NGP: the 10 questions nobody’s asking
Because videogames journalism is embarrassingly bad.
1. Two quad-core processors boasting PS3-esque power in something the size of a PSP? Given that a PS3 is about 30 times the size of a PSP and still needs a fan you could get a medium-sized helicopter off the ground with (and which makes about the same amount of noise) to keep it cool, how on Earth are they going to manage that without the thing melting in your hands after three minutes?
2. Come to that, if this thing can match the PS3, how come they haven't just shoved the same tech into an actual PS3(*) so that it won't deafen your pets any more?
3. We're told that the games will be sold online in the PS Store and in shops on special memory cards. But hang on. Once again, if we're talking games that are anywhere near PS3 standard in terms of visual quality and gameplay depth, we're going to be talking about several gigabytes a pop. (Heck, even a fair few PSP1 games came in well over 1GB, and the NGP quadruples the PSP's graphics resolution.)
The biggest SD card you can currently buy (outside of ultra-specialist, ultra-expensive suppliers) costs around £40 for 32GB, and that's still only probably going to be enough for what, eight or nine games? Buy any more and you're going to have to delete your existing ones, then re-download them (at several GB a time) if you want to play them again. Who wants that?
(Those are SD-card memory prices, of course. Sony have said that the memory-card format will be a brand-new proprietary one, and even now a 32GB Sony Memory Stick – a medium well over a decade old – comes in at more like £90 from the cheapest online stores.)
4. Shop-bought games will probably come on their own dedicated memory card. (So nice and small and easy to lose. Bonus for Sony!) But even 4GB SD cards are £6-7, which is a huge jump in cost of media compared to putting games on DVDs or Blu-Ray discs, and with a proprietary format it seems reasonable to bump that up considerably.
Now, obviously Sony won't be paying retail prices for cards, but the cost of manufacture for that much storage in a new format is still going to be very hefty. So given that the focus has so far been entirely on big console-type games with massive development budgets, how much is software going to cost if there's likely the best part of a tenner going just on the blank media? (And Sony are involved.) My blood runs cold just thinking about it.
5. Front touchscreen, rear touchpad, two analogue sticks, d-pad, eight gaming buttons – you just KNOW some awful, loathsome twatsack is already developing a game that uses ALL of those, don't you?
6. What's the point of having two cameras on a device with no phone functionality? (Okay, with 3G support it COULD use Skype and similar, but can you really picture yourself talking into something the size of a PSP? Remember how people mocked the much smaller N-Gage?)
And what sort of cameras are we talking here? Proper iPhone-style ones, or Fisher-Price DS ones? The absence of a flash seems to rule out any possibility of using them for any worthwhile sort of photography, and that's quite a bunch of extra cost and form-factor space to add to a device just so you can have your stupid grinning face on an avatar.
7. Hilariously, GI.biz have apparently already claimed that "the word on the street" is of a price in the range of £180-220. The 3DS costs more than that, and compared to the tech inside the NGP it's running on a wood-fired stove. Sony themselves were still trying to get £249 for the PSPGo last year, and have an unbroken 21st-century track record of gouging consumers on hardware price.
The company has claimed the unit will be "affordable", a term so subjective as to be meaningless, and has also said it wants to make a profit on hardware as well as software. (Uh-oh.) Their most telling comment so far, though, is that the price will be "appropriate for the handheld gaming space".
Let's remember – the "handheld gaming space" now includes the iPhone and the iPad, which fly off shelves at £500-600. And every other device you can buy in Currys today with a touchscreen the size of the NGP's calls itself a "tablet" and sits in broadly the same price bracket as the iPad. Hmm.
So since we're framing these things as questions, let's make it one: You don't REALLY think there's even the slimmest chance in the world of this thing coming out below £300, do you? (WoSblog's guessing £349 at a minimum, with standard games at £40 or even more.)
8. The NGP is the PSP only more so. Offhand I can't think of a single fundamental change between the new device and its predecessors, just a load of extras nailed on. It's bigger, more powerful, and still dedicated primarily to running home-console blockbuster-type games rather than ones designed for the mobile audience. Didn't the relative success of the DS against the PSP (against all predictions) teach Sony anything?
9. Does ANYONE know what's actually going on with the Android link-up? Will the NGP run Android games? Will Android machines run proprietary Android-based NGP games? (And if it's just PS1 games, how are Android devices like smartphones going to cope with emulating a machine with two analogue sticks, a d-pad and eight buttons?)
Is it both? Neither? Something different altogether? Nobody seems very clear. Are Sony going to let the Android Market, with its unfiltered bucketloads of free and super-cheap games, exist alongside the PS Store? Etc etc.
10. And don't Sony know that NGP stands for Neo Geo Pocket? Man, imagine the potential for hilarious misunderstandings and eBay scams.
Even notwithstanding that last one, this could get really messy.
(*) EDIT: Since the influx of educationally-subnormal children to this blog (thanks, N4G!), it seems I need to spell out that point 2 was intended as a facetious joke. Clearly you can't just put the NGP chipset into the PS3. The main reason for this is that it's absolutely plainly NOT as powerful as a PS3, despite what total idiots have been saying for the last few days.
I mean, seriously, that Uncharted demo footage people are wetting their trousers over? Really? It looks like a particularly boring jungle section from a mediocre PS2 Tomb Raider. Tsk.
Quite.
Even if everything works perfectly with pixie miracles, that number 8 isn't going to go away. I couldn't care less about this thing because I've got no interest in playing home-console games on a handheld.
Indeed, (8) summed it up: Sony never learn.
Good points.
If it had an Apple badge, the price could just be pulled out of a hat and it would sell. To compete with Nintendo's profit maker this will have to be subsidised though.
1. Realistically, the NGP can't be as powerful as a PS3, however, basing on raw numbers alone of the GPU, it's more or less around half the power of the RSX, while running with a little bit more than half the resolution.
2. What a nice way to show your ignorance, let's just change the hardware so all games become automatically incompatible unless we ask all the developers to port them to our new arch, hell yeah.
3. It's flash media, not SD. However, almost no games on the PS3 actually use more than 9.8 GB, most of them are around 6 GB, which can easily fit on a 8 GB card, man, even the 3DS supports card up to 8 GB…
4. You don't know what you're talking about, that's it (hey, the DS has used cards for… what 5 years, and know we're suddendly worried about it?), you also forgot to mention that everything will be available on the PSN.
5. They don't need to, they will just use whatever it fits their game.
6. Are the 3DS cameras sensless too? Since when the cameras can't be used as some kind of gaming control? What about video chat (in-game, or in-lobby)? Did you considered that? Also, Skype and similars are a big plus, also, they can't possibly be bad, and cameras sensores are know day dead cheap.
7. Do you seriously believe it will be priced to compete with smartphones? This is the gaming market, where companies actually don't rip off their customers and even sell them at loss (obviously expecting to recover that from games). Sony also stated that it will sell them at loss. The NGP will be either the same as the PSP's original price, or 300. Not one penny more.
8. Didn't half the conference was dedicated to PS Suite? Also, with touch controls, cameras, hard focus on PSN titles, etc, they're obviously going for both markets, going as far as follow them all the way to their android phones, where most devices don't even have physical buttons… You'll be seeing all kind of games on this, from Angry Birds and Nintendo DS like-games to PS3 like games. All the conference was about how they had covered every fucking spot.
Your questions answered.
*points to the shop prices which are about £220*
From what I've heard, retail units will cost about £175 (which is close to $250), so throw VAT on that and we hit £210.
The answer to (1) is lovely new chip tech of course. The same reason something the size of a baked bean inside an iPhone can crank out Epic Citadel.
1) Why ask this question? you know the answer. To give a nice analogy, when intel pushed the original pentium to 100 Mhz there were big stability issues due to overheating, with related problems trying to cool the thing down. The phone in my pocket has its CPU running 10 times raster than that without any cooling needed.
2) Dont be a silly
3+4) Very valid point- a typical game would surely weigh in at a minimum of 4Gb I reckon, which would put an unnecessary premium on every title sold. Maybe you could buy games on a disc, or download them on to your pc, and transfer them to internal memory on the NGP.
5) Are you criticising it because it has too many features?
6) Again, too many features?? The cost of these cameras is probably so cheap Sony must have thought "fuck it, why not, surely someone can think of doing something with them?"
7/8) The ipad and iphones may be flying off the shelf at £500-600 but I would not say they are being bought principally as mobile gaming devices. And you've mentioned the price of tablets in currys, but I notice you've left out the price of these devices from amazon. I think what Sony will need to prove is how this unit can offer a desirable handheld gaming experience which is completely impossible and unlike anything which can be achieved the iphone/ipad/3DS.
Fuck knows about the price, it honestly would not surprise me if it was anywhere between £230 and £380
Luis: you're not great at reading, are you?
I imagine power-wise and capacity wise it means "As powerful as a PS3, relative to the resolution of the screen".
That's absolutely not what they've been saying.
"a typical game would surely weigh in at a minimum of 4Gb I reckon, which would put an unnecessary premium on every title sold. Maybe you could buy games on a disc, or download them on to your pc, and transfer them to internal memory on the NGP."
Internal memory? You reckon this thing's going to have 128GB of onboard Flash drive too? I revise my predicted price to £450+ if so…
Revtsu: My bad, you did mention the games were going to be available at the PSN Store, What else did I miss?
Actually, they said: "It's close to PS3 graphics" They never said anything about raw power, and, it's visually (given the size and the resolution of the screen) close the PS3.
According to the same source that nailed everything, it's going to be 16 GB (there may be other options, but who knows). And for the record, you can actually store your current PSP games on your PC. I highly doubt this is going to change. Also, you aren't factoring the loss in resolution, which also means a loss in MB.
Stupid blogger is stupid and closed-minded.
I am buying the 3DS mainly because it comes out first, but as soon as this bastard comes out, I'm buying it too, no matter what anyone else says. Your dumb questions are easily refutable, and you're nothing but a complete idiot. End of discussion.
Man! That well-reasoned and carefully-thought-out counter-argument sure showed ME!
"And for the record, you can actually store your current PSP games on your PC."
Save games, yes. The games themselves, I'm pretty darned sure you can't, unless you install custom firmware. Correct me if I'm wrong – my PSP never gets used these days, because I can never be arsed charging it for two hours first.
Nice one. Pretty much sums up my thoughts too.
@Alex – exactly.
Yep, the games themselves, I've doing with Media Go (It's a backup file, but it's the same in practice), you can even buy and access the PSN Store from your PC using it.
"Yep, the games themselves, I've doing with Media Go (It's a backup file, but it's the same in practice)"
What does "the same in practice" mean? Can you back up your PSP games without custom firmware installed, or not?
Yes, you can, Media Go mades a backup, then you can send it back to PSP using it (you can't just simply drag on drop it to MS card, or from MS to PC, that's what I meant).
Regarding point 5, don't forget the cameras, motion sensors and GPS.
I can't wait to see what the Rayman Raving Rabbids team does with this thing!
Ick. It was bad enough hearing how Nintendo are hyping up Steel Divers as a 3DS launch title, on the grounds that to use the periscope you have to stand up and swivel around on the fucking spot…
It's not as powerful as a PS3. It's at most 3 times more powerful than an iPad with later generation versions of the same sort of chips.
So the questions don't really make sense.
What people should be asking is why anyone thinks it's as powerful as a PS3.
Aren't the games you buy in shops on ROM as opposed to flash? They're a shed load cheaper to make
"a typical game would surely weigh in at a minimum of 4Gb I reckon, which would put an unnecessary premium on every title sold. Maybe you could buy games on a disc, or download them on to your pc, and transfer them to internal memory on the NGP."
Internal memory? You reckon this thing's going to have 128GB of onboard Flash drive too? I revise my predicted price to £450+ if so…
No no no, obviously not 128GB or some such silly amount- you're being a silly again. I was thinking enough to store two or three at a time. Then you'd have to fanny around on the computer again swapping them about. Fuck I dont know I'm only spectulating, God knows what the solution will be, but your right on this point- unless Sony are growing memory chips on trees, this could be thorny issue.
“Aren’t the games you buy in shops on ROM as opposed to flash? They’re a shed load cheaper to make”
According to Eurogamer:
"Presumably NGP will do a lot of business with PlayStation Store, but it also uses what's called a "new game medium", what Sony calls a small flash memory based card dedicated for NGP software titles.
The card, which takes advantage of the flash memory feature, can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card."
So no – they're on memory cards, not ROMs.
Maybe the game cartridges are like the DS ones – the actual game on ROM but with a massive wodge of flash memory for updates and stuff instead of just a few k.
It would be crazy for Sony to insist on flogging people a brand new, potentially reusable flash card with every game. Not that I'd put it past them.
Also, if the cards are completely rewritable, it's an invitation to piracy – buy one game and you've got a card big enough to store any other game you download.
The Eurogamer quote sounds like it could fit the DS rom+flash system anyway.
"It would be crazy for Sony to insist on flogging people a brand new, potentially reusable flash card with every game."
That's exactly what happened with the N-Gage, which sounds by far the closest model to what Sony are proposing. I don't understand the "piracy" thing – if you want to pirate games, buying a blank memory card isn't the obstacle. Getting one by buying and wiping a game (though obviously they’d be non-writeable by default) is an incredibly inefficient and expensive way of going about it.
Yeah I'm reading that as a hybrid ROM / flash card too. Lots of cheap ROM plus a bit of flash for updates / DLC etc.
Sony are stupid but not quite stupid enough to distribute their software on a medium which would make the games cost a ton upwards
I mentioned piracy because if the cards are some proprietary high-capacity format then it might be difficult / expensive to get hold of blank ones.
If the games come on rewritable media, that's one problem solved for anyone who doesn't want to pay for more than one game.
Mother of jesus, my commet makes no sense. Ignore my idiocy, I was talking about 3DS prices. Protip: Don't try and write comments before your brain wakes up
Um the reason no1 is asking is because we all already dismissed it as PR bullshit and the ps3 fan isn’t nearly that loud you are obviously biased against Sony
Man alive, is there some kind of pro-Sony email list mobilisation going on here? “Quick! A blogger has asked pertinent questions about a Sony product that cast it in a bad light! TO THE MESSAGE BOARDS!!”
They seem perfectly sensible questions to me. Though if they turn out to be the rumored £220, I’d still want one. I like me a bit of shiny.
"This is the gaming market, where companies actually don't rip off their customers"
Are you being sarcastic? Or are you genuinely this naive?
Naive? Why? They certainly make a big profit with games (and this doesn't even apply to all games), but the consoles themselves aren't a rip off, except, maybe, the Wii and the Nintendo DS.
Stuart, CPUs are measured by more than just the clock rate and number of cores in the same way that cars are measured by more than just engine horsepower and the number of cylinders. A light, fast sports car such as a Porsche 911 accelerates faster and has a higher top speed than many cars with more cylinders and more horsepower than consume more gas.
In your first two questions you both betray an large ignorance of CPU architecture and appear to be unaware that you're comparing hardware designs that are several major generations apart. Don't take that as an insult, just as an indication of why your first two questions attack what is essentially a straw man, exposing a problem that doesn't in fact exist. (That said, I'll agree that Sony's statement that the NGP is "as powerful as" a PS3 is a dodgy one.)
I'm not sure what your issue with flash memory for retail sales is. Using that rather than an optical drive as in the PSP certainly reduces costs on the console itself (not to mention increasing reliability), and if the cost of a 4-12GB memory card (that's the size range of typical PS3 games) is not already below that of pressing a UMD, it will be soon. There's just too huge a volume difference in the two markets.
I'm not sure where you're getting your prices on SD cards; 4GB cards in Japan retail for less than 3 pounds on a regular basis. Possibly you've been looking at high-markup high-street stores rather than discount electronics retailers.
And finally, I've been trying to avoid engaging in sarcasm here, but I can't resist: your complaint that the small size of flash memory cards makes them easy to lose probably explains their total failure in the consumer camera market, right?
And the PSP in all its other forms, reminder that the same machine but with fewer features cost 25% more in 2010 than in 2005.
I don't have a "problem" with using flash memory cards whatsoever. It seems perfectly sensible to me – the comment about losing them was a throwaway brackets joke. However, it does seem that they'll be the smallest videogame media ever to exist, and the difference between using them in a games machine and a camera is that in a camera you're not supposed to be swapping them in and out every 10 minutes. In fact, once I put a memory card in my camera that tends to be it forever.
I had similar doubts about the claims the PSP would be as powerful as a PS2, which were baiscally wrong. But, still, PS3 level still sounds a bit hard to believe.
(Although checking details, about 4.5 years between PS2 and PSP, and the PS3 was released about that long ago).
I'm glad it has an extra analogue stick… I'd hoped to use my PSP to play PS2 games I hadn't got round to, but the one analogue stick leading to camera problems screwed that up.
But what is up with that rear touchpad? Weird. And why have they gone for a "everything and the kitchen sink approach", it smacks of desperation a bit.
article from some retarded SONY hater.
Worst article of NGP so far, worse than David Houghton articles in Gamesradar of NGP.
1. Looks like Sony's engineers found a way, just like with most new technology…
2. It doesn't. It's power to produce graphics is comparable to the PS3.
3. See answer to #1…
4. At worst the same price as PS3 games. At best the same price of PSP games. Depending on the game, the price will of course vary. Some cheaper, some standard retail price.
5. They know. They're counting on it.
6. The same reason as DSi/3DS and the PSP Go Cam. You can play games with yourself in them. Also video chat.
7. I don't know about gouging customers, Sony has sold the PS1, PS2 and PS3 at an initial loss. Nintendo has always sold for profit. Apple rapes customers on price everyday. PSP was sold for profit. I expect NGP will also be sold for profit. $300-350 range seems feasible when you have multiple SKUs. 3G contractors may even subsidize the cost simlar to phones if it plays out that way.
8. All those 'extras nailed in' are the fundamental changes that you brushed aside, nice try… The NGP now opens up more gameplay experiences than even the 3DS. The touch screen guarantees all those mini games made for iPhone etc will be on the system. The PlayStation Suite will also bring in smaller developers leveraging their games across Android, PSP, PS3 and NGP. NGP has the best of both worlds. Besides, you want them to launch a system without using top tier franchises everybody knows about? Are you nuts? Good thing you aren't running things as the only place you'd run them is into the ground…
9. You certainly aren't aware about anything… The answer is yes, NGP can run games built for Android through PS Suite. Only certain certified phones running the latest Android OS and with proper hardware can play them, including ones that mimic the PSOne control buttons on their touchscreen.
10. Didn't you know that nobody's asking these questions because they're silly questions, most of which have already been answered or that you can figure out by rubbing two brain cells together?
Here's a question nobody seems to have asked… If I'm playing a PSP game on my NGP can someone else with a PSP and the same game play with me via ad-hoc/wi-fi? Will we see any sort of interaction between the original PSP and NGP in these ways regarding games built for both platforms such as what's in PS Suite? These are questions that ought to be asked. Not anything on your silly list.
This article is a complete mess.
Nobody is asking these questions because half of them arnt even questions, its just your own ill informed completely naive pre-conceptions of what you think sony has overlooked, topped off with some pathetic attempt at synical humour.
Did you stop to think that maybe sony wanted to deliver a portable console experience while the addition of android and a touch screen would expand the current hardcore game library to cater for the more casual type games, criticising it for 'being primerily built for console style games' is idiotic since sony set out from the start to deliver a portable playstation experience..
pray tell, whats casual about the ps3 and based on that how should that translate to a portable playstation system…
Welcome N4G readers! Sorry to everyone else for the drop in average IQ.
I did asked myself the first question, but the NGP doesnt have 2 quad cores, only 1.
Also tried to explain to people saying"OMG PS3 GRAPHICSSSS" that it cant be possible due to the hardware it has, i hate nintendo and microsoft, so dont think i'm a fanboy.
response? no?
I guess it was quite absurd to expect any valid reply from the writer of this.. great way to nuture your community RevStu keep up the good work.
Why do you even bother asking all of these stupid questions? What with the melting in your hands after three minutes… Here's a simple answer, and you don't have to ask how,why,what because it just DIDN'T HAPPEN! You can keep telling Sony to make the machine to look likely as "portable" in term, and forget the console games, it still will not change for the matter that when you own a PSP. That system looks cooler, more integrating, get you into hardcore gaming and being more competitive than DS or Iphone gaming. Notice, I am here to game, not play ladder snakes or paper toss! *There are more kids into handheld gaming because they're alot cheaper and doesn't require setup. Which is also part of the reason as to why DS sold more and with games like Mario and the undying Pokemon franchise. That is a fact. If Sony is to drift its direction to where DS is heading, who is there to provide us with the more hardcore handheld gaming? Nintendo?! Microsoft?! SEGA?! APPLE?! When Sony is heading in this direction, you complain.. When Sony is heading into another direction where DS and Iphone heading, you will still complain… So why…. BOTHER!
@jackammo
nurture his community? Think he got a rather bad taste of doing things.. He is not making a community here, he is making a joke out of himself here. Don't ever post a BLOG of opinions and treat it like a news. Your making yourself look pathetic. You want to write a blog then just write it somewhere in the blog section.
"response? no?
I guess it was quite absurd to expect any valid reply from the writer of this.. great way to nuture your community RevStu keep up the good work."
Well, quite aside from the fact that you waited all of two hours, you're not my community. And judging by your complete inability to grasp the point of the feature, I'm fine with that.
What a stupid article. All those points arent even questions. Go back to school and learn something you dumb retard.
@the1
Actually very few are questions.
Stop posting on N4G, then. Pretty simple way to avoid N4G readers.
Er, I didn't, and nor did I know anyone else was going to post a link to it there. I never go anywhere near N4G, because I don’t especially want a bunch of 15-year-old dimwits hatebombing my nice grown-up blog for intelligent peple.
i never had a portable system, not even a gameboy. i've had a megadrive, ps1, xbox, xbox360(rest in hell your piece of shit) and the ps3, since day one.
i think the new psp will be my first portable console. and i'm happy to read its features, looks like it gonna handle big games with big graphics.
i bet we will be able to make video chat using wifi, and/while playing with people from all over the world.
they could use some special formated SdXC cards, and have a factory just for those cards, and be able to sell them for not that expensive.
using android means the console will be able to run all the apps available on android market. just like a phone do.
if this happen, it will be HUGE. just imagine reading some rss, then surfing with webkit, downloading some android apps, run them.
then you update some facebook or twitter stuff, jump to psn and download a demo. while it's downloading, you launch a psp2 game and play it. you pause the game, you read your emails. you go back to your game.
that would be huge. Thanks Sony.
thanks for always trying to give us excellent stuff, and not use old hardware
See, I work in IT, like a good gadget and am not averse to a bit of tech speak. But the world has moved on, and I'm happy – seeing how easily someone who has never used one can pick up an Ithing and get to grips with it is a joy, and why *that* kind of user interface is taking over. The PSP looks over-engineered without any clear idea of what those extra bells and whistles are for. Because I'm over 8 I don't hate Sony or any other company, I just can't find any enthusiasm for a device that has nothing to pull me away from the Ipod (and a pile of games on it of which I've only scratched the surface because they're so in depth).
This article/rant whatever it is, is idiotic
I disagree with number 8. Why are they going to make a device to play cell phone games? thats why we have cellular phones.
Not to mention playstation mini's are perfect for bite size games to play. best fo both worlds…
" Given that a PS3 is about 30 times the size of a PSP and still needs a fan you could get a medium-sized helicopter off the ground with (and which makes about the same amount of noise), how on Earth are they going to manage that without the thing melting in your hands after three minutes?
2. Come to that, if this thing's got as much power as the PS3, how come they haven't just shoved the same tech into an actual PS3 so that it won't deafen your pets any more?"
First of all, I don't even believe you have a Ps3. If you did, you would not write ignorant ,untrue and obviously made up things about the Ps3 fan. My Sega Genesis makes more noise than my Ps3. I MIGHT have taken your rant list a little more seriously if you didn't start out with obvious bullcrap. And about the pets?….REALLY? REALLY?
I totally agree with those saying the writer doesn t know sh**t about cpu and electronic hardware in general. I read the first question with a smile on my face because this article is supposed to show how ignorant game journalists are and the writer is clearly one of the less knowing i have ever seen.lol I suggest you learn what you are talking about before going any further in your gaming journalism venture.
The PS3 is so freaking quiet, are you sure you were not thinking of the 360?
I don't see how the whole powerful as ps3 is such a big deal when you are working with a screen that small it's alot easier to produce good graphics for example play a ps1 game on psp then on ps3 it's ok on psp but looks like crap on ps3 plus I think all the videos on the net shows ps3 quality on the npg so nobody can't say it can't do these things when there is video that show it can it just make you look dumb I think you should have done a lil more research before putting this on the net I don't usally write comments but I think your just kinda telling people stuff with a slant ppl read these type of articles to help them in getting info before they buy and you are basicly not telling the whole truth.
well atleast n4g has delivered news to others that this is the biggest peice of shit blog ever written, and yes you're right im not your community as of now, i enjoy ipod gaming and do tend to read some of your 'features' but after this complete crap im steering clear.
good riddens.
" I read the first question with a smile on my face because this article is supposed to show how ignorant game journalists are and the writer is clearly one of the less knowing i have ever seen.lol I suggest you learn what you are talking about before going any further in your gaming journalism venture."
I suggest you learn to accurately count how many quad-core processors are in the NGP, dear.
are you high?so you'd rather have big ass UMDs than memory cards?
LAME
This is the most retarded news I've seen in a long time.
Absolutely full of stupid comments from an author who doesn't understand anything about the N4G or technology in general apparently.
lol, this dirty unwashed limey is RAGING. LOL, so bitter over a handheld gaming console.
well, I haven't read the whole article, but #10 is win
This article isn’t ten good questions to ask about the NGP. Heck, some of the questions are rhetorical, or aren’t even questions. This is just an article trying to bash it or destroy its hype.
are you a moron? I do not think you know the difference between a ps3 and a xbox360. Ps3s are the quite ones I have never heard a loud one but xbox360 sounds like a fucking jet engine taking off. But I guess that is the kind of journalism we can expect from you.
this guys a real fanboy your worried about all these things like you own sony stock. sony didn’t become the mogul they are bye making stupid decisions.and if any of the shit your saying is true they fail and lose money not you.just hope it doesn’t get hacked thats what stopped more really good games being made for psp.
LOL this is the biggest bull crap i've ever seen…
this is not journalism..it's a 10 years old kid that found some time to talk about something he doesnt like…
should be: "10 troll questions that people who likes and know something about gaming industry didn't ever ask…cus they are silly"
"I suggest you learn to accurately count how many quad-core processors are in the NGP, dear."
LOL Nice answer from a dumb sh**t trying to justify himself for is complete lack of knowledge. Nobody but him asked these questions because nobody else was stupid enough to ask them. And obviously everybody pointing this fact is definately a 12 years old forum troll. LOL
confusion all over the place, the whole article is false….
you're really an idiot who has no idea what's he's talking about
and BTY you should have your PS3 cleaned, I have 2 PS3s in my house, one slim, one fat, and my friends have Ps3s too, and NONE of them make anyhting even close to the noise you described
also it seems like you need some glases if you think that the NGP Uncharted demo could run a on PS2, but most likely you don't think that, you're just an idiot
We haven't seen the uncharted demo in HD, outside of camera footage so comparing it to a ps2 tomb raider may be a little too premature. Also, SD cards usually sell for a fair margin, that said, I don't see developers using anything larger that 10gb card for games, as large as the 360 disk, early on, bigger games later on as costs come down. Next, android devices will only get ports if the controls work well with the touchscreen, I doubt we'll see games with a complex control scheme, or require all the buttons and triggers.
Cheers,
In think some of your points are not well thought out,rather then ask questions, all you do is seem to bash.
i mean NGP is not literally as strong as a PS3 it just can output graphics close to ps3 standards cause it doesn't have to output it on a high resolutions.
If there will be skype then a front and back camera will be perfect, plus you don't hold a PSP up to you ear like an engage it has mics or u can use a hedsets .
this is the stupidest post ever. the author obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. probably a teen trying to get famous at age what? 13?
My PS3 isnt loud. I cant even hear it. Im not sure if maybe you have a launch one?
Also the fact that you don t realise at all how inept you are is quite funny and pathetic at the same time. A blog for intelligent people? LOL Intelligent people stay away from subjet they don t know and especially don t write about it. You are a real joke and you can t even see it. How can you defend your lack of knowledge. I mean, can t you just admit it? And MAYBE earn some respect and keep the little dignity you may have left. Typical looser. If you weren t coky as fu** i wouldn t say anything but truth is you ain t worth sh** almost all the bad comments you just received were perfectly deserved, be a man and quit writing about gaming AND tech or just quit writng your style isn t very good anyways. While it is true that a lot of people like to flame writers for not apparent reason, i can t assure you this is NOT the case here. Youe deserve it all. Congratulations
First if of all, don’t forget that the NGP has a touch screen, leaving an opening for more casual “MOBILE” games for the system.
Second of all, they added dual analod sticks (which I know sounds normal, and very new, but was a deal breaker for the PSP1 games) Can you imagine playing and FPS with only one analog stick?
Adding a touchscreen is SOOOO significant. It’s means no anoying typing, better use of the UI, more options for casual games (That you are right that broke the PSP1 market by the DS).
I actually think that Sony DID listen to the community about the problems with the PSP1 because they are trying to get better in this handheld market.
@DJ
Speaking of morons (i.e. you), you should know better than to propagate lies like that. I own the new Slim XBOX 360 and the CECH-2101A Slim PS3. The PS3 is easily louder than the 360.
Stop comparing the release 360 to the most recently released PS3. Makes you look even more like the 'tard that you appear to be.
Repeat after me:
1. Gran Turismo 5 will drive sales (no, it didn't since the 360 sold 2.5 million consoles to the PS3's lesser 1.2 million)
2. Gran Turismo 5 is awesome (so long as you don't want realistic car damage before level 40 and only on 200 of the 1000 cars, sure)
The new XBOX 360 Slim and Kinect are spanking Sony so hard that I can barely hear my movie over the screams of PS3 fanboys.
What a wonderful time to be an Xbot!
@Louis
Seriously, give it a rest. I am sorry that your beloved PS3 is in last place in the console wars. Sorry that it only sold 1.2 million in Dec 2010 compared to the 2.5 million for the 360 (NPD numbers do not lie). Sorry too that the PSN Plus was really just a way for Sony to shake you down for more money, yet claim their pathetic online is free. Dog shit is free too, but that doesn't mean it is a tasty substitute for Steak.
Logoff here and go play your effeminate JRPG. Leave the men to play their games, you go play at the kids table.
RevStu, regardless of the content of your article, you have proved yourself ignorant and childish by responding to people's thoughtful arguments with defensive sarcasm and insults.
I am sure they will be coming my way too but don't worry, I won't be coming back here again. Had you been more responsible with your responses and actually engaged your fellow gamers in good-natured debate rather than resorting to pettiness, than you would have shown that your opinions were worthy of respect.
And before you note any commenters who slung insults or sarcasm at you, remember: They are random internet commenters. You are the runner of this site. Be the bigger man.
maybe you are asking too many questions too early.
Despite having way too much negativity in there you do raise some good points.
A new (yet another) proprietary Sony storage format scares the hell out of me. Sony have a fairly poor record on portable devices.
Their phones have never been great, Sony gave up on PSP and PSP-Go was a scandalous joke.
I also have concern on pricing for both the device and game pricing. Sony continue to foul up on the pricing digital and physical games. PSN store games continue to be more expensive that disc versions.
Finally PS3 is now very strong but on launch really struggled against Wii and 360. This was in no small part because Sony were thick headed on pricing and treating the customers right. I have no doubt they will repeat this issues with NGP given their handling of PSPgo.
Haven't Sony already confirmed that the NGP will DEFINITELY not be $599/above?
Plus, MOST analysts have predicted in the £200-£300 range as the price for this product, and I tend to trust MOST analysts (Especially excluding Michael Pachter, he has the absolutely WORST predictions in the world!)
They have not, so far as I’ve seen, given any specific indications on price at all, and it would be very weird if they did at this stage.
I will happily take any bet from anyone who thinks it’ll be under £300.
All will be answered in time u iphone lover (their camera is shit btw)! The ONLY thing that matters…… are the games. If they are top quality, and easy to get access to, the NGP will work (provided its not as expensive as the PS3 itself.).
I absolutely guarantee you the NGP will launch at a price higher than the current price of the PS3.
THIS ARTICAL WAS WROTE JUST TO SPREAD NEGATIVITY ABOUT SONY AND NGP! WHAT A BUNCH OF FAN BOY NON SENSE. YOU MUST WANT MICRO$OFT AS A ADVERTISER ON YOUR WEB SITE. DON'T WORRY NG4 WON'T COME BACK AFTER READING THIS HEAP OF CRAP!
FURTHERMORE; N4G IS WORTHY RESOURCE THAT IS FULL OF RICH AND INFORMATIVE ARTICALS REGARDING GAMING. INFACT WITHOUT N4G YOUR "OPINION"/ BLOG WOULD HAVE A LOT LESS HITS. YES WE RUN IN PACKS, AND YES WE ARE ALWAYS ON THE MOVE FROM SITE TO SITE GATHERING INFORMATION WE CRAVE. IT'S OUR DECESSION TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT THE INFORMATION IS FALLACE, BASED ON OUR RESEARCH, RESOUCES AN PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF GAMING. BECAUSE OF THIS, WE (N4G READERS) ARE FAR MORE EDUCATED ABOUT GAMING THAN THE AVERAGE. YOU AND/OR YOUR HANDFULL OF FELLOW BLOGGERS HAVE NO RIGHT TO QUESTION OUR IQ BASED ON; N4G BEING OUR HOME BASE. I SUGGEST THAT NEXT TIME WE VISIT, (THAT IS, IF THERE IS A NEXT TIME), YOU WELCOME US.
Well, I stand corrected. I shall be sure to come to you next time I need some prior knowledge of gaming.
Christ, I can almost feel the stupid seeping in through my eyes.
Contrary to GameHero's difficult-to-read argument, I think that if this lot are a representative sample, then people have every right to question someone's IQ based on N4G being their home base. In fact, I'd be in favour of a law requiring anyone from N4G who ventured out in public wear a sign around their neck reading "WARNING: N4G LACKWIT", whilst ringing a bell and shouting "Buuuuuuuuuuuh, u coky, u fallace, u articals is shit, me none gots clever!" to warn any unsuspecting passers-by of the impending avalanche of dim.
@ Soh-Knee
LoL I am 360 Fanboy just like you. As a matter of fact i also own a PS3 but i only use it to collect dust, next time if you want to attack me try finding something true at least.
Your only answer is blocking my IP? Wow you have absolutely no dignity…You should kill yourself…
Er, nobody has blocked anyone’s IP. Why would you think that, since you've clearly just had another post published?
Because i obviously use an IP swintching software, funny every time i switch it i can post again.
Reading some of the comments here reminds me of a Fun Boy Three song…
"YOU AND/OR YOUR HANDFULL OF FELLOW BLOGGERS HAVE NO RIGHT TO QUESTION OUR IQ BASED ON; N4G BEING OUR HOME BASE."
Possibly. But we have every right to question the IQ of people who self-evidently lack even the most basic knowledge of spelling and grammar, whose sole response to things they don't agree with and/or understand is some shrieked variant of "UR AN MORON CUZ I SAYS SO LOL!!!", and who appear determined to jam themselves up the metaphorical bum of a company that couldn't care less whether they live or die (something equally true of Apple, Nintendo and Microsoft, before some bawling nit starts banging on about me being "Anti-Sony" or some such drivel).
Still, if nothing else, this cascade of idiocy should serve as a sobering lesson to any casual observers about what can happen if you don't pay attention at school.
“Reading some of the comments here reminds me of a Fun Boy Three song…”
Is it “The Tunnel Of Love”?
PS Nice work
Can open, worms everywhere.
I'm lost. Does PSP2 suck or not?
Regardless of that, I'm only getting one if it:
a) costs less than £150.
b) doesn't have some stupid proprietary storage format
c) has some games I actually want to play.
d) can play all the video and audio formats from my collection of films and albums.
e) has a battery life of at least 10 hours.
f) lets me write and run my own software on the platform.
g) is backwards compatible with PSP titles (via free download – I don't want another stupid UMD drive to enable me to play my existing PSP games).
h) isn't going to be borked by unnecessary (and futile) firmware updates.
If not, I'm sticking with Android as the platform of the future.
a) No way
b) Well, UMD's gone so you could be on a winner.
c) I'm sure there'll be a few
d) I'd say so
e) No chance
f) Unlikely
g) I would say yes for download titles but your UMDs are beer mats.
h) Firmware updates sometimes add good things.
Android rules! Even if it's not as open as they'd have you think!
"Because i obviously use an IP swintching software, funny every time i switch it i can post again."
Absolutely nobody's IP has been banned or blocked in any way. I don't even know how you block an IP in WordPress, or if it's possible at all. I can only assume Akismet took exception to something in one of your posts.
@Irish Al
So probably not my cup of tea then. It'll be interesting to see what Sony actually do deliver though. Despite Stu's pro Apple stance it just might deliver something the iThing can't.
Stu's pro apple stsnce? you might be interested in earlier posts to this blog by the referend containing the words "apple die" preceded by a number of words i won't repeat. He does like iOs type gaming a lot (as do I), but would switch in an instant if it would saving from the monster that is iTunes..
My favourite comment came from "evilmonkey501":
"First of all, I don't even believe you have a Ps3. If you did, you would not write ignorant ,untrue and obviously made up things about the Ps3 fan. My Sega Genesis makes more noise than my Ps3. I MIGHT have taken your rant list a little more seriously if you didn't start out with obvious bullcrap. And about the pets?….REALLY? REALLY?"
Yeah, Stu—did your PS3 really deafen your pets? REALLY?
Have you ever seen a blog or website run the way you run this one?
What a cunt. Seriously you have no idea how to interact with your community.
I think it’s time to retire grandpa.
Welcome our slowest reader! In every sense.
It's amazing how loud a small number of people on the internet can really be. It's also equally amazing how passionate and devoted to a brand that a 'fanboy' can be to the point where they rant the most inane and childish comments. Sadly, a lot of them aren't even children.
I appreciate your thoughts on NGP, RevStu. You brought up some interesting points and a couple of them echo my own.
The largest problem with NGP is Sony itself. I just don't think they understand what gamers want any longer. Dunno if this is because of Kaz or if it is a result of key 'playstation' folks no longer employed at Sony. They've never understood what developers wanted. I've been reading about NGP and how devs seem generally pleased with the SDK but look how long it has taken to get to this point. PS2 and PS3 (and even PSP to some degree) all featured relatively foreign and unproven hardware which lacked proper developer friendly tools. I read somebody praising how PS2/PS3 hardware has 'innovated' the industry and resulted in multi-core and GPGPU but lets get one thing straight – PS2/PS3 had absolutely nothing to do with that. Let's also be fair, NGP uses the same smart phone tech that devs have been using for years. Of course it's easy to develop for – they're already going to be familiar with it!
Kevin Butler aside, their marketing is terrible. That whiny Marcus is not helping them sell any PSPs. Their box art for consoles and peripherals is hideous, it looks like generic electronic box art. I guess they use the same people who design their TV/Blu-Ray player boxes or something. I bought the Move bundle with Sports Champions and even the game had horrible box art. I couldn't believe how boring and un-party like Sports Champions really was. Sony mentions on the box that the Move controller is the most precise motion control but they forgot to mention it is too precise. That isn't a good thing btw unless you are a robot. Luckily Best Buy took it back because it was a peripheral and not a game.
You can clearly see just how disconnected with gamers they have become and have no idea what they are doing just by the amount of features they're including in NGP for no good reason. Didn't they learn their lesson from PS3? They stripped out some of that extra crap from later models to keep costs down. Does a gaming console really need 3G? I guess I can see it for online gaming, but downloading a PSP-sized game would kill my monthly bandwidth. I mentioned this on another forum and somebody said that it could be free like the kindle. Are people that stupid to realize there is a difference between a 900mb game and a 900kb book?
Sorry for making this tl;dr. Basically question #8 is the most important argument against the success of NGP. It's just a more powerful PSP and nothing more. It's design is even a step backwards (and quite ugly). There is nothing revolutionary about it to differentiate it from smart phones or 3DS. Only a fanboy would argue otherwise and say something like "it's got another analog stick and a touch-sensitive back". See, nobody except people that would say such a thing care about that. Some people seem to be excited about it's smartphone features moreso than its gaming ability. That's insane! Go buy an ipod touch, available right now. The market has changed since PSP came out. Not only that, but one could also make the argument that PSP was not a success if you look at the pitiful software sales.
I thought of a few more things – I read this on another forum, but seriously go to vgchartz or look up 'best selling games' on wikipedia. The top 10 best-selling PSP games combined (including the Monster Hunters) are still a few million shy of the DS's top selling game New Super Mario Bros. That is just one game. 65+ PSPs sold didn't exactly translate to software (most likely due to piracy) which is why the 'more of the same' NGP is puzzling.
What is also puzzling is the near simultaneous announcement of the android thing and the xperia play. What the heck are they doing? The last hardware company that had too much crap out at once quit the hardware biz (Sega).
There is an interesting discussion over at beyond3d forums regarding the device's power. There is no doubt it's powerful for a portable device, but Sony is telling a lie by saying it's anywhere near that of a PS3. This is a fact – It is far closer in power to 3DS than it is PS3. Heck, it's even closer to the original PSP than it is PS3. It has 4x the number of pixels as the PSP so imagine each core on the CPU and GPU controlling 1/4 of the screen. Actually, you don't have to imagine it. There is a device on the market right now like that – the iphone 3GS. It's hardware is similar to one core of what is in NGP and it's resolution is similar to 1/4 of the NGP's screen. Even with the OS overhead, there is no way each of those cores will scale to 100% so it is a pretty valid comparison. Take a game like infinity blade on 3GS and imagine it in the NGP's resoltion. You can kind of already do that with the iphone 4, although it basically has the same hardware as 3GS with 4x the resolution (so the game actually runs slower on iphone 4). That is what NGP games will look like. Is the iphone 3GS really much better than a vanilla PSP? Seriously, NGP is a higher resolution PSP with programmable shaders. On PS3 you can draw games at a sub-HD framebuffer to improve their looks. But we sit several feet away from our TVs. I just don't see developers making NGP games lower than native resolution, it would just look stupid. That sub-HD framebuffer is another problem this thing would have with straight-up PS3 ports because they run at a resolution comparable to NGP! The Wipeout and MGS4 demos might've used the same art assets but they are both 1080p games on the console.
One last thing, considering the PSP emulator on PS3 (for minis) is wonky, how in the heck can they make this thing backwards compatible? Nobody is saying anything about that, they're just saying it won't play UMDs. But when was the last time Sony made a good BC emulator? Even the PS1 emu on PS3 has issues and the PS1 is old and well documented. PS1 emulation is actually better on PSP than PS3 because of dynarec since they both use MIPS. NGP is ARM-based so they can't go that route. Anyways, sorry for the novel. I guess I had a lot to say. These fanboys are really making me facepalm at every idiotic comment, especially the ones that act like it's available now and not a prototype!
From what I can tell, Akismet doesn't filter on spelling or grammar, but if it did, the relative quality of discourse would be much higher.
If sony really cared about all aspects of gamers they would add a 16Gig maybe even more in the NGP. While alot of people may hate the PsP Go, I really love it. The fact that iv always preferred to have a game digitally the PsP Go was a must buy for me. im well aware of some of the sizes of games the NGP may have but it still would be a step backwards if the NGP didin't have internal memory.
Or maybe even a premium NGP that would have 32Gig+ (Just giving an example) of internal memory for extra cash. I would buy the NGP regardless because as much as a prefer digital distribution i can live with buying a nice carrying case that would fit alot of games.