RUMOR: SONY DISCONTINUES PS4 DEVELOPMENT

When Sony revealed the PSP 2 (NGP) it was hard not to be impressed. A handheld machine that looks powerful enough to match a PS3 in terms of graphics combined with dual thumbsticks, an innovative touch panel on the back, and the promise of a price point gamers can afford.

It’s clear Sony has spent a lot of time getting the successor to the PSP right. But a rumor coming out of Japan suggests the PSP 2 may be the successor to the PS3 as well.

According to Japanese website PC Watch:

Hiroshige Goto says SCEI suspended PS4 development. They were working on a PowerPC based system at IBM Rochester after the Larrabee fall out, then shelved it. They are betting the farm on PSP2 as they expect handhelds to displace consoles.

If true, it would mean the PS3 is the last home console Sony plans to produce, instead turning to a handheld-only strategy for games.

RUMOR: NEXT PS3 UPDATE TO INCLUDE 'ONLINE SAVING'

Kotaku is reporting that the next firmware update (v3.6) for the PS3 will contain the ability to save games to the cloud. During the NGP presentation, guest speaker Hideo Kojima specifically referred to saving your PS3 game on the console and resuming it on the Next Generation Portable. "Online Saving," as Sony's reputed to be calling it, would be the conduit through which that can be realized, though it doesn't appear like it'll come for free. Kotaku's sources indicate it'll be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription.

SONY EVENT ROUNDUP; NEXT-GEN PSP, PLAYSTATION SUITE

Sony held an event today to launch their new PSP (codenamed NGP) and the Playstation Suite.

The NGP is the successor to the popular PSP handheld gaming device. It has a quad-core Cortex-A9 and a quad-core Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU doing the grunt work within. Front and rear cameras and a multi-touch capacitive screen are also included. Bluetooth, 3G and wireless b/g/n are baked in as well. Games will come on "new media," not UMD anymore, but we're unclear on what sort of flash memory is being used. Sony's rather proud of the fact it's offering the world's first dual analog stick combo on a portable device, though we're more geeked about the quadrupling of pixel count from the original PSP.

Playstation Suite is a cross-platform software framework. What this means is Sony will have a whole Playstation Store filled with Sony games available for the Android tablets and phones. According to Sony the Playstation Suite will be "hardware neutral" and make games portable for "all kinds of handsets".