A new generation of portable game consoles Sony PlayStation Portable, also known as NGP will appear on the market at the end of the year. The price of NGP is yet unknown, the company Sony representative said on Thursday.

The main competitor to Sony in the market of portable game consoles is the company Nintendo, who is preparing to release a console Nintendo 3DS (the next generation of handheld consoles in the line-DS) on February 26 this year in Japan. In U.S. and European markets the device will not come until March.

Nintendo 3DS is known as one of the first portable device with a 3D-display without requiring special glasses to view stereo images. In addition, iPhone, iPad and Android-devices can also be seen as competitors to handheld game consoles. According to the information provided by the representatives of Sony, a new gaming system will be able to provide quality graphics at a stationary PlayStation 3. In addition, the device will support various social functions to interact with other players.

NGP features a 5-inch touchscreen OLED-display (resolution 960×544 pixels) with support for multitouch technology. The device is based on Quad-ARM-processor series Cortex-A9, a graphics subsystem based on the chip SGX543MP4 + also with four cores (rumored to be the same video card, with only two cores, get a new generation of iPhone and iPad ).

NGP will have two chambers,the main to take pictures and videos, as well as supportive – to organize chats. In addition to the WiFi-and Bluetooth-module console will support mobile 3G-networks which will also work for geolocation services, a built-in GPS-receiver.

PSP control system is modified:

NGP has two analog sticks (before there was only one) and a big touchpad that is located on the rear panel. The device provides an accelerometer, gyroscope and electronic compass. These innovations enable developers to increase the level of interactivity in games.

Games consoles will be available on memory cards (the format is as yet unknown), which will save an additional downloadable content. It is not excluded that deterring piracy, Sony refuses to use the standard carriers, but would offer a unique format memory card (as it was with the UMD-discs used in PSP first generation). NGP preserve compatibility with games released for the PSP, which can be purchased and downloaded through the Internet service company informs the website CNET .

In addition to the NGP, Sony introduced a platform PlayStation Suite, which allows porting games created for the PlayStation first-generation smartphones and on the boards, running Android version 2.3 and above . In connection with this company started a program for device manufacturers whose products will be able to get the status of PlayStation Certified. Games under this initiative will appear in the current year, i.e. in the year 2011.

Previously it was assumed that Sony Ericsson is developing a hybrid Android-smartphone game console under the unofficial name of PSP Phone. Now it is obvious that Sony has more global plans. This does not negate the possibility of issuing branded smartphone Sony Ericsson, which can get focused on playing a set of controls (crosses, an analog joystick, etc.).