Here comes the NGP

Sony announced its worst kept secret last night: the successor to the PSP is real, and it's probably going to be real expensive.

Though the design hasn't really changed much from the PSP (which I've always found to be clunky and ugly – this one less so, actually), it's packing some serious horsepower. Basically, I guess it's supposed to be a PS3 in your pocket, with touch screen, trackpad and motion control options. Sony looks like they're trying to fight this battle on all fronts, and I just can't see a business model that will work for them.

The interesting part will be the games: is this going to be a recreation of the kind of rivalry we've seen on the home console front? I'm inclined to think so. Nintendo's going to go after, well, everybody, whereas Sony seems to think that they can fill the NGP (Next Generation Portable – if they keep that name I'm quitting videogames) with tech-y specs and hope that that catches on in a mass market way. It won't, but that's OK.

If the games are there, then the NGP could be something interesting. I'm not the type to get wet in the pants over tech specifications, so I'll need to see that Sony can recapture some of their former glory and focus less on games like God of War for a little while. I don't have high hopes, though.

Final thought: there's no way in hell this is going to be less than $400. So people who were concerned over the 3DS's $250 price tag are going to shit a brick when this comes out. I've always been a little bit in Nintendo's camp (OK, a lot in their camp), but they really seem to have a handle on the handheld industry – offer something that people can't get elsewhere, and do it in an interesting way. I know that I don't want to play HD console-style games on the go. I want something else. But the videos of the NGP playing Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted on them cement the fact that this is exactly what Sony's going after. Didn't they learn anything after the (relative) failure of the PSP in the west?