RUMOR TIME: Sony's NGP to be called "PS Vita"?

Well the rumors are flying regarding the NGP's official retail name. Seems some crafty people have been digging around some domain registrars and have uncovered the domain name www.psvita.com, not to mention some pictures of the hardware with this new name - PS Vita.

This could be a Photoshop job, or it may not - we'll undoubtedly know more in a little over a week.

PS Vita... I'm not feeling the name honestly. If given the choice, I'd have advised Sony to stick with NGP over PS Vita. For those curious - Vita is latin for life, as well as another name for the second letter in the Greek alphabet (Beta). Either one of these definitions make sense as I'm assuming Sony does want this portable to be a key part of your mobile life - as well as the fact it's the 2nd portable they've come up with.

At the end of the day, again, if this beast of a handheld has a retail price below $399 I will be shocked.

(Please take this post as rumor and speculation - more official information will undoubtedly come to light at E3)

PSN Outage - Sony subpoenaed by New York State over attack

Bloomberg is reporting that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has subpoenaed Sony's PlayStation and SOE divisions regarding the recent theft of customer data.

Schneiderman is seeking information on what Sony told customers about the security of their networks, as part of a consumer protection inquiry, said the person familiar with the matter, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

When all is said and done, I really feel this entire fiasco will end up costing Sony dearly - both in terms of money as well as customer trust. E3 is right around the corner, and I am confident Sony is planning to really show off the NGP - but I have to wonder how receptive the gaming world as a whole will be to it at this point. I'm also starting to fear that Sony may attempt to rush out the PS4 (or whatever they end up calling it) in an attempt to counter Nintendo's Project Cafe. This would be a fairly unwise move - a rushed console helps no one (early Xbox 360 units anyone?).

PSP Go not dead in North America?

Seems the PSP Go will not be phased out in North America (just Japan and the EU for now)

Today we were told: "We are continuing production of PSP Go for North America."

Er... great? I feel keeping the PSP Go on the market is only going to sap away sales from the NGP by people who simply aren't as "in the loop" as some of us. Speaking of which, as E3 inches closer, i can't get over this feeling that the NGP will retail for $350+. Ugh.

R.I.P. PSP Go

From the oh-that-thing-is-still-around dept...

Sony is halting further production of the PSP Go. I can't say I'm too broken up over this, it was simply too little too late in the PSP's life to do such a radical makeover. Well, that and the fact I've already got 3 older PSPs...

Anyway, I suspect this is just an effort to clear the way for the NGP - I'll be surprised if a release date and final name isn't discussed at E3. I've got a real rotten feeling in terms of the retail price of this beast though...

The Nintendo 3DS

Like a moth drawn to flame... there was no way I could resist the launch of new Nintendo hardware.

Let's get one fact right out into the open - I am a life-long Nintendo fanboy. If you're looking for an unbiased opinion/review of the 3DS, you're in the wrong place, and I am sorry for wasting your time.

That said, There is nothing in this world that makes me feel like a kid again more than new Nintendo hardware. The Nintendo 3DS is no exception. The first thing to notice is the 3DS is just about the same size as your trusty DS lite. It's a little thicker, but really, to the naked eye its pretty spot on. The second thing you'll notice is the top screen for the 3DS is quite a bit larger than the DS lite/DSi.

Then there is the glasses-free 3D. Truth be told, this effect doesn't really work on me. I'm a little bummed about this, but it's due to a life-long issue with my left eye - so really, what can you do?

With my 3DS, I purchased Super Street Fighter 4 (which as i said in my E3 keynote post was a must-have), as well as Ghost Recon Shadow Wars. Both are fine titles, but SF4 stands head and shoulders above GRSW because it seems to leverage every cool feature the 3DS has to offer.

So let's talk a bit about the 3DS features!

- Graphics: It's like you've got a portable Wii in your pocket. Seriously - using Street Fighter as an example, these are by far the best graphics I've seen on a portable system. The fact that Capcom pulled off a damn near flawless port of SF4 really blows me away.

- Network Connectivity: Now *THIS* is what WiiConnect24 should have been! With the 3DS you have a single system-level friend code. You're also given a proper friends list and are now alerted any time a friend comes online. This ties into the next item...

- StreetPass: This is a really cool functionality that basically allows your 3DS to communicate and trade data with other 3DS without any sort of user interaction required (the idea being that your 3DS is asleep in your pocket as you go about your day to day life). The 3DS Mii Plaza uses StreetPass, so when you DO bump into another 3ds owner out in the world, you exchange Miis (and other goodies). I was lucky enough to have a random StreetPass encounter while visiting Washington DC and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Street Fighter 4 supports StreetPass in a really cool way - you set up a team of 5 fighters that actually do battle with other SF4 players as you pass them.

- AR Games/Face Raiders: The 3DS comes with 2 Augmented Reality (AR) games - AR Games and Face Raiders. With AR Games, you're given a deck of 6 cards with the 3DS. The main card (it looks like the Super Mario '?' block) is the root of the game - you start AR Games and aim the camera at the card... and suddenly your surroundings are part of the MANY mini games within. Face Raiders uses the built in camera to take pictures of your face, or other faces around you - then incorporates them into a fun AR shooting title, where again your surroundings become the game. This functionality really needs to be experienced first hand...

- Pedometer/Play Coins: The 3DS also has a built in pedometer which keeps track of how many steps you take in a day - but with a twist! For every 100 steps you take you are rewarded with 1 Play Coin. These play coins can then be exchange for in-game items (With Street Fighter it allows you to buy more StreetPass figures, and with AR Games it unlocks more mini games). This feature is seriously going under the radar right now, and i think it's one of the more brilliant parts of the 3DS. It's like a super refined/distilled idea from WiiFit, and the in-game rewards ensure i keep my 3DS in my pocket at all times keeping track of my steps (not to mention for the StreetPass connections).

I gotta be honest here, I'm almost overwhelmed by how awesome the 3DS is so far. This system has a very bright future ahead of it, and I am dying to see what the 2nd and 3rd waves of software hold in store for us. I'm also really looking forward to novel uses of the AR gaming. I plan on writing more about the 3DS as i discover more, so stay tuned.

This is a game-changer - Sony, you had best bring your AAA game with the NGP....

'till next time...