The competition in the mobile gaming department keeps getting tougher. First we get reports of Nintendo’s 3DS and now Sony announces their Next Generation Portable Playstation codenamed NGP. “Specs include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks (not nubs as on the current generation), 3G, WiFi, GPS, a rear-mounted touchpad, the same accelerometer / gyroscope motion sensing as in the PlayStation Move, an electronic compass, and cameras on both the front and back.” (Engadget).

Call it PSP 2 or NGP, the new gaming device looks pretty dramatic. Based on the pictures and footage available on the web, the handheld console can truly carry its weight and then some. The NGP uses new UI called LiveArea. This consists of number of vertically navigable home screens as well as built-in social networking through PlayStation Network. The new device is also compatible with Playsation Suite, the mobile gaming approach Sony has taken to bring playable content to different Android based mobile devices authorized by Sony. There is no word on the pricing just yet, but the system should hit the store shelves by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how Sony’s approach(es) change the gaming environment. It will be especially interesting to see what Playstation Suite will bring to the mobile gaming scene. Only time will tell I suppose.

Via Engadget.