Sony Touts Major Publisher Support For Next Generation Portable

Sony Computer Entertainment touted major publisher and developer support for its newly-announced "Next Generation Portable," as well as big first-party franchises that are planned for the new device. Developers for the upcoming device will be able to take advantage of 3G and wi-fi, motion sensing, front and rear cameras, a touch screen and a rear touch pad, and dual analog sticks, among other features. First-party franchises mentioned at the PlayStation conference on Thursday in Japan included Killzone, Uncharted, Wipeout, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance and Hot Shots Golf -- titles that could lay a strong foundation for the NGP library. Representatives for third-party publishers came out strong as well. Konami's Hideo Kojima showed off an NGP-powered clip of Metal Gear Solid 4. While it was just a demo, he said his studio is working on an actual game for the handheld, to be unveiled at E3 in June. Capcom's Jun Takeuchi showed off Monster Hunter Portable 3rd running on NGP, as well as a demo of Lost Planet 2 running on the handheld. He said Capcom is readying a version of its cross-platform MT Framework engine for the NGP. Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi was also on hand to show a demo of Yakuza 4, Tecmo Koei's Akihiro Suzuki displayed a Dynasty Warriors-style beat-'em-up, Activision's Philip Earl announced a Call of Duty game for the device, and Epic's Tim Sweeney showed Unreal Engine-powered Dungeon Defenders. Sony revealed a long list of other third-party developers and publishers that will support the machine, including Level-5, Marvelous, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Capybara Games, PopCap, Demiurge, 2K, Warner, Ubisoft and many others. The handheld will use a flash-based media, dedicated for NGP software titles, which can store the full game along with save data content and add-on game content. [Thanks to Siliconera, Andriasang and PlayStation blog.]