting and speculating on the PSP2 and the unofficial PlayStation Phone. The designer looks to have used the earlier released photos and recent rumors as a base to create the mock-ups.

They do look official and had it not mentioned many would have taken it as that. It seems to follow the direction that PlayStation took with the PSP Go, using the slider to conceal the actual controls of the system, giving it a very sleek and smooth look. The mock-up also sports the much-anticipated dual joysticks, which will give the handheld a much more console gaming feel, to the delight of casual and hardcore fans alike. And a newer addition to the system, the handheld mock-up includes a large touch screen on the back of the system.

Whether or not this mock-up is going to be an accurate representation of what we can expect from Sony, is up in the air until we get our first official look. But for now it is just nice to be able to put a face to all the rumors that have been circulating.

[Gizmodo via PSM2]

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Confused? You betcha! Kazuo Hirai is the big cheese at Sony Computer Entertainment and he recently had an interview where he was to discuss the PSPhone (or PSP phone, if you prefer). In the interview, he basically confirms that they’re working on such a device.

That’s the good news. The slightly confusing news is that he says, “We don’t want gamers to be asking, what’s the difference between that and a PSP.” In this way, it is more than likely that Sony is still working on a proper PSP2, but the PSP Phone is a separate project.

I’ve heard some rumors swirling around the Internet that the so-called PSPphone won’t really be a PSP Phone at all. Instead, it’s being dubbed the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play to join the rest of the XPERIA smartphone line. It’ll probably have the PlayStation app, but the Android phone will also play some PSN download games too. Sony is more than happy to embrace casual gamers in this regard.

In any case, I’m hearing that Sony could be making some sort of formal announcement regarding one or both devices at CES in January. Till then, it’s all rumor and hearsay.

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We may still be basking in the glow from the E3 Expo last month, since it was there that Sony officially announced the new Sony PSPgo handheld. Well, it seems that a successor to the UMD-free sliding gaming console is already in the works and we have some of the preliminary details.

When we first saw the Sony PSP Go for real, the representatives at the company were quick to point out that this was not supposed to represent a PSP2. Instead, it was a half-step forward for the platform, creating what we may better consider as the PSP 1.5. That’s what the PSPgo is supposed to be. So, what can expect from the next generation?

What We Know and What We’ve Heard about PSP2

Rumors surrounding the possibility of a Sony PSP2 have been floating around for nearly as long as the original PSP has been in existence. Most recently, we’ve picked up on some new rumors that point toward the processing prowess of the PSP2.

Shown above is one of the early concepts that we’ve seen several times before, so don’t view it as an official image of the upcoming PSP2. Sony could take any number of directions in terms of physical design.

Looking inside, the current rumor is pointing toward Imagination Technology’s PowerVR tech. More specifically, we hear that they’ll use the “Hydra” chip that can push 133 million polygons a second and has a fillrate of 4GPizelx per second. The chip acts as both the GPU and CPU simultaneously, improving efficiency and “helping in other areas of programming for the device.”

This should really push the graphical envelope. According to Digital Foundry, this new chip will put the so-called PSP2 in the same neighborhood as the original Xbox. That’s very impressive for a portable platform.

Possible Directions, Designs, and Features

Based on what we’ve heard in the past and based on the direction that Sony has taken with the PSPgo, we can make some educated guesses as to what we’ll see when the PSP2 sees the light of day.

I think it is very likely that they will continue with the UMD-free experience, ditching the physical drive in favor of an all digital delivery format. Seeing how we’re still some time out from a PSP2, the new handheld should be able to push 64GB or more by that time.

The sliding form factor may also be maintained, helping to provide the largest screen with the smallest footprint. The vertical slider of the PSPgo is a possibility, though the horizontal slide of the image above may also be possible.

Will the PSP2 have a touchscreen? It seems that touchscreens are all the rage when it comes to smartphones. We’ve got the HTC Touch Diamond, Samsung Omnia, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Storm and… oh right, the Apple iPhone. Touchscreens are huge and it would seem prudent for Sony to join that arena as well. The Sony Ericsson Rachael seems to be heading that way.

So many PSP owners have long since wondered by Sony only included a single analog thumb stick on their portable gaming machine. The PS2 and PS3 both have dual analog sticks, so why not the PSP2 as well? This will be huge for first-person shooters and similar action-adventure titles for sure. Sony didn’t include one in the PSPgo, but the PSP2 may finally include this feature.

Sony PSP2 Release Date and Price

Realistically, we still know very little about what could come with the Sony PSP2. The PSPgo is working to revitalize Sony’s brand in gaming and the digital delivery is a big part of that. In this way, Sony will likely take a wait-and-see approach for the PSP2, tweaking it according to how the market reacts to the PSPgo.

In this way, it’s very unlikely that we’ll hear anything official until well into 2010, if not 2011. In terms of pricing, we already know what they did with the PSPgo, so expect an early adopter tax. I sincerely hope they keep it under $250.

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