PSP 2

Confirming previous rumors, Sony has officially announced its 'next generation' PSP, codenamed (for now) the Next Generation Portable (NGP).

The NGP will feature a 960x544 OLED resolution screen (that's twice the resolution of the original PSP!), Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, Sixaxis tilt control, and both front and rear-facing multi-point touchpads and cameras.

Among the new features in the NGP is what Sony is calling "Location-Based Entertainment," which tracks where you are in the world and can, among other things, show you which games are most popular in your area, the exact number of users playing which games near you, and the ability to instantly purchase a game you see being played.

Franchises confirmed to be returning (or debuting) on the NGP include:

• Uncharted
• Hot Shots Golf
• Killzone
• Resistance
• Wipeout
• Gravity Daze
• Little Deviants
• LittleBigPlanet
• Monster Hunter
• Yakuza (unconfirmed, shown as tech demo)
• Call of Duty

Metal Gear series head Hideo Kojima is also working on the system with his Kojima Productions studio, but did not announce a game. While a brief tech demonstration using Metal Gear Solid 4 assets was shown, a port of the game has not been confirmed.

Epic was also on hand to show a version of its Unreal Engine 3 running on the NGP. No specific game was announced.

It is also confirmed that Sony's PlayStation Suite software -- including PlayStation One games -- will be available on the NGP.

The graphics are by far the best-looking on any portable console so far, but despite some earlier reports, they do not match those on the PlayStation 3.

Sony's Next Generation Portable will be released in Japan this winter.

Original Article: http://www.1up.com/news/psp2-officially-announced