Sony Went Back to Basics for PlayStation Portable 2 Development

The leader of Sony Computer Entertainment says that the development process for the new PlayStation Portable 2, which the company insists on calling the NGP, has been very similar to that of the original PlayStation home console, with the team at Sony working closely with the developers that will then develop the video game for the platform.

Speaking to the United Kingdom version of the PlayStation blog Shuhei Yoshida, who is the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, stated, “The NGP development team visited many developers and publishers globally with an early prototype of the hardware to get direct feedback.”

He added, “As a result of this, we went through many iterations of NGP. It reminded me of the early days of the original PlayStation, when we visited many developers and publishers to get feedback during the development of that product.”

Shuhei Yoshida says that the finished device would not be in its current state if the video game developers were not directly involved in its creation.

The boss of SCE says that in many ways its organization has gone back to basics, which is a good sign for the future development of the PSP 2.

The PlayStation Portable 2 has been officially unveiled early in 2011 and Sony says that it will be launched on at least one major market, presumably Japan, before the end of the year.

The device has an OLED screen, a touch pad and a set of more traditional controls and Sony says that the hardware has the ability to deliver gaming experienced that are similar to those seen on the PlayStation 3, but is limited by the battery life.

The PSP 2 has already been in the hands of some developers and they have declared themselves impressed with the power of the device.

The new Sony handheld will have to compete with the Nintendo 3DS, which will have a nine-month launch advantage at the end of the year.