Sony's Hirai Offers More Details On NGP's OS, PSP Game Compatibility

Following Sony Computer Entertainment's big unveiling of its codenamed PSP successor "Next Generation Portable" last week, division CEO Kaz Hirai offered up more details on the device. The executive clarified that despite the introduction of the PlayStation Suite, an initiative that will bring first and third-party PlayStation-branded content to Android mobile devices, NGP will not be based on Google's mobile OS. According to a translation on Andriasang of a roundtable interview at last week's SCE media briefing, the device's OS is "not Android," but "Different from the PSP -- the [NGP's] OS has a modern framework akin to a PC." As Sony announced last week, the NGP will be compatible with downloaded Sony PSP games through emulation, as there is no UMD drive on the NGP. New NGP games will be sold on small flash-based cartridges. "Sony is currently in negotiations to get software makers to actively release download versions of their games," according to the translation. The report added that packaged PSP games for the NGP will release on a "custom memory card format" that has space for save data and downloadable content. Last week, the company also confirmed that the NGP will have hardware versions that support 3G and wi-fi, and some that are wi-fi only. Hirai said Sony will release different models on a region-by-region basis, and the company is talking to mobile carriers about rates and fees. The executive added that phone support for the NGP via 3G networks would be "nonsense," due to the device's shape.