Since last week news about the successor of the PSP, code named the NGP (Next Generation Portable) has been piling in. I was seriously considering picking up a 3DS if any games that caught my eye were to be released by the holiday season of 2011; well up until last week.
There are so many features that the NGP has that on paper it should be the clear winner of the next generation handheld market. I like the fact that Sony did away with the UMD format and is now using some sort of proprietary flash card to store their games aswell as game saves. There are front and rear cameras that can be used to take pictures and be used in games (hopefully there can be some way to get Skype on the NGP) which is rather interesting. My prayers have been answered and there are 2 "real" analogue sticks on the NGP (the 3DS only has one); I can see this making games a lot easier to play and port to the NGP from other consoles. The front (OLED) touch screen and rear touch pad can allow some new and interesting games to be developed but if the rear touch pad can mimic the R2 and L2 buttons on a regular PS3 controller, then the ability to port games will become much easier and increase the NGP's game library significantly. The thing that hurt the original PSP the most was a weak game library compared to the Nintendo DS but I can see this changing once the NGP is released.
I almost forgot, the games on the NGP look almost as good as the early PS3 games in terms of visuals, which is amazing for such a compact device. Having pretty games is always a plus; it always annoys me that Nintendo's (including the 3DS) handhelds have games with archaic visuals. I know graphics aren't everything but it is a minor annoyance.
As for price, if it is $399 for the base model (no 3G, WIfi only) I believe that would be a decent price point and I would definitely pick one up. Many people on forums these days are complaining that they will not buy a NGP if it costs more than a cheapest PS3 slim ($299) or even a 3DS (3DS) but people forget that you get what you pay for and all the features that the NGP has. Besides look at the absurd price points of Apple products that are emerging as the popular gaming devices for casual gamers. If Apple can charge over $500 for their base model of the Ipad, I think Sony will have no problem selling the NGP at a $399 if it is marketed properly simply because it has so many features which the competition lacks.
