Many Questions Linger About New Sony Handheld Game System

Sony Computer Entertainment didn’t provide pricing or an exact ship date for a new portable videogame system that it introduced Thursday at a Tokyo news briefing, saying only that the device will ship at year-end. The company left open many questions, including the device’s name, which it referred to only by the code name “NGP,” for Next Generation Portable, and whether the device, a followup to the PSP, will ship simultaneously in Japan, Europe and North America. The company will announce the official name and launch details “later,” said SCE Europe spokesman Jonathan Fargher.

NGP will have a camera in the rear and in the front, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, SCE said. It offered no specifics on the cameras, including their resolution. Those functions are similar to features on the coming Nintendo 3DS, shipping Feb. 26 in Japan at about $299, March 25 in Europe and March 27 in the U.S. at $249.99 (CED Jan 20 p1). NGP will also, like the 3DS, feature Wi-Fi, but adds 3G network connectivity. Sony didn’t say which companies will provide that service.

It’s unclear whether NGP will feature autostereoscopic 3D, like the 3DS, or even stereoscopic 3D, which SCE is aggressively spotlighting this year on the PS3 home console. Fargher said “we are considering every possibility, but have nothing to announce” about 3D.

As long expected, the new Sony system won’t have the Universal Media Disc (UMD) drive that all PSPs except the download-only PSP Go do, Fargher said. The company, “will continue to market and support the PSP,” he said. UMD discs have been used on the PSP for games, as well as movies, but movie studio support for the format quickly evaporated. Sony didn’t say whether it will make movies available to NGP through downloads.

NGP is using a new game medium, a small flash memory-based card that SCE said will be “dedicated for NGP software titles.” The card will be able to store “the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly” on to it, SCE said. In adopting a flash memory-based system, SCE said, it “will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data.”

The early response to NGP from analysts was upbeat, and several third-party developers and publishers said they will make games for the system. But the initial third-party support was stronger among Japanese than U.S. companies. Notably absent from a list of North American companies supporting NGP that SCE provided were Electronic Arts and THQ. But Activision and Take-Two Interactive were listed as backers, along with smaller game companies including Paramount Digital Entertainment, PopCap Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

An EA spokeswoman said her company is “discussing the issue with Sony” and she had “no announcements to make.” EA, she said, “has a great relationship with Sony” and is the No. 1 publisher on the PS3. THQ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Some North American game companies have shied away from PSP support because of the system’s relatively weak sales in comparison with Nintendo’s handheld systems in the U.S. The PSP, however, remains a strong seller in Japan.

France’s Ubisoft was listed as an NGP supporter in all three major markets. In all, 16 North American and 18 European/PAL supporters were listed, versus 48 Japanese ones, including Capcom, D3Publisher, Hudson Soft, Konami Digital Entertainment, Level-5, Marvelous Entertainment, Namco Bandai Games, Sega, SNK Playmore, Square Enix, Tecmo Koei Games, Tomy and Yuke’s.

A five-inch OLED screen as a front display for the NGP, a chipset that includes an ARM Cortex-A9 central processing unit, dual analog controls and “advanced touch and motion control make up a very impressive dedicated gaming handheld,” said M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. He predicted games for “convergent platforms such as smartphones and iPads won’t be able to compete on performance or experience with games and online gaming features” that Sony demonstrated for NGP.

Sony’s plan to bring PlayStation content and game play to Android devices such as smartphones and tablets with Android 2.3 and later versions is also “potentially disruptive” for the mobile game market, Pidgeon said. That capability will be accomplished through a new PlayStation Suite program, SCE said. The company said it “plans to provide PS Suite content within this calendar year,” starting with original PlayStation games, PSOne Classics. SCE said it also will open its PlayStation Store “where users will be able to download” unspecified content via Android devices. “Newly developed content” will also be made available for PS Suite, it said.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter called NGP “a pretty impressive device,” saying its screen was “relatively expensive and the features set suggests to me that we'll see something in” the $249 price range for the U.S. and 249 euros in Europe or 199 pounds in the U.K. “The device looks pretty powerful, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some pretty sophisticated games, and the 3G capability and relationship with Android means we'll see a ton of Android apps on the device as well,” he said. Pachter predicted NGP will “sell incredibly well for the first year,” about 15 million units, but “then it will succeed or slow based upon the availability of software, much like the original PSP.” He called NGP “a huge step up on the PSP,” and said he thought the new system’s planned memory card-based games, “a la DS, make a lot of sense."

SCE said it’s “leveraging” its PSP and PS3 experience with NGP. The new device features a multitouch pad on the back, as well as a front touch display. NGP’s design is similar to the PSP’s, but SCE added an oval form factor. NGP will be the first portable entertainment system to feature two analog sticks, which the company said will “enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience."

Each NGP game will feature a LiveArea hub where SCE said users will be able to communicate with other players. NGP users will also be able to view an Activity log that SCE said will be “constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.” SCE said it will also provide location-based services on NGP among the basic features using its PlayStation Network. A new “Near” application, developed for this service and the network, will be installed in the system out of the box “to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently,” SCE said. Nintendo offers a similar function on its systems.

SCE said it “will vigorously promote NGP towards the launch.” Apple and Nintendo of America didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the competing device.