Brand New Toys
It was a pretty big month for gamers last January, particularly portable gamers. Both Nintendo and Sony had respective press events to either promote and announce their upcoming portables.
Nintendo had an event for to announce the launch details for the 3DS in the US and Europe
If you're not familiar with the 3DS, it's the successor to the Nintendo DS, with an analog pad, beefier specs, 3 cameras in total, a gyroscope and accelerometer, an 'always-on' net connection and a freaking 3D screen that doesn't need glasses.
Oh yes, as a glasses-wearing man, this is sweet.
Details unveiled at the show were the launch dates (March 27 for US, March 25 for Europe) and price ($249.99 for the US, and between 219.99 and 229.99 Euros for the EU).
Most importantly, several games were shown off at the events. The 3DS now has one of the most impressive launch lineups I've ever seen, but it might just be due to the fact that there are quite a few fighting games in there, and I love portable fighting games.
On my wish list: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, Dead or Alive: Dimensions and Pilotwings: Resort. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Biohazard: Revelations don't hit until later, and Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 will also be out for the PSP, so I'm not too excited about that.
Weird stuff: there've already been 2 Biohazard games announced for the 3DS... so much for the kiddie Nintendo system stereotype
Next up, Sony also announced the PSP2... or, as they call it, the Next Generation Portable, or NGP
Oh wait... wrong picture
Dang you, Sony! Now I'll forever be confused by whether NGP refers to your new PSP or the Neo-Geo Pocket! Come up with your own acronyms!
As you can see, the NGP returns to the wide form factor that Sony used for the PSP non-Go family, (which coincidentally, the Neo-Geo Pocket also uses... hmmm). Of particular interest is that there are now 2 analog sticks on the machine, and they are actual joysticks, not the analog nub / slider that the old PSP uses. Bummer that I can't slide this into my pocket anymore.
The screen is a 5-inch(!) OLED(!!) touch screen(!!!). The portable comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, SIXAXIS functionality (read: accelerometer and gyroscope) and a touch pad on the back. The touch pad roughly corresponds to the screen size and position, so touching a point on the back panel equates to touching the equivalent point on the touch screen. I have no idea why this was implemented other than to give an equivalent to the DS functionality of using the lower touch screen to control the upper screen action and thus ensure that your fingers don't obscure your view. Add in a 4-core ARM-9 CPU and a 4-core PowerVR graphics chip, and you've got a powerhouse of a portable.
(Oh, Sony, how ironic that you would turn to PowerVR tech, the same one that used to be in the Dreamcast)
TheNeo-Geo Pocket Next Generation Portable is scheduled for release Holiday 2011
A couple of major points concern me, though.
Nintendo had an event for to announce the launch details for the 3DS in the US and Europe
Oh yes, as a glasses-wearing man, this is sweet.
Details unveiled at the show were the launch dates (March 27 for US, March 25 for Europe) and price ($249.99 for the US, and between 219.99 and 229.99 Euros for the EU).
Most importantly, several games were shown off at the events. The 3DS now has one of the most impressive launch lineups I've ever seen, but it might just be due to the fact that there are quite a few fighting games in there, and I love portable fighting games.
On my wish list: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, Dead or Alive: Dimensions and Pilotwings: Resort. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Biohazard: Revelations don't hit until later, and Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 will also be out for the PSP, so I'm not too excited about that.
Weird stuff: there've already been 2 Biohazard games announced for the 3DS... so much for the kiddie Nintendo system stereotype
Next up, Sony also announced the PSP2... or, as they call it, the Next Generation Portable, or NGP
Oh wait... wrong picture
Dang you, Sony! Now I'll forever be confused by whether NGP refers to your new PSP or the Neo-Geo Pocket! Come up with your own acronyms!
As you can see, the NGP returns to the wide form factor that Sony used for the PSP non-Go family, (which coincidentally, the Neo-Geo Pocket also uses... hmmm). Of particular interest is that there are now 2 analog sticks on the machine, and they are actual joysticks, not the analog nub / slider that the old PSP uses. Bummer that I can't slide this into my pocket anymore.
The screen is a 5-inch(!) OLED(!!) touch screen(!!!). The portable comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, SIXAXIS functionality (read: accelerometer and gyroscope) and a touch pad on the back. The touch pad roughly corresponds to the screen size and position, so touching a point on the back panel equates to touching the equivalent point on the touch screen. I have no idea why this was implemented other than to give an equivalent to the DS functionality of using the lower touch screen to control the upper screen action and thus ensure that your fingers don't obscure your view. Add in a 4-core ARM-9 CPU and a 4-core PowerVR graphics chip, and you've got a powerhouse of a portable.
(Oh, Sony, how ironic that you would turn to PowerVR tech, the same one that used to be in the Dreamcast)
The
A couple of major points concern me, though.
- UMD is gone, and Sony has decided to go with a proprietary flash memory solution. Sony is supposedly looking into getting the entire back catalog on the PSN, but I doubt that's going to happen. So now, I still need to keep my PSP-2000 around to play K-On! on UMD. Thankfully, PSN-downloaded titles will work on the NGP. (Ahh, MGS: Peace Walker with dual analogs sounds lovely)
- There are talks that some territories may have 3G models and some models may not have 3G built-in, much like the iPad. This may be an indication that Sony will offer the 3G-less model for a cheaper price, meaning that the NGP will probably cost as much as an iPad.
- There were very few major titles announced at the conference (Uncharted and Killzone notwithstanding), only a lot of developers saying, "It's so easy to transfer PS3-quality graphics to the NGP." I'm sorry, Sony, but between Little Big Planet and Super Street Fighter IV... K.O.! But show me a brand new Call of Duty or Z.O.E., and then we'll talk.
What excited me the most about Sony's conference, though, was the announcement of the Playstation Suite, a framework designed for Android-powered phones and the NGP. This might be Sony's answer to Microsoft's XNA for hobbyist and indie developers, and I was surprised to see this come to fruition. Perhaps it is a sign that Sony finally understands that both software and hardware are necessary to compete (a lesson handed to them by both Nintendo and Microsoft).
Looks like 2011 is going to be a butt-kicking good time.
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