Sony’s upcoming portable gaming platform, codenamed NGP (Next-Generation Portable), is a powerful piece of tech. Early looks at the handheld’s games in action certainly fall close to what we’re used to seeing from the platform holder’s PlayStation 3. As it turns out, porting an experience from Sony’s Blu-ray equipped gaming console over to its 2011-releasing portable sibling is a “simple and quick” process, according to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.
“We were very focused on this area from the start,” he said in a recent interview with Edge Magazine (via CVG). “This is, again, a lesson learnt from the PS3. We had to make the development environment for NGP as ‘easy’ as possible.”
“Based on this expertise – and also the working habits they developed working on the PS3 – we had to make development on the NGP as natural as possible – an extension of the PS3, if you will. So the three demos you’ve seen – Lost Planet 2, Ryu Ga Gotoku [Yakuza] and [Metal Gear Solid 4] – they prove porting is simple and quick, but it doesn’t mean that’s all you can expect. My view of NGP isn’t just as a platform for porting PS3 titles.”
Which is refreshing to hear, since the portable gaming experience tends to differ from the home console one. Gamers aren’t necessarily going to want to sit on their couches with a portable device in hand when a PS3 console and 40″ high-definition TV screen are in the same room. That’s the big question being asked right now about the NGP: is all of that powerful tech really worth the eventual monetary cost of a device that is meant to be used on the go? There’s no easy answer, and certainly none to be had until after the NGP gets into the hands of consumers later this year.
