Sony announced yesterday at their annual conference meeting in Tokyo, Japan; 2 very important announcements.
First; the NGP, calling it the Next Gaming Platform. The PSP-esque looking console has us frothing at the mouths with it's amazing performance power and features.
Please watch the video of myself giving my first impressions of this exciting announcement.
Secondly; the Sony Playstation Suite will be made available to some tablets and mobile phone devices in the future. Could this be Sony's answer to Apple's dominance with iTunes? More on that later.
Awesome dude, this is awesome. Both the NGP and this video.
ReplyDeleteNGP:
IMO best: Back touch pad:
the best feature of the NGP, just think about it. the only thing the NGP is missing is the R2 & L2 buttons, but they be really hard to add with out making the device way to big. Instead they added a multi touch pad to the back of the unit. Think about it. want to reload; tap the back left side. Want to throw a grenade; tap the right. Its perfect, does not add very much to the device but at the same time it opens up a huge new window for game play(which is demoed in their new game "Little Deviants")
IMO Worst: No price tag
I know sony is trying to play it safe, but come on. Nintendo is already announced its pricey little toy for $249.99 US and its 2nd main competitor, iphone/itouch, has an entry lvl price of $199.99. The last thing Sony should want to do is come in last with their device with a huge sticker price. Sure coming out during the holiday is not a "bad" idea but no one is going to buy something that is over price. I hate how much the 3DS will cost but at least I can play all my old DS games on it while I wait for more to come.
Yea that's a good point. The touch pad can fill in for the lack of the L2 and R2 buttons. Though even on the PSP, I never really missed them. I would definetly rather have the touch pad that a bigger device that has two shoulder buttons.
ReplyDeleteLittle Deviants did look very awesome in terms of innovation. Not my kind of game to be honest but I did enjoy watching the tech demo.
I think if Sony went for the $249.99 entry price tag then that would be acceptable for most consumers and would make for some great competition between Nintendo and Sony during the X'mas holidays. Though $299.99 is a very high price point but I feel they could probably get away with it considering the tech and possibly if they have some big titles on release day.
It's a shame there won't be any backward compatibility for the UMD but at the same time I think were finally entering the era where disc storage will be a thing of the past. Cloud based services and Solid State Memory is the future imo.
I remember when Sony said that the PSP was as powerful as the PS2 but it was a little short on the power side.
ReplyDeleteNGP looks amazing. If naughty dog makes Uncharted just as good on this machine I'm in,..... depending on the price.
Also, it's about time someone got it together and made a portable with two analog or slider pads. The bad thing is I can see those sticks getting caught in my pocket. Then again the size will stop it from fitting in my pants.
Here's hoping for a $250 price tag.
Don't be surprised if they launch at $350. Sony continues to market as a quality hardware provider in all of their divisions (except cell phones...Ericson lol), so I see them as going for that. Here's why they might get away with it:
ReplyDelete1) Exclusive games - If they can pull off exclusives, not ports, of Sony ip's like Uncharted and Killzone, then I see this as a system seller
2) They aren't competing with Nintendo - That's a consistent message since the Wii vs. PS3. They don't feel Nintendo competes directly with them, meaning their target audience and system goals are very different. Given the fall off in Nintendo profitability, it might be a sound marketing decision. Nintendo is the innovator in this business, but Sony and M$ know how to make money over time.
3) There is a drought in new hardware. The pain we all felt when buying a $600 PS3 or $450 360 is long gone. No games are pushing the current tech requiring new consoles. The only thing pushing for new consoles is security for game developers because of the system hacks. So if people have money to burn on a new "system", then they might go here.
All that said, I'll stick with my ipod touch 4 that fits in my pocket and costs me about 2-10 USD to buy a game.
BTW, nice video review!