Kaz Hirai On The NGP

The day we announced the Next Generation Portable, or NGP, was quite an eventful one. You might have followed the live blog, read the message from SCEA CEO Jack Tretton [Ed: or Andy House, here on the EU blog], seen the topics trending on Twitter (6 out of 10 worldwide at one point!), or read the hands-on impressions.

At the very end of the day, I had a chance to catch up with Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. While I knew I’d be unable to gather any more details than what was announced earlier in the day, I was curious about the broader aspects of the news: Why announce NGP now? Where does it fit into the PlayStation console life cycle philosophy? How did publishing partners like Epic Games and Activision get involved in the announcement? I hope you enjoy hearing these answers in detail directly from Mr. Hirai.