Yeah, I got to say, no real game announcements, so it's early.

The technology is jaw-dropping.  I don't think I've ever been more impressed by so much sheer technology crammed into a single device.

But without a price, what am I to think?  They basically wheeled a Lambourghini up onto the stage and said, "Isn't this nice?"

Dvader said:

^ So true. I will wait and see. Depending on the PS3 integration I maybe more or less excited.

I'm guessing less.  But who knows.  No mention of how to pay for 3G -- whether they are eating it like with the original Kindles from Amazon, or if they are going to go the pay per month price.

A whole lot of speculation until June.

I've waded through a fuck-ton of stories in my reader about "RE on PSP2" "Yakuza on PSP2" etc...  all link bait for the unsuspecting user.

^I think it is like a touchpad of your laptop. Only it is the exact size and position of the screen, but only at the back. I suspect Sony put it there to allow you to use the touchscreen without blocking out of the screen with your hand.

Overall, I think the NGP is pretty damned cool. Very nice piece of tech, though I don't really think there's any real wow factor that's going to grab anyone outside of the hardcore market.  Cloud gaming and the screen aren't exactly sexy, and having uber high quality visuals in gaming system isn't as revolutionary as it was when the PSP first came out. Plus that price-tag is going to be scary.  It's going to be high. We all know it. I think the only question is, will it be $299 or will it be higher? And with that 7 to 9 month launch gap between it and the 3DS, all Nintendo has to do is offer a price cut, and they can even hurt the launch (assuming of course the 3DS even needs it).  Still it did impress me enough to keep watching and waiting.

On the other hand PSOne games on smart phones? Please.... That kind of gaming does not work well on a small touchscreen with no controller.  I guess there will be a few nostalgia buys out of it, but I can't see that ever be taken seriously.

Yodariquo said:

Was there an explanation of the back touch panel?  How is that supposed to work?


          And a quad-core ARM processor sounds like an oxymoron.

Yes, there are pictures of it as well.  Basically, it's the weirdest fucking thing you've ever seen.  I think all the "Sony never innovates" must have gotten to them, so they came up with the craziest thing ever.  It's 5 inches wide, and the best way I can describe how it was used was it was like there were two mouse wheels on the back that the dude was using with his pointer fingers.  It can also be used in menus where the pad on the back corresponds with the screen on the front.  So you can be holding it like a controller and instead of touching the front panel you can slide your fingers on the back.

"Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value," he added. "It's not going to be $599."

Shu Yoshida, president of worldwide studios.

That's a little reassuring.  I guess.

They've also said off the record to Eurogamer that they will be selling it at a loss.  It's shouldn't be long before one of those tear-down sites comes up with a hardware cost of this behemoth, then you can add 100% for all the other costs to figure out the price.

It would be nice to think it was in the ball park of the 3DS, say $299.  But that would also mean Sony would have learnt from their past mistakes, which is highly unlikely given their displayed insensitivity to consumers this generation.

It all depends on the value of the games as well.  The last thing Kaz said on stage was one sentance about how the PS3 and this device would work together.  So if you take that clue, and what Kojima was saying about cloud gaming, you could guess that you'll be able to play your PS3 games on this device -- which adds a lot of value.  I'd say they are saving a few bombs for E3 to take the sting out of the price.

$349