Sony Details NGP Media Format at GDC
Announced earlier this year, Sony’s PlayStation Portable successor, the NGP, packs enough power to play “near-PlayStation 3″ level games on a smaller screen, with a front and rear touchpad adding new levels of interactivity. While the handheld was known to use a proprietary flash memory device, the actual capacity and even the name of device remained unknown – until now.
During Sony’s NGP Game Developer’s Conference, the company detailed the flash format, tentatively called the NVG Card. David Coomes, Platform Research Manager, described the new format, which will be available to publishers in two different storage capacities – 2GBs and 4GBs, with 2GB meant for smaller, casual games, and 4GB for larger, blockbuster titles. In comparison, the original PSP’s UMD’s stored up to 1.8GBs.
5-10% of the NVG will be reserved for game saves, patches and game updates, helping to minimise data on the NGP.
Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle for more coverage of GDC as the event continues.
10 Responses to “Sony Details NGP Media Format at GDC”
That is interesting that the game patches and saves will actually be on the flash card and not the system . Although I wonder if eventually they will also introduce cloud saves for the NGP too?
I think/hope cloud will be available right from the get-go for ps+ users…I don’t have any proof…just a suspicion.. I’m very curious to see how painless–or painful–the transition to cloud will be for the PS3.
Now if they did this same idea for the PS3 then you could reduce the heat and failure of the Blu-ray drive and reduce costs. Since you could purchase the game on a flash memory card and any extras could be retrieved from the “Cloud” as needed. “Cartridge” gaming returns.
I would actually really like the option to install full games on the hdd and run it with just the disc inside. I think that’s one of the xbox best and smartest feature. what.. did ms patent that too?
on the 360 you can install the game on the hard drive but you still need the disc of course to boot the game up. i’d radther just own a physical copy of the game in a bluray disc , do you really want sd cards of games laying around?
I myself don’t even own a PS3 or 360, but I don’t see the use of installing the game to its hard drive if you still need the disk to run it. Does this speed loading times somehow?
The SD card format isn’t that bad, really; the DS uses its own form of the SD card. Even I would agree that, having owned both systems, the DS’s cartridge games are not only more portable, but also more durable than the PSP’s UMDs. My DS cards will survive a trip through the washer and dryer; my UMDs won’t. I like the new form; just give us a way to convert them now!
still waiting on the cloud service
I’m waiting on cloud service too, but it will be useless if we can’t upload copy protected saves. I was actually hoping they would detail a significant firmware at GDC. It’s been a while since we got something big, and there are still many features people want.
Not sure if I like going backwards in time and having save files on the card.. Unless you get a choice, in that case it’s a nice option.
I want a full digital option. I do not want to be carrying around games. Let me be able to put whatever games they make on a 16 GB card.