Although, Sony’s stated that the international release of NGP might get delayed due to the recent disaster in Japan, we now know what possibly might be the pre-order price of the console in the UK.

As you can see, retailer, Pixmania has listed the console to be priced at an really affordable  £ 253.05 .

Although, we can’t confirm if this is indeed the price for the handheld but in case, this proves out to be true, gamers would be grinning all the way.

Let us know  your thoughts about this pricepoint for the handheld.

Mr. Atindriya Bose: Country Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment

Gamingbolt recently got a chance to quiz Playstation India Boss, Mr. Atindria Bose and we discussed all things Playstation with him.

We talked about the hottest PS3 game right now, Killzone 3 but that’s not all that we asked him about. We also, spoke about the PSP’s successor, the NGP and lots more.

The NGP is undoubtedly the most talked about PS product right now and we too joined the party, asking Mr.Bose what can we expect from Sony’s latest handheld offering. Although, the details he gave are a bit sketchy, we did get to know his thoughts about the NGP.

When asked how does the NGP revolutionize handheld gaming and will people play console games on their handheld device rather than “handheld” games while they’re travelling, he replied:

“With the NGP, you will still have a handheld market, just like the PSP. It will co-exist with the PS3 in the market. The NGP has the dual touch screen, which truly revolutionizes the handheld gaming space, and does it quite well. I have personally played quite a few games on the NGP. I can assure you that it enhances both, the handheld and the gaming market.”

He also believes that the NGP will broaden horizons by stating:

“During the development of the games on the NGP, we are looking at both kinds of games. In any way, we do not compromise our core audience. Our first and foremost aim is to enhance their experience. Out second priority is to make sure we can broaden our horizons. Now take my word for it, the NGP will bring in broader audiences, it will bring in very good casual games, and they can be played very easily, with no button controls. At the same time, you will be playing iconic PlayStation games, using either the back touch pad or the front touch pad. And it’s a redefining experience.”

Lets see how things will pan out when the NGP hopefully releases later this year.

Stay tuned to Gamingbolt for more updates.

Trinigy, a 3D game engine provider with offices in Germany, Austin, TX and Seoul, Korea, announced today that upcoming versions of the Vision Game Engine will fully support the next generation portable entertainment system (codename; NGP) from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE). The new version, which includes a host offeatures designed to accelerate the development of graphically rich, high-performance game titles for NGP, will be unveiled at the 2011 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA (Mar 2-4) at booth 1810.
Trinigy’s modular Vision Game Engine is available on and optimized for the development of highly immersive games and serious games running on most major platforms. Trinigy is now expanding the capabilities of its Vision Game Engine to enable game developers to more rapidly create high-performance, high-quality games for NGP.Key new features for NGP include an optimized character skinning system, full support for input features such as multi-touch, improved multi-threading, and an optimized renderer that takes full advantage of NGP’s GPU cores.
“SCE is known for producing powerful computer entertainment systems and handheld entertainment systems capable of delivering rich gaming experiences and eye-popping graphics,” said Dag Frommhold, managing director at Trinigy. “With support for NGP, the Vision Game Engine gives developers a flexible, full-featured solution for speeding the creation of graphically superior, high-performance casual and hard-core gamesfor portable entertainment systems.”
Key features designed to speed NGPdevelopment and enhance game and graphic quality include:

• Optimized character skinning system for NGP– allows for efficient rendering of detailed characters with very high polygon and bone counts.
• Full support for cross-platform and platform-specific texture formats– offers a straight forward workflow and easy porting of existing content, while providing high-loading performance and platform-specific content optimizations, where required.
• Multithreading system– takes full advantage of NGP’s CPU cores for animations, mesh deformation, particle simulation, physics, visibility determination, and more.
• Highly efficient rendering– Efficient rendering system minimizes CPU load.
• Optimized shader/shader constant handling– includes full cross-platform compatibility.
• Comprehensive support for NGP’s user interface–includes multi-touch as well as support for dual analog sticks.
• Fully featured graphics technology– includes normal/parallax maps, specular maps, dynamic lighting, post-processing effects and more.
The Vision Game Engine for NGP will be available for customers after GDC, and will be shown at GDC 2011 behind closed doors.

Respected gaming magazine Edge recently got a chance to try out Sony’s new handheld, currently titled NGP- we, and everyone else, like to call it PSP2.

Anyway, Edge praised the system a lot, saying that the system is slimmer and sexier than the PSP. They also said the analog sticks are the “best ever implemented in a portable device.” Not that their are many portable devices with analog sticks to name of, but still, it’s good to hear the praise.

They also said that the OLED screen more than makes up for the system’s large size. They also said the system’s super oval shape was “very comfortable”, “robust” and “high quality.”

“Based on our hands-on time with the device following the presentation in Tokyo, we can confirm that Sony’s ‘Next Generation Portable’ feels considerably larger than previous PSP models,” said the magazine.

“Despite the larger dimensions, the handheld console is actually thinner than a PSP,” it adds. “It’s hard to believe such power is contained in such a slim form factor, especially without giving off any heat.”

They went on gushing over the system, praising its dual thumbsticks the most. “The analogue sticks are the best ever implemented in a portable device, giving the feel of using a genuine DualShock controller, with all the granularity of input you’d expect.”

Stay tuned for more info.

killzone-ngp-1

Its not been too long since the PSP2/NGP was announced and it’s graphics are already rivaling the likes of flag ship PS3 games like Uncharted. Among the plethora of games announced, Killzone will also be launching on Sony’s latest handheld hardware.
So how does this latest installment compare with the upcoming Killzone 3 for the PlayStation 3. For this purpose we have compared the screens from both the games.
Obviously the Killzone PSP2/NGP image we have might not be representation of the final product, but it’s already looking pretty close to it’s console counterpart.
Click the image to see it in a pop up and use back-next button to navigate through them.

If you take a look at the PSP’s library of games you will see some impressive and big name franchises like Metal Gear Solid, God of War and Syphon Filter. But those were few and and far in between and generally speaking the PSP lacked the killer library of games that the PlayStation 2 was known for.  Things are already looking good for the NGP/PSP2 with support from Konami, Activision and many other well known publishers joining the band wagon. But the same thing happened when the PSP was launched. I do hope that Sony and the publishers will work on more games for the system and will give equal treatment to the NGP and the PlayStation 3 as far as games are concerned.

Proper Integration with the PS3

Do you guys remember the classic demonstration of Formula One running on the PS3 while the PSP was rendering the rear view of the car? In such a scenario the player can keep the PSP in front of him and check what is going behind the car. Unfortunately this feature did not make it to the final game. Then there were those cool videos of Lair being playable on the PSP, but the developers did not take full advantage of these features in any of the PS3/PSP games. With the PSP2 we will again have more connectivity options but will the developers churn out some interesting ideas? We will wait and watch.

Do Not Make the NGP a “Hardcore” Only Handheld

If you take a look at the PSP’s line up, majority of the games were targeted at the hardcore gamers.  Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t see myself playing a 20 hour long game while travelling.  This is where the DS was successful even though the games on it did not have mind boggling visuals.  I am not saying that the NGP should not have hardcore games on it, but keep the right balance. You got to remember that you can’t bring a console like experience on the GO!

Provide a simpler SDK to the Developers

When the PlayStation 3 was launched, it was praised for its power and for what it can for video games. But it was also criticized by many well known developers for being too complex and too confusing for games to be developed on. This meant that multiplatform games would often look better on the Xbox 360, though nowadays they look pretty even. I think NGP should have a simpler SDK so that the developers can bring out great looking and playable games from day one. This one is strictly Sony’s call on what extent they can go to educate the developers about the NGP‘s architecture and what you can actually do with it.

Sega West president Mike Hayes has stated that the company are confident in the success of Sony’s new handheld, the NGP (previously known as the PSP2.) Sega were one of the few developers to showcase their software running on the new handheld when it was unveiled at Sony’s Tokyo launch last week.

Yakuza 4 was shown running at full pelt on the NGP, supporting the notion that it was as powerful as the PS3. “We are extremely optimistic about the new device hence our upfront and early commitment,” Hayes said, but added that he had “no idea” what the price of the console will be.

The original PSP had a good start with sales but the success of the NDS, the failures of the UMD discs and extreme piracy soon ground the handheld’s commercial success to a halt. But Hayes has said that “I would disagree on the point that PSP failed.” For those of us that embraced the portable platform from the beginning we had a very successful and profitable run.”

Will the NGP fix the mistakes of its predecessor? Only time will tell so check back for more NGP news.

Thanks to CVG for the info.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata sits on the fence regarding the NGP vs 3DS handheld war, stating that the purchase is the customers decision. Nintendo’s 3D tech is certainly intriguing but, with Sony making more powerful hardware, Iwata wants the customer to choose which one they find more appealing.

Iwata stated that “(Sony are) trying to appeal to customers from a different direction than us. The customers will decide which is correct.” Will the 3DS beat the NGP like the original DS triumphed over the PSP? Only time will tell so check back for more news on the latest handhelds.

Thanks to CVG for the info.

Well, it’s been a crazy day for us all at the news front, with the entire PSP2/NGP news blowout, and since there’s so much news for you to go through, we decided we’d compile it all in one place and make stuff much easier for you.

PSP2/NGP Announcement, Uncharted Portable reveal

High resolution Uncharted PSP2 gameplay footage

PSP2- more details

Sony announces new game for PSP2- Little Deviants. Gameplay video provided.

Some third party supporters for NGP announced, Activision announced CoD

Full NGP specs revealed

First images of the NGP

Sony attempting to appeal to the casual audiences

Multiple models, 3G not standard, Wi-fi IS standard

We compare the PSP2 and PSP via a screenshot comparison

HD MGS4 PSP2 footage

Industry analysts predict PSP2’s price

Sony announces entire list of third party devs currently supporting the PSP2, lists over 80 devs

Kojima confirms the PSP2 to be as powerful as the PS3, promises a new announcement for the system this E3

Sony says the PSP2 will have an “affordable” price tag

PSP2 Games gameplay footage video blowout- Killzone, MGS, Resistance, Lost Planet, Yakuza

NGP’s battery life to be same as PSP 3000’s

PSP2 will not be $600, confirms Sony

Stay tuned to GamingBolt, we’ll have more PSP2 goodness for you soon. Till then, keep up with the NGP here.

Sony recently said they’ll try and keep the price of the PSP2 (NGP) affordable, and some execs said it’ll be $599.99.

Shu Yoshida, worldwide boss of SCE confirmed that that’s not true. “From the very beginning of the project – since 2008 – pricing was one of the considerations that we had,” he told Game Informer.

“Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value,” he added. “It’s not going to be $599.”

Okay, so $549.99, I’m guessing?

Well, Industry analysts don’t agree with me. They’re guessing somewhere between $249.99 to $299.99.

Check out all the latest PSP2 news here.