Private UK event leaks new NGP details

Sony Europe held a private presentation to around 20 UK-based developers yesterday, where new details on NGP launch plans, hardware specs, networking, and more were shared.

One developer, who spoke to Eurogamer under anonymity, said: “NGP is a developer’s dream – Sony is finally doing the things developers have been crying out for for years.”

Developers were expecting to pick up a development kit at the presentation, but due to “late shipments from Japan,” were unable. Apparently, a studio must supply Sony a “20-page concept document on a game they want to release at launch” in order to receive a kit before April.

Major studios have had kits for almost a year, but this new shipment of kits is the only one with the final GPU.

Sony’s yet to share any information to the public regarding shipping dates. Whilst this private presentation did not present a date, it does mention that the Wi-Fi version will launch in “2011,” while the Wi-Fi version with 3G will launch in “Holiday Season 2011.” The different dates imply the release of the Wi-Fi version earlier than the holidays.

It’s not a presentation without first-party demos. Sony demoed Uncharted, Little Deviants, WipEout, and more for the new portable. According to the source, the WipEout NGP demo was “the WipEout HD PS3 engine running on PS3 with no changes to the art platform. That means full resolution, full 60 frames per second. It looks exactly the same as it does on PS3 – all the shader effects are in there”.