14 DAY TRIAL // Kaz Hirai, who is the chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, has suggested that those who are looking to find out the price for the PlayStation Portable 2 handheld or the battery life of the newly announced device will have to wait for some time, as the company still sees the new platform as being in the prototype stage.
Hirai has not said how long the “prototype” label will be affixed to the PSP 2 or how big the changes that Sony could come up with are, but the company has already confirmed that the new device will be launched on at least one major market before the end of 2011, presumably the Japanese one.
The CEO has also stated that both the price and the battery life will satisfy potential customers.
Reports coming out soon after the official unveiling of the PlayStation Portable 2, which Sony calls the NGP, suggested that depending on the functionality players use the device could last between 4 and 5 hours.
Nintendo, the rival that is soon releasing the Nintendo 3DS handheld, says that its new device can last for as much as 8 hours as long as some battery consuming features are not used.
The new Sony device was long rumored to be in development, but the company only talked about it in 2011, saying that it will be revolution in mobile gaming and will offer hardware capabilities similar to those included in the PlayStation 3 home console.
Sony says that all major franchises that found life on the PlayStation Portable will also be released on the follow up, with the publisher aiming to take all popular titles that were launched on UMD support and also put them out on the storage device for the PSP 2.
Analysts are projecting that the PSP 2 will cost under 300 dollars when it is released on Western markets.