AfterDawn: News

Sony to downgrade NGP specs before launch?

According to 01.net, Sony will release the NGP this year in Japan only, with Europe and North America getting the handheld in early 2012.

Furthermore, Sony will have to downgrade some of the console's powerful specs, in order to stay competitive with the Nintendo 3DS' $250 price tag.



01.net gets a slight benefit of the doubt for the report because they leaked the full accurate specs for the NGP two weeks before it was unveiled officially by Sony.

If accurate, Sony will sell the low-end (non-3G) NGP for $250, but with 256MB RAM instead of the 512MB announced. The company may also remove most of the 16GB internal flash memory, meaning there may be a cloud offering or gamers will have to buy external storage.

To make up for cutting the RAM in half, Sony will allegedly reduce "the size of the OS footprint in memory."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 May 2011 11:46

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• 8 comments

• A5J4DX

  meh
  

  27.5.2011 12:49 #1

• xnonsuchx

  Downgrade RUMORED specs? Is that like rumors about rumors stories?

  27.5.2011 16:13 #2

• flyingpen

  ...I don't get it. Wouldn't $300 be close enough to be "competitive" to the 3DS and that way we can get the upped ram?
  I mean shit, a game is $40-50. I'll gladly give up 1 game to have a system that runs better.
  

  Carpe Noctem

  27.5.2011 16:51 #3

• jookycola

  If this is true they totally lost a customer.
  
  

  
  

  27.5.2011 17:16 #4

• Ryoohki

  These handheld systems keep costing more and more. I remember back in the day when the sega gamegear came out. It was complete fail. Nobody bought that damn thing because it cost more than the genesis. I'm all for portability but paying the same price as a console to get shittier graphics and watered down games just isn't something I'm willing to do.
  

  27.5.2011 17:18 #5

• ZeusAV

  PSP was hurt by the fact that it cost more than the DS for pretty much its entire life. High price also hurt the PS3 initially. Maybe Sony has finally learned that better specs don't always equal better sales.

  28.5.2011 02:20 #6

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by flyingpen: ...I don't get it. Wouldn't $300 be close enough to be "competitive" to the 3DS and that way we can get the upped ram?
  I mean shit, a game is $40-50. I'll gladly give up 1 game to have a system that runs better. My question is why they would want to compete with the 3DS...other than diagnosing certain types of childhood vision disorders, it is worthless. 3DS = Mario, zelda, etc...and NGP = Grand Theft Auto, Gran turismo, etc...not the same customers, not in competition.
  
  Originally posted by ZeusAV: PSP was hurt by the fact that it cost more than the DS for pretty much its entire life. High price also hurt the PS3 initially. Maybe Sony has finally learned that better specs don't always equal better sales. PSP was hurt by a lot of things, including price...but it was not because of the technical specifications. It is sony who chose to add a huge markup to the originals, and a massive markup for the PSPgo.
  
  Originally posted by jookycola: If this is true they totally lost a customer.
  LoL...this little thing is what did it...you really can't think of any other reason to stop being a $ony customer???
  
  Originally posted by xnonsuchx: Downgrade RUMORED specs? Is that like rumors about rumors stories? Sony showed off the specs officially...this is a rumor that they will change what they have already said...almost a given when talking about Sony.
  
  Originally posted by Ryoohki: These handheld systems keep costing more and more. I remember back in the day when the sega gamegear came out. It was complete fail. Nobody bought that damn thing because it cost more than the genesis. I'm all for portability but paying the same price as a console to get shittier graphics and watered down games just isn't something I'm willing to do. I think you have missed something there...the main feature of the game gear was the display; the only competition was Nintendo...and the gameboy had a "dark green and slightly darker green" display...it wasn't even as good as black and white. They invested a lot in that display, including requiring 6 batteries that lasted about 30 minutes per set, and drained so fast that rechargeable batteries would get destroyed after only a few goes...that was their downfall...not the price to buy it, or the price of the games, but the price-per-minute to play the thing was insane...that was the downfall of the GameGear...kids didn't want it for Xmas because they knew that they could not afford to actually use it.
  

  http://killerbug666.wordpress.com/

  28.5.2011 07:39 #7

• BG (unverified)

  Originally posted by jookycola: If this is true they totally lost a customer.
  
  if this is true they gain several thousand customers who are price conscious.

  28.5.2011 20:35 #8