We will hopefully get some concrete information on the NGP's pricing. I am hoping Sony learned from their past pricing mistakes and launch the system at a reasonable price. I think $300-$350 would be a sweet spot for the system, without selling the system for too much of a loss. Speaking of prices, I also expect to see another price drop for the PS3, as well as Move, to make it more attractive to casual users in light of the Xbox 360's recent success in that demographic. The Xperia Play and the expansion of the Playstation brand onto tablets and other mobile devices may also be a focus of the event, but I question how much they will talk about those devices given that they might take attention away from their own dedicated gaming devices.
Sony's E3 conference takes place June 6 at 5PM PDT, an event that will surely focus on their new handheld NGP. Although I'm sure it won't be called NGP for long, as many rumors are suggesting it will be renamed the PS VITA. Sony will likely gloss over the recent hacking of PSN, instead choosing to focus on Move support in future core gamer oriented titles like Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Ninja Gaiden 3, as well as big first party titles like Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3. There have also been rumblings of a new entry in the God of War and Syphon Filter series, both of which I would expect to see sometime in 2012.
We will hopefully get some concrete information on the NGP's pricing. I am hoping Sony learned from their past pricing mistakes and launch the system at a reasonable price. I think $300-$350 would be a sweet spot for the system, without selling the system for too much of a loss. Speaking of prices, I also expect to see another price drop for the PS3, as well as Move, to make it more attractive to casual users in light of the Xbox 360's recent success in that demographic. The Xperia Play and the expansion of the Playstation brand onto tablets and other mobile devices may also be a focus of the event, but I question how much they will talk about those devices given that they might take attention away from their own dedicated gaming devices.
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The NGP (VISTA next week?) will not only play all of the PSP games on PSN, it will make them better. The new device will offer much needed dual analog support to a variety of games, as well as smooth out any rough graphical edges. The dual analog functionality was shown with Resistance: Retribution, but it said to be compatible with several other games as well. This would certainly help the Monster Hunter games, as well as the obvious choices like first and third person shooters. Look for more details on what the NGP offers existing PSP games at next week's e3. Now to convince Sony to get Lumines on PSN...
Sony is live streaming their entire 5 hour long e3 press conference in Playstation Home Monday night, even going as far to recreate their booth in the digital world. Be sure to log in June 6 at 8 p.m. ET to catch the show and wander around their virtual booth at 3 p.m. ET the next day. Doing so will unlock special Home content, which will probably include new trailers for the games announced during the conference.
Sony is notoriously bad at keeping secrets, whether it is new games, hardware or even their customers credit card numbers. Internet sleuths have discovered numerous references to VITA in the source code on Sony's own E3 2011 site, including two subdirectories labeled "Games and Media" and "Features." It looks like this will be the handhelds new name come e3. What do you think of it? It sounds too much like some sort of energy drink for my tastes, but maybe it will grow on me.
Though the internet group collectively known as Anonymous has expressed their intent to attack Sony's networks before, they are now claiming they are not behind the infiltration that caused Sony to take down PSN for the past few days. I was under the impression that it was no coincidence that PSN's networks were down, considering Anonymous' recent threats and the whole George Hotz situation. Since Anonymous is seemingly more of a collective hive mind than any true organized effort it is still possible that someoneinvolved with Anonymous on 4chan took it upon themselves to attack the network. Sony is currently investigating the situation. SCEA has announced that they are still producing the PSP Go in the United States, unlike the European and Japanese branches of the company. That means the price will probably stay the same until they halt production, at which point they will crash for a short period of time before becoming ridiculously expensive. Those in need of a PSP Go for their collection should keep a very close eye on the situation.
A week prior to the game's release on Xbox 360 and PS3, Ubisoft has revealed that Michael Jackson: The Experience has sold 3 million copies globally on the Wii, DS and PSP. The HD versions of the game will feature upgraded graphics, some new songs and full body tracking on Kinect. The game didn't play all that well before and given my prior experience with Kinect dancing games I can't say I am confident that the peripheral is going to help all that much. Maybe we should give Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt and believe that they somehow managed to pull off something on Dance Central's level, but chances are that isn't going to happen.
This morning Sony announced the successor to their Playstation Portable gaming system, more commonly referred to as the PSP. The new device, codenamed NGP, intends to bring us the next generation of portable gaming. It features a 5" OLED touch screen and graphical capabilities similar to that of their home console, Playstation 3. It also has a touch pad on the back of the handheld, allowing gamers to control their games without obstructing the beautiful screen. The device has a built in GPS unit, allowing gamers to interact with each other on the street using the new LiveArea and Near functionality. LiveArea allows you to see what other nearby NGP owners are up to and communicate with them like a social platform. Near will show you the most popular software in your area and allow you to link directly to the store and purchase anything that looks fun to you. Also expanding gameplay opportunities are the included 6 axis motion sensor and microphone.
Sony isn't a slouch on the software front either, offering a Uncharted demo to the press, as well as announcing new entries in several of their other popular franchises. There will be a new Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, and WipeOut coming out for the system, as well as third party greats like Metal Gear Solid and Call of Duty. While all of this sounds great, I am interested to see what Sony has learned from their last gaming handheld- if anything. This new patent indicates that there will be some sort of touchscreen on the PSP2, activated with two finger presses. It is rumored to be on the back of the system, an interesting choice that we probably won't understand until we have the unit in our hands. If Sony can keep it a secret that long count on seeing the PSP2 at E3.
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