High NGP Pricing Hinted at By Jack Tretton?

[Staticneuron]

But it is cutting edge. Especially in what it is compared "to". Tech on a micro scale is always expensive. The most expensive elements are normally any Soc, the ram and the screens "depending on how the screen is made. Take for instance the Zune HD has a 480 x 272 3.3 inch oled screen with 167 ppi. The NGP is supposed to have a 960 × 544 5 inch oled screen with 220 ppi.

Nothing in the handheld range is supposed to meet the (cpu/GPU) specs till 2012 and even then, they aren't dedicated gaming devices. Not to mention most of the individual elements will be a step beyond. Price wise, i am sure it is going to be competitive especially to other devices on market.

Edit: serves me right for posting without reading. Vulgotha beat me to it.

 

[Acid Snake]

[QUOTE="F34R, post: 5505798]The only reason I'd get one at launch at such a high price would be the fact that earlier revisions are usually easier to hack.[/QUOTE] Good point. That totally slipped away from me. I hope I'll be able to get my hands on a original one if the the device is released at 300 or more.

 

[F34R]

Fine.

 

[Vulgotha]

And I'm fairly sure the rumor\confirmed(?) specification for the memory is LPDDR2. Could be wrong..

Rumors state its 512MB System RAM + 128MB VRAM. There's been strong hinting from several devs like Deano and co at @B3D that this is correct or close to it.

The only official confirmation from Sony is that its "very close to the PS3" (according to a slide) in terms of memory.

We do know the devkits have 1GB. This would be excessive if the memory was anything below 512MB by my estimation.

 

[Staticneuron]

Personally, I don't think that is enough ram. If sony was forward thinking they would double it for both pools. The roadmap for the tegra's and other devices will step over the NGP at least by 2014 and its only saving grace would be the fixed HW but man.... I don't think 512 is going to help them unless they are planning on making their active console run short.

I think Sony is looking at Nintendo as the main threat. And are being a step above them while ignoring the advances on any other mobile device.

 

[Vulgotha]

But would such a larger pool of memory be of any use to the hardware embedded in the device? What natural limits would be hit first? Memory or hardware capability?

 

[Staticneuron]

[QUOTE="Vulgotha, post: 5506049]But would such a larger pool of memory be of any use to the hardware embedded in the device? What natural limits would be hit first? Memory or hardware capability?[/QUOTE]

The hardware of course. Because of concerns about heat and battery power, chances are we are not going to see the higher end of the scale when it comes to processing power. What we will notice more than anything is the lack of ram first. The power is going to be enough to make monsters in terms of displaying geometry but things that are going to stick out afterwards will be the textures, then the "size" of each respective area. If the original PSP had more ram, it would have not felt as dated.

 

[jj03]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the uk price for the ngp will be £299.99

 

[Chille]

[QUOTE="jj03, post: 5506173]I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the uk price for the ngp will be £299.99[/QUOTE]
I don't think the wifi version will be that high, if it is sony will price themself out of the market, £249.99 is most they can charge imo

 

[Zoibie]

[QUOTE="Chille, post: 5506595]I don't think the wifi version will be that high, if it is sony will price themself out of the market, £249.99 is most they can charge imo[/QUOTE]

That would be my guess too. £249 for the standard, £299, maybe £319 for the 3G.

 

[Vulgotha]

[QUOTE="Staticneuron, post: 5506056]The hardware of course. Because of concerns about heat and battery power, chances are we are not going to see the higher end of the scale when it comes to processing power. What we will notice more than anything is the lack of ram first. The power is going to be enough to make monsters in terms of displaying geometry but things that are going to stick out afterwards will be the textures, then the "size" of each respective area. If the original PSP had more ram, it would have not felt as dated.[/QUOTE]

I certainly agree that the more memory you have with the base unit (available for devs to use for games) the better, but at the same time 512+128 is an enormous jump from the previous hand held generation of 32MB + 4MB Edram. Even bigger than PS2--->PS3..

So we'll definitely be feeling the results from this jump for many years to come post release of the NGP. I'd like to think that the RAM in the NGP is fairly high speed.. If that's the case than hitting that 600MB mark with that kind of memory may be better than hitting a higher amount with lower clocks.

 

[Staticneuron]

Maybe, but I can't help but think that before the 4th or 5th year is up for the NGP, it would look dated in comparison to other hardware on the market.

 

[F34R]

[QUOTE="Staticneuron, post: 5508033]Maybe, but I can't help but think that before the 4th or 5th year is up for the NGP, it would look dated in comparison to other hardware on the market.[/QUOTE]
I doubt it... phones aren't going to be using that much power due to battery life, and I doubt the tech is going to evolve fast enough to make that much a difference in power consumption to warrant putting these types of components in a phone. As far as hand held gaming goes, Nintendo is the only competitor, and I don't foresee them beefing up specs until their next true successor comes along after the 3ds lite, and 3dsi versions are released.

 

[Vulgotha]

Phones probably will by that point, but the bigger question is how efficiently will it use them?

As you put eloquently already, power demands will simply make raw utilization impractical. Hell, even the iTouch's for all their strength rarely get fully tapped due to miniscule battery life. I think Epic mentioned this already..

So will they have specs that, on paper, outclass the NGP by then? Definitely. Will they be able to feasibly deliver results on par or superior? Doubtful. For battery, development, and reasons relating to practicality. Since phone hardware is always upgrading and gaming is a tertiary feature at best.. Its just unlikely.

Still, I would be willing to pay more for the NGP if it, say, came with 1GB of RAM instead of 512\600ish.

 

[Staticneuron]

[QUOTE="F34R, post: 5508135]I doubt it... phones aren't going to be using that much power due to battery life, and I doubt the tech is going to evolve fast enough to make that much a difference in power consumption to warrant putting these types of components in a phone. As far as hand held gaming goes, Nintendo is the only competitor, and I don't foresee them beefing up specs until their next true successor comes along after the 3ds lite, and 3dsi versions are released.[/QUOTE]


You haven't looked at the roadmaps have you? In terms of specs similar SoC should hit market by 2012. but since it won't be dedicated, NGP will still have upper hand. By 2014/15 the SoC's will be much more powerful than the NGP spec wise. The tegra (kal El) scheduled for 2012 is already sickeningly powerful ( 4 core cpu 12 core gpu)and the next 3 iterations are said to be stronger by magnitudes.

Vs 2ghz core 2 duo

The stark is supposedly going to be 75 times more powerful than the tegra 2. I have yet to run coremark on my rig but I am really curious if that would trump by setup.

[QUOTE="Vulgotha, post: 5508749]
So will they have specs that, on paper, outclass the NGP by then? Definitely. Will they be able to feasibly deliver results on par or superior? Doubtful. For battery, development, and reasons relating to practicality. Since phone hardware is always upgrading and gaming is a tertiary feature at best.. Its just unlikely. [/QUOTE]


But of course. We should keep in mind that we are not only talking about tech that will be used in phones but also in tablets. Efficiency in battery power isn't even a question. The advance in speed also brings about refinements in power consumption. My HD2 alone blows my mind because number wise it is more than twice as powerful(underclocked) as the PSP under full load... when idle and 3 times as powerful when running apps or games and "still" outlives my PSP in terms of battery life. I think that is insane.

 

[Minnzy]

It's funny, was just talking with a friend about this and when I said "Would be nice if it came out under $600 we both started laughing hysterically... alcohol may be involved but it'll most likely be more

 

[The Black Wolf]

If it's $300 and lower, I'll check it out at launch. I have doubts though. Yeah, the PSP had good games, but there wasn't enough of them and I didn't like UMD. Ports and spinoffs are okay, but give me more of something else.

 

[mickice]

I never understood the hate against UMD. For it's time 1.8GB of storage space for every game in a portable machine was unheard of. A majority of DS games were under 128MB.

I did have $100 set aside for the NGP but SONY has been releasing too many collectors edition of games so I keep on spending it.

 

[The Black Wolf]

[QUOTE="mickice, post: 5533348]I never understood the hate against UMD. For it's time 1.8GB of storage space for every game in a portable machine was unheard of. A majority of DS games were under 128MB.
[/QUOTE]

I didn't really hate it, I just didn't like how fragile they were. I had nothing against the storage space or anything.

 

[Bio]

Yep, NGP will retail at $300.

As expected, not at all within average consumer range. We all know it's gonna happen.

 

[YonkouLuffy]

If the system is going to be great with some neat features I really don't care how much it costs. If I have fun and use it a lot it's going to be money well spent.

 

[tbx59]

300 would be on the low end. 300 bucks for what it seems to pack would sell pretty well, then in a year or so when it hit 249 a lot more. I fear the thing is going to be 350-400

 

[O.J. Mayo]

It better not be over 300$. That seems realistic and fair to me. If its over 300 Sony has learned nothing from past mistakes.

 

[mistercrow]

[QUOTE="AaronSOLDIER, post: 5503971]The higher the price the happier I am,[/QUOTE]

Seriously? Why is that?

 

[D3seeker]

Well an unlocked smartphone is $500 +, and NGP is prey much that. But the shear fact that it's a gaming platform meaning that range is a no go for 98% of us.

I'd say sell it for $250 and watch em fly off shelves before they can reach them. PSP didn't quite work at that price but this however seems more fitting.

 

[konman]

I'm guessing 299 if sony goes above that then they risk pushing consumers away like they did with the PS3 when it first came out. My wife keeps telling me that I can get one when it comes out but I'm not 100% sold I'ma huge Sony fan but it's got to have the games the original PSP just didn't have them for me I'm too much of a hardcore fan to get by on small none console style games so if the NGP is gonna grab me its gonna have to have that console experience.

 

[myke-myke]

I think Sony may have learned their lesson with the high price situation. I think the NGP will be priced $300-$350 max.

For me personally, if the NGP is over $300 @ launch then i'll wait to get 1 later.