The PSP2 (codename NGP (does not stand for Neo Geo Pocket)) has been announced and I've got lots of info to cover in this post so hit the jump for the lineup announced so far, a list of third party devs and publishers, some info about the new Playstation Suite and the NGP concept trailer.

A surprising amount of hardware was on display at Sony's conference today. Many of us, including myself, expected a tech demo of the NGP's hardware but we saw some impressive stuff being played on the handheld. Uncharted, Hot Shots Golf, WipEout, Capcom's Lost Planet 2 and a new samurai title from Dynasty Warriors developer Koei were all demonstrated live. The Playstation Blog has a list of other franchises being talked about or shown at the event including Killzone, Little Big Planet, Resistance, Hustle Kings and Call of Duty. A number of new projects were also announced such as Little Deviants, Gravity Daze, Broken and Smart As.

Most of these are major Sony properties. I hope the PSP2 doesn't become so big and complicated to develop for that we lose the PSP as a haven for smaller, more obscure titles like Patapon and Loco Roco. Not to mention all the localized titles from Japan that were necessary to keep the PSP even a little bit afloat in the states while it thrived in Japan. Luckily Sony also released a list of third-party developers and publishers working on PSP2 titles. All our favorite companies are here including LEVEL-5, SEGA, SNK Playmore, Grasshopper, Dimps, Square Enix and Nippon Ichi Software. Some great US and Europe devs are listed too, such as PopCap, Ubisoft, High Voltage, Epic Games and Rockstar. It's really an impressive list.

The Playstation Suite was also announced and will be Sony's answer to the iPhone market. Geared toward Android phones, Kaz Hirai called it as "cross-platform endeavor," most likely referring to the PSP2, PS3 and Xperia Play. Interestingly enough Sony did not rule out the inclusion of iOS devices. Original PSOne games will able to run on Suite, and software developed specifically with PS Suite will run on the Next Generation Portable.

And I'm sure you're all wondering about the battery life. While it has not yet been confirmed, the NGP's batt. has been reported to last about four to five hours.

Lastly here's the concept trailer for the NGP:

http://www.youtube.com/v/fLJmxGRGQUY?fs=1&hl=en_US

Cool music video, guys. Now tell me what it does.

So with all that, I'm pretty excited for the NGP. What do you guys think?