PS Vita Specs Announced

An anonymous reader writes "Sony has announced the hardware specs for the PS Vita and the details have confirmed most fans' hopes instead of their fears. The heart of the system is an ARM-developed Cortex A9 chip with four cores and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The screen is a 5-inch OLED capacitive touch-screen (with multi-touch) and a resolution of 960 x 544. The system will include 512MB of RAM and an additional 128MB of discrete VRAM. There will be front and rear cameras capable of 60fps at VGA resolution (640 x 480)."

Comments

Ooh, wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I supposed to get excited over a console or handheld in almost 2012 having nearly as much RAM as a cheap cell phone?

Re:Ooh, wow.

[jdpars]

The raw RAM number hardly matters as much as how it is applied in a phone. If Android has been filled with bloatware requiring you to root the phone to get rid of it, then a gig of RAM won't do much good. If it's efficient, half that can run games quite well. Also, look at the actual RAM of some gaming systems and you'll be surprised at how little it takes.

Re:Ooh, wow.

[alen]

It's the OS

I have a motorola droid pro and my old iPhone 3GS I sold months ago was faster with 1/3 the ram

Maybe if the phone manufacturers didn't set up all kinds of useless programs to run in the background they would work better with less ram

Re:Ooh, wow.

[Superken7]

Probably "nothing" to do with background processes or RAM and more to do with the Dalvik VM and its Garbage Collector, and Android's lack of _full_ hardware-accelerated UI framework. ;)

Re:Ooh, wow.

[dbIII]

Dunno about you but I'm excited about the screen but don't care much about the rest. Why are there so few OLED devices out there?

Re:Ooh, wow.

[MagusSlurpy]

Probably "nothing" to do with background processes or RAM and more to do with the Dalvik VM and its Garbage Collector, and Android's lack of _full_ hardware-accelerated UI framework. ;)

I have never owned one, but I've heard that Motorola installs a custom GUI that chokes all their Droid phones.

Re:Ooh, wow.

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Agreed. I have a GP2X Wiz with an OLED screen. Emulated games in particular look really nice, especially the old vector based games. They just don't look the same on an LCD.

I'd love to have one of these for retro gaming, mainly for the reason you stated.

Re:Ooh, wow.

[Nyder]

The raw RAM number hardly matters as much as how it is applied in a phone. If Android has been filled with bloatware requiring you to root the phone to get rid of it, then a gig of RAM won't do much good. If it's efficient, half that can run games quite well. Also, look at the actual RAM of some gaming systems and you'll be surprised at how little it takes.

While your basicly correct, it seems maybe you don't pay attention to the developers for handheld/console programmers.

In fact, memory is usually why most things get cut, or left out (not talking storage space, i'm talking about keeping different textures in memory, doing AA, etc) because tradionally, consoles/handhelds have had very little memory.

Putting 512m in for a handheld with a decent size screen is more then sweet, it means they can display more stuff, better looking stuff and even apply some AA.

Also means they can have better AI also.

You probably don't care about homebrew, but a bunch of people do, and when your emulating other systems, yes, more ram does help. I'm excited to see what the homebrew community is going to come up with for the Vita (yes, it will be broken).

Of course, your post talks about phones, which, as I understand, this isn't a phone. But your wrong on that phone thing also. It's not really much different.

What you are calling ram, seems to be flash memory, not ram. You know most phones use flash memory to store apps/os and crap in and run it off that, not unlike Palm handhelds of yesteryears. They also have "traditional" ram that they use for running programs, and trust me, it's a lot less then the flash memory in your phone. That "bloatware" is usually just stupid apps that are installed on the phone, that are taking up flash memory space, but not really taking up the running memory (unless of course, they are apps that are actually running on boot up, or you started one up).

But when it comes to programming the game, the dev needs to know how much memory they have to work with (cpu & gpu), so they can plan their textures and other stuff accordingly.

If you have 32mb of memory, you'll have to fit everything in the 32mb, unless you want to do slow ass swapping all the time.

So, 512mb is a big deal, because it gives developers a lot of breathing room to make stuff better.

Also, going to point out because there are a bunch of different phones with different amounts of memory (and cpu's/gpu's), that most devs have to program for the lowest common denominator. So if you put out an Android phone that has 512mb of memory, while most phones have 128mb, games are going to be programmed for the 128mb memory limitation. And if you have a hard time grokking that, then look at how games released on the Xbox 360/PS3/PC are made. That is, made for the consoles and then given a crude port to the PC, even though the PC have way more memory, have better graphics, etc.

Re:Ooh, wow.

[sonicmerlin]

If you can't even spell "you're" properly why are you writing so much useless text?

Re:Ooh, wow.

[GTRacer]

He's* posting what he hopes is a valid, interesting point of view with what I can only imagine is technically accurate (or at least materially so) background.

Clearly, the use of the wrong word "your" for "you're" is something that can be easily corrected, and learned from. But just as clearly, communication of ideas is unimpeded in this case, and if a minor grammar oopsie is enough to lead you to discard his whole viewpoint, then you must discard a LOT (not alot) of viewpoints, especially those voiced by non-native English speakers or those that focus more on formulating ideas and connections and not the rules of grammar.

*Dunno which pronoun to use for you, Nyder ^^

Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

I must admit on some level I was beginning to grow tired of just how ubiquitous devices that will record in 720p were becoming.

Forgive my ignorance, but does anyone know why so little RAM?

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgive my ignorance, but does anyone know why so little RAM?

Any more and it would be beating the PS3. And, honestly, I'm not sure that I'm joking. I think that really may be why.

My real question is how they intend to deal with the lack of a UMD port while the thing's supposed to be backwards compatible with the PSP. I guess that feature's only useful for people who pirated their PSP games.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is this thing call PSN. You can, believe it or no, download games through it, even PSP ones, perfectly legal and everything. I know, shocker huh.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[LordLimecat]

If you think a little ARM cortex is going to beat a Cell processor, youre out of your mind. My 5 year old Core2Duo desktop still beats the pants off of the top end ARM cortex A9. I dont keep up on exact specs, but dont ARM cortex processors compete with Atom and whatnot, not actual beefy processors?

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

So the answer to "how do they intend to make backwards compatibility useable" is "buy all your games a second time."

Yeah, you know what? Sorry, no, fuck that.

Not to mention that there are PSP games available on UMD that aren't available on PSN. Even if I were willing to give Sony another credit card number to give out to the world again.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[jdpars]

You can actually run a digital copy of any game off the memory stick on the PSP, or at least you could back when I played mine. Assuming that the premise of having digital copies of games you physically own being legal is still true, I assume many people will have a legitimate way to transfer all of their games.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

So the answer to "how do they intend to make backwards compatibility useable" is "buy all your games a second time."

Yeah, you know what? Sorry, no, fuck that.

No, that's your wild speculation.

PSP Go had no UMD drive. People who previously owned UMDs were allowed to download free copies of their games from PSN. It's a reasonable assumption that Sony may follow the same principle with the new device.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[MachDelta]

Actually the Vita does have more system and total memory than the PS3.

Vita: 512 system, 128 video
PS3: 256 system, 256 video

So there you go.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[MBCook]

512MB is pretty good. The PS3 only has 256MB of RAM (plus another 256MB for graphics). That's the same amount that's in the XBox 360, but on the Vita there is another 128MB of dedicated graphics RAM. In this respect, the Vita is very well specced.

I usually wish consoles had more memory when they came out. Imagine the difference doubling the ram on the PS3 or 360 would have. Doubling the Wii's RAM would make a big difference too. RAM tends to end up so cheap, it just seems like a lack of foresight not to put more in.

The Vita is going to have big problems though. It's nice, but it's still a portable console, and those seem to be dying. The only real thing I'd say this has going for it above an iPhone is the controls, and someone could fix that on the iPhone with a shell. The 3DS isn't doing well, and the PSP was never that big here in the states. In the last year or two, it's barely felt like an also-ran. The only people I know who love them do so because they hacked it. My PSP gathers a ton of dust, coming out once in a blue moon.

Good luck Sony. Even if the Vita is a kick-ass product, you've got a hell of a battle in front of you.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

People who previously owned UMDs were allowed to download free copies of their games from PSN.

Actually, due to "legal and technical reasons" this never happened.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[bertoelcon]

>

PSP Go had no UMD drive. People who previously owned UMDs were allowed to download free copies of their games from PSN. It's a reasonable assumption that Sony may follow the same principle with the new device.

Do you have a source for that? It sounds like absolute bullshit but, it is possible.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

The answer is "you can always keep your old consoles, because you don't get everything you want just because you feel like you deserve it because you were born."

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Darkness404]

A game console's specs really don't matter. What really matters are the games. Perhaps I'm in the minority but I really don't care if a game doesn't have pure HD graphics and ray-tracing and other eye candy as long as the game is fun. Heck, I'd rather have worse graphics and get rid of loading screens on any game than have better graphics with loading screens. I'd rather have a fun FPS like Team Fortress 2 that doesn't have fancy graphics than a game with broken gameplay but has excellent graphics. Once you get past a certain point where the game isn't really limited (I'd say about the 16 bit era for 2D games and the PS2/GameCube/Xbox era for 3D games) improving the graphics doesn't significantly improve gameplay.

iPhone "gaming" annoys the heck out of me. Most of the "games" must be programmed for people with the attention span of a gnat. There really is no game to speak of. I don't need a 70+ hour RPG every time, but I expect a game to have at least a good 10 hours of gameplay in single player mode to complete the story or main objective in a modern 2011 game if I'm going to be paying any money at all for it.

The 3DS was launched -way- too soon. First, its battery life is pathetic, especially when compared to the DS Lite which can hold a charge for a long time. Secondly, what games were worth playing to buy a 3DS for on launch day? The launch was the worst launch I think I've seen on a console in recent memory. Third, its already nearly September and there are -still- no decent games out for the 3DS that aren't ports. Yes, I love Ocarina of Time, but do I really need it on a million different consoles with nothing added? After all, I can get it on the N64, on the GameCube (with the added Master Quest for free for pre-ordering Wind Waker), on the Wii (via Virtual Console for $10) and now on the 3DS? I mean, if there was some added content, a re-worked sountrack or something it would be a must have, but assuming you've already played it, what's the point? And yes, Street Fighter IV: 3D edition is good, but again, it is a port.

I think that there is a huge market for real handheld games, it is just both Sony and Nintendo aren't putting out any games worth buying at the moment.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

You talk as if someone is getting something for free.
The real answer is "you can hang on to your money because you know this product sucks."
Why would I spend money on something that doesn't do what I want?

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

Console developers work a lot closer to bare metal than PC software developers do. Less OS overhead = lower system requirements = they can cut corners on manufacturing cost by not having to dump 8GB of RAM into something that doesn't need it.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Seumas]

And the PS3 is half a decade old. The iPhone has as much ram as the vita.

Sorry, but I'm willing to pay more for better hardware. I wish console makers would get that through their fucking skulls. Your games are $60 and you expect your consoles to run for at least half a dozen years. For the thousands of dollars I'm going to spend on your games in the life of that console, I think I can swing a little more than $299 for the actual system itself, if you can give it a bit more juice.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're missing the what that ram will do.

Take Saints row 2 for example: FANTASTIC game. But its irritating when you turn around to catch a car you saw, and its gone. Yes its probably also a bad coding decision.

Bigger res in range, more stuff kept in the area at a time. Less reading from the disc.

You're really really short sighted.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Skal Tura]

seriously, most won't, and it's the most people what matters.

You are probably more close to the HC gamer group than you think you are. I would never shelf out 299€ (it will probably be here atleast 299€) for a handheld console. Hell, i just spent 400€ on phone and was anxious about that even tho it's for work and i need the features (3G, Qwerty, SSH, Browser, Dropbox, Mail. Bought Nokia E7-00)

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[MBCook]

Specs only matter to the point that they improve the games. RAM is cheap, but can have a big effect on gameplay. More RAM means you can hold more a level in memory at a time, meaning you have less loading screens. I've had a blast with my GBA and DS despite their specs being orders of magnitude less than the PSP, iPhone, etc.

iPhone games are mostly little 5 minute time fillers, but there is some good stuff in there. Boardgames work especially well. I think having additional control options above the touchscreen would allow much better games. Very few action games work with a touchscreen.

I agree with the 3DS. The DS had a big game draught after launch, but there were enough good GBA games that it wasn't that bad. The price on the 3DS was a big mistake, the lack of a single must-have game was a mistake. It's been out for ~6 months and the only game I'm lusting after is the next Professor Layton game, which isn't out and probably won't need 3D.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[hedwards]

Consoles, assuming they were engineered properly, are much more efficient with their RAM than computers are. I'm not current on such things, but typically in the past you'd be dealing with units of bits and as such you wouldn't be wasting as much as you'd end up wasting with a typical computer. Traditionally the same goes with storage space as well.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[jonwil]

I recon if Nintendo wanted to sell more 3DSs, they would produce a new (not ported) Mario title in the style of Mario Galaxy or Mario 64 and make it require a 3DS.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[im_thatoneguy]

A game console's specs really don't matter. What really matters are the games. Perhaps I'm in the minority but I really don't care if a game doesn't have pure HD graphics and ray-tracing and other eye candy as long as the game is fun.

In other news Imagination Technologies (aka PowerVR) is implementing a raytracing accelerator into their future mobile chips. So you actually might start seeing ray tracing in your handhelds before you see it in mainstream consoles. :P

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

"iPhone "gaming" annoys the heck out of me. Most of the "games" must be programmed for people with the attention span of a gnat. There really is no game to speak of. I don't need a 70+ hour RPG every time, but I expect a game to have at least a good 10 hours of gameplay in single player mode to complete the story or main objective in a modern 2011 game if I'm going to be paying any money at all for it. "

Chaos Rings
Plants vs. Zombies
Rage HD
Final Fantasy Tactics (and all the other FF ports)
Mirror's Edge
NyxQuest
Sword and Sworcery EP

I would be happy to have that many games for my 3DS, I currently have those as well as the many "low attention span" games (good ones like Cut the Rope) for my iTouch.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

PSP Go had no UMD drive. People who previously owned UMDs were allowed to download free copies of their games from PSN. It's a reasonable assumption that Sony may follow the same principle with the new device.

That is absolutely untrue. Check your facts.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[obarthelemy]

it's a lot of RAM. especially when there's only one app running, no top heavy OS, optimized, app-specific caching, and relatively low-res graphics.
try filling half of that with good code, and come back to us.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[willy_me]

Specs only matter to the point that they improve the games. RAM is cheap, but can have a big effect on gameplay. More RAM means you can hold more a level in memory at a time, meaning you have less loading screens.

Firstly, RAM is not as cheap as you make it out to be. It's not like you can add another DIMM to your new PS Vita. Odds are that they are packaging the RAM directly with the CPU, just on a different layer. So now you start having to worry about power usage and heat buildup. Extra memory results in extra heat which if not dealt with will result in lower CPU speeds. I don't know why the engineers decided on the amount that they did but you can bet that they had their reasons. If adding more memory was cheap, easy, and helpful then they would have done it.

The amount of RAM does not have an effect on gameplay in consoles. When available resources are well defined, game designers can work at making sure their game operates within those limitations. Adding more memory does not help. I would personally be more concerned about the bandwidth and latency of the memory. And in regards to the delay when loading new levels - it's a non-issue. Just look how some CD/DVD based games were able to quickly load new level data. Now consider how much easier it would be when you data is on flash storage.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[trout007]

Us old farts were always in for a ninteno treat on launch day. NES we had super Mario brothers. SNES Super Mario World, n64 Super Mario 64. At each launch they released games that rewrote the book on video games. Then came the Gamecube. And nothing. The best game was Rougue squadron by Factor 5. I thought they learned the lesson because the Wii had Twilight Princess pretty close to launch. 3rd? Nothing.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Uhyve]

Well if the only feature you want is the ability to play PSP games, I obviously wouldn't spend money on a Vita...

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[sonicmerlin]

They're considering releasing a UMD peripheral.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[sonicmerlin]

Man you're an idiot. The 3DS was overpriced and came out with terrible game selection. Portable consoles are dying? The PSP sold better than the NDS in Japan. Otherwise it's over 5 years old and on its tail of hardware sales. You really think gamers are going to buy a "shell" for their capacitive touchscreen phones to approximate the experience of a hard-button handheld? Never, ever become a market analyst. You'd suck at predicting the future.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[sonicmerlin]

Actually most developers complain about the major bottlenecks with the PS3 and 360 being the limited RAM.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Darkness404]

Luigi's Mansion wasn't bad, I mean, it wasn't Super Mario World amazing but it was a fun little game. But at least with the GC they tried to give us something original. With the 3DS the only game on launch day worth noticing was Pilotwings Resort or Street Fighter IV: 3D and Pilotwings was far too short, and Street Fighter was a port. Of course, later on came Ocarina of Time 3D but when compared to the amount of content added for Super Mario 64 DS which was a launch title for the first DS, Ocarina of Time is disappointing. It is still a great game, it is just rather annoying that the developers decided not to add anything but a boss challenge mode.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[DJHeRobotExVV]

Consoles, assuming they were engineered properly, are much more efficient with their RAM than computers are. I'm not current on such things, but typically in the past you'd be dealing with units of bits and as such you wouldn't be wasting as much as you'd end up wasting with a typical computer. Traditionally the same goes with storage space as well.

That is such a ridiculously inaccurate statement regarding how consoles handle RAM that I don't even know where to begin. "Dealing with units of bits"? Are you fucking stoned? Mod parent down.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Schwhat]

Don't loop 3DS under the same category of a better portable console. Nintendo in it's arrogance left the 3DS with barely enough titles to support the purchase of a 3DS. Gimmicks like a 3D without glasses wear thin if you have nearly nothing decent to play it on. Nintendo figured if they just pin the word Nintendo it'll be a best seller. 3DS still looks like a DS to me, hardware spec might be improved, but that's not saying much if you don't have a sufficient library of games to fully utilize it. Just like the Sony Phone Xperia. They had how many actual games for that thing before it was only Android apps? If Sony has any sense left, get the developers on the ball for releases for their Vita on the release date for the Vita. Also STOP downgrading the hardware specs.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it is more than the PS3. The PS3 has 256MB of CPU RAM + 256MB of VRAM. The Vita is 512MB + 128MB. Add the fact that the resolution is lower and it turns out to be a pretty capable system.

Re:Finally, something that doesn't record in 720p.

[kaffiene]

"Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less."

That is stupid beyond belief

2 analog sticks

[whiteboy86]

probably the most important spec. for me

Re:2 analog sticks

[stms]

The most important spec for me is that they dropped Pro Duo support in favor of a new proprietary format. Which is bullshit it's the same memory with a slightly different plastic molding (and probably slightly different pinning). Maybe they'll come out with one of these in PSVita sooner rather than later.

Re:2 analog sticks

[Gravatron]

games come on a new format, but the other slot has always just been labeled 'memory card'. I don't know if they have ever said what format it would be. I'm hoping ether sd cards or memory sticks. Given they want to have downloadable games, i'm thinking SD cards, as they woudl be the cheapest to support per gb.

Re:2 analog sticks

[Narishma]

The proprietary cards are for games, not storage.

Re:2 analog sticks

[stms]

This is the article I found it might be for the games but I'm pretty sure it's the new memory.

Re:2 analog sticks

[sonicmerlin]

Have you seen videos of people playing on them? They're located so far down it looks like we'll all get thumb cramps. Why the devil don't they switch the location of the left D-Pad and the left analog stick?

Re:2 analog sticks

[whiteboy86]

Both sticks located down is a Playstation thing.. you are right that the inversed placement with stick above the pad and buttons might have been better, but that would be kind like on Xbox.

Re:2 analog sticks

[sonicmerlin]

But watch the videos of people playing on it. The sticks are too small and the unit is not ergonomic. Thumb cramps will be frequent if they maintain the current placement.

But will it be fun...

[Darkness404]

But will it be fun? Hardware specs mean nothing if there aren't any good games for it. Hopefully Sony learns from Nintendo's mistake and actually has a decent library of games. Still waiting on a non-remake or original DS game to play on my 3DS I got as a gift back in June...

Re:But will it be fun...

[stms]

I've had both a PSP and a DS since they came out I've played every major game since their release. The PSP's library is much better than the DS's though still not that impressive. Hopefully the Vita will be better.

Re:But will it be fun...

[JackAxe]

Your comment about the 3DS can be said about pretty much every console prior.

A brand new system always requires time for developers to figure it out and more importantly to test the waters, so as to make sure it's worth investing in with original IPs, or pretty much anything that's not just a port.

Re:But will it be fun...

[Anonymous Coward]

Release titles

Uncharted NGP
Little Deviants
Call of Duty
Lumines NGP
Sonic Generations
Mortal Kombat
Lego Harry Potter
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
F1 2011
Hot Shot Golf Next
FIFA 12
Wipeout

Re:But will it be fun...

[Trilkin]

Om nom Lumines.

Re:But will it be fun...

[RogueyWon]

Actually, two of the three "home" console launches last time around had a "killer title"; the PS3 had Resistance and the Wii had Zelda (and Wii Sports, I suppose). The 360 didn't really have one - Project Gotham 3 was probably the closest, but it did have a decent second wave of games that hit a few months after launch. Actually, if you look at the last handheld generation, the DS had Mario 64 and the PSP had Wipeout, Lumines and Ridge Racer.

That said, the biggest problem for the 3DS (after the deficiencies of the console itself, which I've posted about previously) is probably perception. It's gained a reputation as a flop, which given how risk-averse the games industry is right now, means that most of the announcements we see concerning 3DS games at the moment are about the cancellation of previously announced games, rather than the launch of new ones.

It's not quite over for Nintendo with the 3DS yet. They've had some better hardware sales since they cut the price - but one or two good weeks of sales does not make a success. If they can manage to get the thing to be the hot Christmas item in the way the DS had been previously (I still have nightmares of trying to find a pink DS-lite for a niece a couple of years ago), then it can be turned around. If we get to New Year and the thing still isn't resonating with the public, then it's finished.

The Vita hits with a much stronger launch lineup - though it's really unfortunate that it'll miss Christmas in most of the world. I would have thought, however, that a proper Call of Duty title, with the kind of graphics that the hardware should be able to drive and twin stick controls, would be a powerful system seller. The challenge for Sony (other than getting stuff like the battery life right) is to make sure that there's a decent second-wave of games behind the launch titles - because that's where the PSP fell down after a strong launch. The most important game for Sony to get announced is one that I have no interest in playing myself; a Monster Hunter game. That's how they could lock down the Japanese market, which will be where the machine will probably have to pass its first reputational test.

Re:But will it be fun...

[Anonymous Coward]

but psp already has a bad precedent in losing its battle against first gen ds.

less user base correlate to less developers, to less quality games and to a slow in the user-base growth.

Re:But will it be fun...

[rcrodgers]

Well, the Vita's library is starting off strong with games in the Uncharted, KillZone, LittleBigPlanet, and Wipeout franchises supposedly at launch. The question is will they keep up the production of AAA titles? The PSP started off strong, but the popular titles trickled off to almost nothing within a year, and only the occasional sporadic AAA title really kept it going this long. Then there's the disparity with accessories as well... Although the XMB on my PSP[-1000] has an option for an apparent camera attachment, one was never released here in the US, though it was in Japan and I think Europe. Later models got the camera, built-in microphones and other features, but even now on the PS3, depending on which continent you say you are on when you set up your PSN account, you get different options. That needs to end; give all users all options and accessories.

Re:But will it be fun...

[DJHeRobotExVV]

Having worked for the company - and specific studio - that's doing Call of Duty for the Vita, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's going to be unmitigated trash. Activision has damn near every studio of theirs under the sun working on some port or other of Call of Duty, but unless the studio is Infinity Ward, it's almost universally crap. Mark my words, Call of Duty will go the way of Guitar Hero within two years if Activision gets its way.

Re:But will it be fun...

[RogueyWon]

On the quality of the game - you're almost certainly right. I've played every major installment in the Call of Duty series and, with the exception of CoD4 (which was genuinely fresh and exciting), I've hated every single one of them. Modern Warfare 2's campaign was so bad I'm still convinced it must have been a practical joke. Black Ops was an absolute triumph of hype over quality; you can find no end of superior fpses across every platform.

However, thus far it's not stopped the games selling in bucketloads. If the Vita version can move a lot of consoles, then whether the game is any good or not isn't really all that relevant from Sony's POV.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Tumbleweed]

What android phones or iphone have actual joysticks? I must have missed those. And which ones have quad cores and the highest-end PowerVR GPU? And 5-inch OLED screen? This is a portable game console, not a phone that can do lightweight gaming. There IS a place for dedicated hardware, even if you personally don't need or want it.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the latter list of specs (wouldn't expect it to considering the timing of it's development and release), but the Xperia Play has a form of joysticks... Maybe not what you would hope for, but it is there...

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Cryacin]

How about the MOPS? http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/14/mops-shadow-t800-brings-analog-joystick-hearts-and-spades-to-andr/ That has an analog joystick.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Hsien-Ko]

I don't think iPhone and Android will do better in the games department. These gaming suited handhelds are designed for people with better attention spans than a goldfish.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

There used to be a place for 10, 20 and 50 hours games with deep content, too. Now the market is ruled at 99% by quick-play, 99 cents games.

Don't kid yourself. What you think of as "real gamers" is dropping in numbers even faster than regular people are replacing them. The PS Vita will flop just like the Nintendo 3DS.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Yvan256]

Hey, what do you mean by better attention span - Look, a squirrel!

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Tumbleweed]

"806MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, front and rear 5 megapixel and 0.3 megapixel cameras, respectively, a 3.5 inch 320 x 480 touchscreen"

Whoo, impressive specs. Yes, that will definitely destroy the PS Vita in the market.

Battery capacity and real life endurance?

[Rogerborg]

Shush, heathen! Look at the flashy pictures!

Re:Battery capacity and real life endurance?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously Sony has MASSIVE ADVANCES in battery tech that they've been keeping secret for this entire time.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a short attention span when I was younger. It is even shorter today and I certainly played GameBoy back in the day. Games like Super Mario and Mega Man. I can't even imagine playing any recent games. They all stink.

Short isn't necessarily bad although it certainly isn't usually entertainment that is umm terribly rewarding. I would prefer games like Tetris with two players and a friend or sibling to play with. Or super mario and similar type games. I liked Mega Man too although this was a bit harder. So much so it was frustrating because you couldn't get very far.

I played a lot of game boy going cross country so I have a little clue here. I can't imagine what kids today would do today. I guess they have more gizmos than ever before although half of them would be useless in a car. Maybe movies although physical media is going away with the Internet and prices are too high for purchases anyway to make it a cost effective option for most young people (and you wonder why kids are so apt to pirate). All this boils down to there are a lot of places without cellular access and most entertainment devices today not working in many environments. I bet most parents wouldn't be as crazy as mine were to do a trip cross country. We went cross country a number of times from the time I was for to the time I was 12. Each trip was about 30 days too.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[mattcsn]

Let me know when you can buy an IOS or Android device as capable as a Vita or 3DS for the same prices, with no monthly contract.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[MacTO]

I remember the days when gamers lusted for a 50 MHz processor and 16 MB of RAM. (Cameras. Ha! Touchscreen. Giggle! Dual analog sticks? Only if you had a joystick in each hand.)

What really matters is how much fun the game is. And here's the crazy part: different people have different definitions of fun. So the vast majority are just going to yawn at Sony's new gizmo and go back to gaming on their phone.

(Granted, from my limited experience with games on the cell phone, they do suck. But that has more to do with developers wanting to make cheap games for an audience that'll pay a buck or two for anything.)

Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[CanEHdian]

This means that the life of your Vita will be equal to the life (as in: able to hold a reasonable charge) of your internal battery. I'm on my 3rd battery for my June 2005 PSP-1000, so this is not without precedent. I'm sure you'll be able to find specialist stores that will put in a new battery for you, but this won't be cheap.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[game kid]

That won't matter. Everyone is a fan of Sony, so you'll just buy 10 of them in advance. If you weren't buying more than 3 you were probably a dirty game-copying pirate anyway, and the Vita's DRM will sense the evil in your fingers and use the last of its charge to give your location to Sony's team of Apache pilots and horror-movie schoolgirls.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[chrb]

After discussions with my iPhone owning friends, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that the only people who care about user replaceable batteries are a small subset of nerds and engineers. IMHO, the battery - the part that will degrade faster than any other component of a mobile device - should be easily field replaceable. But nobody cares. Apparently, "real people" buy a new mobile device every 12-24 months, so a user replaceable battery is a pointless feature.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[Luckyo]

That's about phones, and in a country where essentially no one buys a phone without a contract. It's a cultural thing, folks in USA are used to paying a shitload of money in installments, but almost nothing in front. I believe it has to do with way finances are designed to work for individuals in USA, essentially slaving them to stable income, and encouraging debt that's just barely repayable.

Go to some EU countries, or even third world and you'll see the exact opposite. That's why nokia is still the king of phones across third world - it's phones are actually honest to god cheap rather then "costs you an arm and a leg, but will cut them off slowly over 2 years as you pay its actual price".

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

Go to some EU countries, or even third world and you'll see the exact opposite. That's why nokia is still the king of phones across third world - it's phones are actually honest to god cheap rather then "costs you an arm and a leg, but will cut them off slowly over 2 years as you pay its actual price".

this is it. nokia doesn't disable features like bluetooth file transfers and tethering on its phones like the others. because it sells directly to users. it charges a price people think fair for the phone and then people are free to pay a fair price for their network usage. in us, the cost of the phone and the network usage is all mixed up, hidden. you simply do not know how much you are paying to the device manufacturer and how much to the carrier. and this lack of transparency keeps the prices a bit high.
what i've found is that if i buy a phone for $300 (~14k INR), and then use a prepaid sim, it turns out to be a lot cheaper than getting a phone (almost) free and paying $20 (~800 INR) every month for the network. also, phones bought directly from the manufacturer are usually easier to hack into and modify.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

I replaced the battery on an iPhone 3GS last week - it took me 15 minutes. Not bad, since by having it totally internal the battery can be much bigger (no need for the battery door or battery bay, and you can make the case smaller).

For something you only have to do *at most* every couple of years, I think 15 minutes is a reasonable trade off. The battery in my iPhone 3G is still almost as good as they day I bought it, and it will continue in its 2 year+ service in the hands of a family member.

The replaceable battery issue is an edge case for the vast, vast majority of consumers - batteries are lasting longer (in terms of lifespan) than ever before, and the benefits of making it bigger and not having to compromise to make it possible to remove with a battery door completely outweigh the benefits of being able to swap it without using tools.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

Who disables tethering? If you're talking about the iPhone it supports tethering out of the box, always has.

It does need bluetooth file transfer though - OS X can do it, so iOS can, it's just not enabled.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[toriver]

But share to and from where? Most files on an iOS device are "owned" by each app. iOS 5 seems to introduce some "home" folders for music, pictures etc. so perhaps the home directory can have Bluetooth file transfer enabled...

And yes, tethering or no tethering on an iPhone is up to the operator to decide, I have tethering from my operator but Americans on AT&T pay extra (as if bytes over tethering are more expensive or something).

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[pankkake]

At least in France, it's not the case, even if credits cards and other financial enslavement tools are not widespread there. The sad thing is that people are actually convinced they save money! They don't (at best it's a loan with 0% interest) and they get a two-year locked contract, a simlocked phone, etc.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[Anonymous Coward]

I am hoping Sony and Apple will merge and the combined evilness will result in a mini blackhole which will suck them out of our dimension.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[Anonymous Coward]

In the UK people still sign themselves up to the indenture servitude of a mobile phone contract.

I am convinced it's down to poor maths skills, the inability to take monthly price * contract period + upfront costs, and compare with a one-off buy outright price plus cheap sim-only. Such people don't think about the extra value of an unlocked phone which isn't crippled by the carrier - Orange in the UK are the worst for screwing up the phone by removing apps and adding bloat.

The only time, IME, when a contract is cheaper is when the phone is coming to the end of its product cycle and the carriers are dumping stock, and then maybe a month later the off-contract unlocked ones fall too.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry but it's the same deal in most of Europe, and Nokia doesn't hold much ground there anymore. It's mostly Apple, Samsung, RIM and HTC leading the dance. And the cheapest phones are from Samsung (E1150 under €20 without contract).

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[John Betonschaar]

Nice try, but the iPhone batteries don't actually noticeably degrade in 12-24 months, and even after 2 years battery life is still much better than the vast majority of other smartphones. If you really insist on keeping an iPhone for longer than 2 or 3 years, you can always replace the battery or have it replaced cheaply by the way, the warranty would have expired by then anyway.

My 2 year old 3GS still gets around 48 hours on a single charge if I don't use it a lot, and even with the heaviest of usage it never runs out of charge over the course of a single day. Many people I know with spakning new Android phones carry around a cable or charger all the time because they sometimes don't even make it to a 10-hour work day, with their 'replaceable batteries'.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

iphone does not do tethering, i really dunno what you're talking about. also, it does not do bluetooth transfer. again, i don't understand the fucking point of you writing "OS X can do it, so iOS can, it's just not enabled." you could just have said, "you're right, other phones including iphone disable features on the request of operators."

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

whenever i have needed to change the battery on my phone, i just took it to the shop where they sell batteries and they change it for me. i neer have to do it myself. is this not possible with iphones? i doubt it.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jseale]

Go to some EU countries, or even third world and you'll see the exact opposite. That's why nokia is still the king of phones across third world - it's phones are actually honest to god cheap rather then "costs you an arm and a leg, but will cut them off slowly over 2 years as you pay its actual price".

Yeah but Nokia's the king of phones for the wrong reason. Their phones are still running the Symbian OS and Windows Phone 7 won't be appearing on them for quite some time. Nokia's phones are pretty much dead in the water, technologically speaking.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

My point re: bluetooth file transfer is that iOS uses the OS X bluetooth stack since it is derived from OS X. and OS X does do bluetooth file transfers, so there's no technical reason why the iPhone cannot - it wouldn't be hard to add it to iOS, especially if it was send-only on a per-app basis (to better fit with the way the filesystem is designed on iOS).

As far as "the iPhone can't do tethering", well my iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS would beg to differ. I use them with tethering all the time (and they are not jailbroken). It works just fine. So you might "really dunno what I'm talking about" because you are ignorant of the features of the phone and instead just repeating some often-modded-up lie on slashdot about it not being able to tether.

Just to make it clear: the iPhone 3g, 3GS and 4 support tethering by default out of the box with no jailbreaking.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

My point re: bluetooth file transfer is that iOS uses the OS X bluetooth stack since it is derived from OS X. and OS X does do bluetooth file transfers, so there's no technical reason why the iPhone cannot - it wouldn't be hard to add it to iOS, especially if it was send-only on a per-app basis (to better fit with the way the filesystem is designed on iOS).

whatever, the bottom line is that i can send/receive files over bluetooth using my 10 year old dumbphone and i can't do that on the latest iteration of iphone. and you are actually reaffirming my original point: non-nokia cellphone manufacturers (including apple) remove features from their devices on the request of operators.

As far as "the iPhone can't do tethering", well my iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS would beg to differ. I use them with tethering all the time (and they are not jailbroken). It works just fine. So you might "really dunno what I'm talking about" because you are ignorant of the features of the phone and instead just repeating some often-modded-up lie on slashdot about it not being able to tether.

Just to make it clear: the iPhone 3g, 3GS and 4 support tethering by default out of the box with no jailbreaking.

i dunno where you got this magical device from but all operators (that i know of) who sell iphone do not allow you to do tethering. google it up, people who can do tethering out-of-the-box on an iphone should be a minuscule minority.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

Yes, I know it might be hard for you to understand but I am agreeing with your point about bluetooth file transfer, I was just addressing why I mentioned the link to OS X, since the bluetoth stack in iOS is essentially the exact same one that is in OS X.

And if by "small minority" of iPhone users who "can tether out of the box" you mean "everyone who is not in the USA" then, yes, I guess that is a "small minority".

The iPhone can tether out of the box, and it has been able to for a very long time. I use the feature frequently, and have been able to since I bought my first iPhone (a 3G). I now have a 3GS. It also tethers out of the box, with no need to jailbreak etc.

All of the UK carriers support it for certain, as do most of the carriers in all the other countries the phone is sold in. I think the exception to the rule is AT&T (and possibly Verizon), although I am not sure if they have changed their policies recently (it's been a while since I lived in the USA).

So, no "magical device", just a stock iPhone... that tethers, on my carrier. I could switch to any other carrier here and it would also be able to tether (oh, and my phone is not locked to one carrier either).

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

so, all that means is that uk carriers are being a bit more liberal in handing out features. apple would still block features if any operator asks them to (which it does everywhere out of the uk it seems). my point stands: nokia is the only manufacturer which does not limit features to please operators, it adds features to please end users. and its getting fucked due to people like you who value bling over functionality.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

"Apple" does not block features - the carriers block features. The version of iOS that runs on my phone is no different to the one you have in the USA (I know because I used to live there, and updated using the US version of iTunes etc). It's a *carrier* decision on wether to allow certain features, and as far as tethering goes, the iPhone supports it just fine. "Apple" is not blocking it in the US, which is demonstrated easily by putting in a SIM card from any other carrier (it's not just the UK, tethering is common in nearly all the countries where the iPhone is sold) into a standard US iPhone and tethering works immediately.

The phone has the ability - Apple are not blocking it at all. Amusingly, I can even tether my iPhone, over AT&T's network, using my O2 iPhone (although I tend not to when travelling to the US because of the roaming charges).

Now, on bluetooth, they just didn't give iOS the ability to transfer files over bluetooth - that *is* an Apple restriction, likely because of the way iOS handles files (it doesn't really expose a filesystem to the user)

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

don't you get it?? how i use the data i pay for is not a fucking "carrier decision". its _my_ decision. take a sim card of *any* operator, even one that doesn't allow tethering on iphone, and put it in a nokia. tehering works. it does not in iphone. period.
ps - i'm tired of trying to explain my viewpoint, so this will probably be my last reply to this thread.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

I've got news for you - how you use the data *is* your carrier's decision if they so wish. They are not obligated to provide the service to you (i.e., the contract you sign is quite specific).

I'm not sure how I can explain it any more simply than "iPhone = tethering = I am doing it", so your claim that it "doesn't work" is simply fallacious. The US carriers disable it, although I just googled it - you *CAN* tether on AT&T with the iPhone. Funny that.

So, it seems even in the US they have come around, although you have to have a tethering plan.

Either way, the fact that it "works" on a nokia and not an iPhone is not a manufacturer issue - it's a detection by the carrier. You can see this easily by putting my O2 sim into a US iPhone and then tethering works right away (even on AT&T's network).

You're trying to spin this as some sort of "Apple is evil and cripples their phones!" conspiracy, but it's really nothing to do with them. They don't do anything on the phone that blocks the tethering ability - that is entirely enforced by the carrier that detects the type of phone being used.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[ceoyoyo]

You can replace the battery in an iPhone for about $20. It's actually FAR cheaper than the extra battery I bought for my pre-iPhone RAZR.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[gmhowell]

don't you get it?? You're a fucking retard. Way back near the beginning of the thread, you said that iPhones cannot tether, with the strong implication that this was a technical deficiency on Apple's part. JoHam corrected you. Rather than accept that the world does not begin nor end on our shores (I'm an American) AND that you might just be mistaken, you went full bore arrogant nerd. Get over yourself. Learn that you may make mistakes...

From time to time.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[gmhowell]

My gf only removes the battery from her Blackberry when she needs to do a hard reset (1-2x per month, it seems). I'm guessing that my iPhone4 is being hard reset when I hold down whatever magical keypresses I'm told to. The geek in me wants to know 'for sure'. But the grownup part of me says "I don't give a shit."

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah? Well I bought a 3500mAh battery for $10, including shipping, for my Android phone. It more than doubled the battery life of my phone and I'll be ordering a few more as spares.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[gmhowell]

whenever i have needed to change the battery on my phone, i just took it to the shop where they sell batteries and they change it for me. i neer have to do it myself. is this not possible with iphones? i doubt it.

See, you almost seemed human there, trying to improve your information. But with the last line, 'I doubt it', you prove that you are one of those subspecies of nerds, the weasly dipshit, who was not wedgied anywhere near enough while growing up.

FYI, if you in any way should belong on a site that is 'news for nerds', replacing a battery on any iPhone or iPod touch should be a no brainer. The current iPhone requires only a few steps for battery replacement. Remove screws, open case, remove another screw, remove battery. I understand that this highly complicated and technical procedure probably requires a chipfab clean room, super sensitive instruments, and years of training, but I bet one, maybe two people on this site (and at your mall battery kiosk) could figure it out.

Should I have have need to replace the battery in my phone, I'll video my 10yo kid doing it and then post it on YouTube for your benefit.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

i didnt even mention iphones in my original post. jo_ham got it into his head to defend the idevices against an imaginary critic he saw in me. my point is this: nokia does not disable features on operator's request, because it mostly sells directly to the user. other phone manufacturers otoh, disable many features which annoy networks. then i said i found the buy handset outright, pay lower costs for network strategy to be better (cheaper) than buy subsidized handset and pay hand over foot every month.
i don't even care what iphone can and can't do. i'm never gonna buy that piece of shit, seeing what it has done to normal people's minds (like yours), who now feel an obligation to rant against everyone who is not praising apple.
ps - i am not american. i have never even visited the usa.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[gmhowell]

My point is this: you made a blatantly false, ignorant claim, and tried to chase after it for several messages. My linking you to the US was an attempt to give your stupidity the benefit of the doubt. Now you can't even make that claim.

I'm not talking about praising or panning something. I'm talking about not making shit up, speaking from ignorance, or just lying. You're guilty of one of the three. Take your pick. "iphone does not do tethering," is your assertion. It is wrong. This isn't me calling you out because "you didn't praise Apple". It's me calling you a fucking ignorant liar. If I had said that you were a jackass because you don't agree with Apple's method of syncing songs on an iOS device, your claim would bear merit. But no. You made up a fact (or lied) and continued to lie (or deceive).

You are entitled to your own opinion; you are not entitled to your own facts.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

i dunno how to make this any clearer: iphone does not do tethering out-of-the box. this is my first hand experience. and this is a major gripe many people have. that at&t now allows iphones to tether just goes to prove my point: apple blocks features based on operator request.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

the carrier has no fucking way of detecting if data is being used for tethering or not, without the phone's help. if such a detection is possible on iphone, it means apple blocks features when the network wishes. nokia do not, so their phones can tether over any network, at the same charges you browse on the phone itself.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[jo_ham]

I think you'll find it is - reference any of the stories on slashdot about the way the 3G system works, and how the packets are identified on the network.

You're now changing your argument, since you seem to be no longer denying that the iPhone "can't" tether, so it seems like I'm arguing with someone who started from an incorrect position and it learning and changing their argument as they go. Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with all the facts before getting into a debate, especially if your opening argument is to state something factually incorrect to "correct" me on something that I am doing with my phone right this second.

Re:Fear Confirmed: non-replaceable battery

[perryizgr8]

...started from an incorrect position...your opening argument is to state something factually incorrect...

my opening argument didnt even mention the fucking iphone. reading comprehension, bitch.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Tumbleweed]

Some people will be fine with cellphone games, but some games just don't play well with a touchscreen interface. That's fine - not every product has to appeal to everyone. As long as Sony can keep the price down and attract good games, it shouldn't be a problem for them. I am disappointed that they went with a proprietary memory card (again), and LTE would have been very nice, assuming they could have done it without killing battery life (which they probably couldn't with the current generation of LTE chips).

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh... iPod Touch? Ok, so the 4th gen has half the memory and not as fast CPU but the 5th gen is likely around the corner.

In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Apple, HTC, Samsung and Googlerola have announced every single phone they sell in 2012 year either matches or exceed every single one of these specs.

Re:In other [future] news

[Chris Mattern]

Really? They all have two analog sticks?

Re:In other [future] news

[vux984]

Apple, HTC, Samsung and Googlerola have announced every single phone they sell in 2012 year either matches or exceed every single one of these specs.

1) Except for analog sticks, d-pads, and shoulder buttons. Controls is a spec too. My cellphone can be used as a remote control for my TV too... and its got way higher specs than my universal remote to boot... but nobody is predicting the end of remote's. The remote does the job perfectly ... because its a convenient shape, with tactile buttons that are arranged usefully. Cell phones utterly suck at it, with awkward controls.

2) I'm not buying my 7 and 9 year olds cell phones. But a portable console? Yeah, that could happen.

Phones and mobile games are definitely going to eat handheld consoles market share in a major way in the segments they overlap, but that overlap is not complete.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

I would not expect an iPhone to have any, but Android manufacturers are crazy seeking gimmicks to sell their devices over the others. Would not be shocked if one or all (but Apple) adds sticks or gamepads to one of their Android phone lines.

Talking off, my wife owns a Samsung Gravity, horribly cheap so the graphical capabilities suck, but I was thinking that the side-slide out qwerty keyboard would be great for gaming. Even better if it was replaced by plain dpads and few face buttons.

There is one thing that keeps Android going and it's precisely the kind of crazy unexpected stuff manufacturers can do with them.

Also some people have been making some crazy attachments that emulate bluetooth keyboards that can be paired with Androids and iOS devices. They just started coming out but I would not be shocked if they slowly became more and more popular and more game developers supported them. The face of mobile gaming is changing very fast and a portable that wont get updated for 5 years may not live long.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

I personally have no issue with on-screen joysticks but understand that others do.

No one is predicting the end of the remotes because remotes cost between 5 and 10 dollars and their batteries last months. With portable gaming devices, there are no such advantages. Only advantage the japanese handheld has over a phone is removable media game ownership (some may not consider that an advantage but many gamers do, for now) and big japanese studio support.

Tactile controls, as I noted in another reply, may not be a long lasting advantage. Samsung may release a phone next month with analog sticks and offer it as the "definitive gaming android device" and the others may follow suit very very fast. Even if they dont, there are people out there making bluetooth attachments that add these input schemes. Wont be long before some one like MadCatz start offering bluetooth cases with very discrete but tactile inputs. I would expect some to show by the end of 2012.

Finally, I think i would rather give my 9 year old a phone that I only had to pay 200 tops for (subsidized) than a 400 gaming device. With the phone, he can contact me in emergencies and, if properly configured, I can track down his location. But thats me.

The overlap may not be complete, but this thing already ate into the japanese handheld market share (its not going to happen, it already happened.) It has been moving so incredibly fast (in less than 3 years) that I would not be shocked if the only advantage vanished by the end of 2012.

Re:In other [future] news

[uofitorn]

As the others have already replied to your post, gaming stinks on the Android and iPhone platforms. Without physical controls it's not very much fun to game on a touchscreen unless all you do is play sudoku.

Re:In other [future] news

[jo_ham]

"Gaming stinks"

I think you mean "some types of gaming stink".

If the iPhone and Android have shown anything it's that there was a hugely underserved portion of the market who were after exactly the sort of games that excel on those platforms.

Re:In other [future] news

[Narishma]

This thing costs $250 and the 3DS $170, what $400 gaming device are you talking about?

Re:In other [future] news

[Anonymous Coward]

Like what? Anything that can be done on a touchscreen can be done with a mouse.

Re:In other [future] news

[jo_ham]

Like what? Anything that can be done on a touchscreen can be done with a mouse.

Playing a game on the train, or bus, especially while standing up.

Playing a game for a few minutes while waiting in a queue.

Playing a virtual piano keyboard, or other multitouch input where the screen being right underneath works better than a trackpad.

Re:In other [future] news

[toriver]

I am not going to wave a mouse around while standing on a train. That just looks silly.

Re:In other [future] news

[Chris Mattern]

I would not expect an iPhone to have any

Then your previous statement is blatantly false; iPhones will not exceed all specs of the Vita if they don't have analog sticks.

Re:In other [future] news

[fafaforza]

But how much is that $200 cellphone costing you over the lifespan of that 2 year contract?

Re:In other [future] news

[fafaforza]

But isn't the market comprised of people looking to kill a few minutes here and there? So you end up with simple games of throwing bombs or something. A very different market to the more "hardcore" one where games take hours to complete.

Also, a touchscreen isn't a panacea of gaming. I have little interest in covering a third of my screen with my thumb or finger every time I want to do something. Would have somewhat taken from the experience, I'd reckon.

Re:In other [future] news

[jo_ham]

Oh I agree, but my point was to address the blanket statement that "gaming stinks" on touchscreen devices, when it clearly has a huge and ever-growing market of games that just weren't being adequately served by more "pure" gaming platforms - perhaps the DS was just about getting there, but the games were still expensive.

As a tangential point, that puts the PS Vitalite (ooooh, ooooh Vitalite!) in a slightly different demographic to the iPhone and iPod Touch, but certainly with some overlap.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Balance, my friend. An iPhone with better graphic power, 1 full gig of ram, perhaps, and 960x640 with just touch input will be considered by many (perhaps most, Epic Games, EA and Carmack included) to exceed the vita listed specs.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Given I will need the cellphone contract anyways, a better question is how much I save by using what I'd call a gaming device to make my phone calls. :)

Re:In other [future] news

[fafaforza]

Gaming on touchscreen phones doesn't suck. It has it's strong points and uses. But I see it as a different market. It's the '5 minute time waster' market that was already growing on the PC the past few years with various web based Java/JS games.

I wonder how it all will play out. Will dedicated devices have room to coexist, or will developers start making "feature" games for the phones from looking at the hype and growth, and will people spend $20 or $30 on a 30 hour RPG for a cell phone and kill off dedicated devices?

One big advantage that dedicated devices have is that publishers know the hardware, whereas they might be making a game that's played on a whole gamut of resolutions, screen sizes, system resources, etc. Unpredictable environments like that would raise their cost for testing, more code, and more customer support.

So sure, you sell twice as many games for the phone, but you also increase your costs.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

The device is useless without at least 2 or 3 of those premium priced games that are so highly priced because they must be distributed to stores, where the store and every single distributor in between the studio and you wants a large cut of the sale.

Also, decent phones start at $50 today, ponder how things will be there by the end of 2012.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

One big advantage that dedicated devices have is that publishers know the hardware, whereas they might be making a game that's played on a whole gamut of resolutions, screen sizes, system resources, etc. Unpredictable environments like that would raise their cost for testing, more code, and more customer support.

Thats something that keeps iOS in a competitive spot and why so many big name developers back up that platform. For the most part, its just one spec with very few differences from previous generations. Android phones can suffer the issues you mention, but are more likely to get built in joysticks in the near future.

Re:In other [future] news

[sonicmerlin]

No one who cares about specs is going to do serious coming on a touchscreen.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Tell that to John Carmack
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/08/01/quake-founder-john-carmack-iphone-better-than-dedicated-gaming-systems/
http://www.bnet.com/blog/gadget-guy/john-carmacks-rage-why-the-iphone-game-is-a-success/1038
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/19/ids-carmack-talks-rage-hd-ipads-power-and-future-ios-games/

And you can google many more interviews and statements of him backing up phone gaming as the platform that will win in the long run. Unless you are implying Carmack does not care about specs.

Re:In other [future] news

[Chris Mattern]

No, they won't. Because it doesn't. It exceeds it in some specs and not in others.

Re:In other [future] news

[Chris Mattern]

No, I am implying that Carmack is not saying the Vita exceeds the iPhone in all specs.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Unless you have two logins and are also sonicmerlin, my post was to him saying "no one who cares about specs is going to do serious coming on a touchscreen".

Re:In other [future] news

[sonicmerlin]

Carmack is a game developer, not a game player. He obviously enjoys the challenge of coding for limited systems, but gamers aren't going to settle for feeble touch-screen controls and $2 time wasters. And just like the console vs. PC issue, smartphone games are much more easily pirated.

Re:In other [future] news

[Tharsman]

Carmack is not a game player? Really? wow.

Anyways, serious question, have you actually looked at least to iOS gaming? Your statement of "feeble touch screen controls and $2 time wasters" makes it seem as you haven't and are just running off what you have heard from Sony's cellphone gaming bashing.

There are loads of games, very high quality games from publishers like Square Enix (Final Fantasy 3 for $15, Chaos Ring, an iOS exclusive so far, for around $12, between many others,) Capcom's Street Fighter IV for $6.99, Unreal Engine powered Infinity Blade and loads of quality games (arguably a bit unoriginal in some of their central themes but high quality none the less) ranging from $7-$10 from GameLoft (they also make games for the PSP and DS.) Thats also with many high quality names by lesser known companies like NyxQuest for 4.99.

Many of the 99c games are also extremely good, like the now legendary Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and the Zenonia RPG series, between many many others.

Cant speak much for Android, but iOS is loaded with great games on covering a huge spectrum of quality and prices.

I own a Nintendo DS Lite and a PSP. I barely use them due to how bulky they are, unless I am carrying my laptop bag with me, I leave the things at home, and at home I have consoles to play with. I own FF3 for the DS and ended up restarting the game in the iPod Touch because it looks insanely better there, plus the iPod Touch does not look like a tumor in my tight when I put it in my pocket.

I will must also add: I spent 2 years owning an iPhone and not bothering with gaming, thinking on-screen touch controls were stupid. After playing with them a bit I realized it was a baseless assumption. Touch controls have an unfounded bad reputation.

As for piracy, PSP and DS piracy is notoriously easy, not that a player should care about that (unless they want to pirate.)

Re:In other [future] news

[vux984]

You need a cell phone contract for your 7 and 9 year old?

Re:In other [future] news

[vux984]

The device is useless without at least 2 or 3 of those premium priced games that are so highly priced because they must be distributed to stores, where the store and every single distributor in between the studio and you wants a large cut of the sale.

You can buy games via the handhelds "app store" for $5-$15 bucks. Granted they aren't the premium experience of the latest tier one titles are for $40 bucks... but then neither is "Angry Birds" .

And if phones do manage to completely wrestle control of the handheld market away from consoles... expect to see $40+ titles in the app store.

Also, decent phones start at $50 today,

$50 + $20/mo. The handheld is still cheaper after 5 months. I still play my 10 year old GBA.

ponder how things will be there by the end of 2012

Good point. The handheld console I buy today will be supported by new games for the next several years.

The handset I buy today will be obsolete in 6 months, and game support on it will be hit and miss after that... probably mostly miss.

Even on the iphone, which is by far the least fragmented smart phone OS and with one of longer support curves, even here many titles will not run on an iphone or iphone 3G. And the3GS lacks the power for some new titles as well.

Good luck getting a new premium game to run on a 2 year old android.

Re:In other [future] news

[vux984]

No one is predicting the end of the remotes because remotes cost between 5 and 10 dollars and their batteries last months

I should have said "universal remotes". Stuff like the Harmony 700, 900, Onem and beyond. $100-$350 and beyond, usb programmable, touch screens, costs as much as a cellphone and absolutely inferior to a cellphone in terms of specs and performance.

But the UI is a remote. Compared to using a remote control "app" for your phone... well there is just no comparison. The remote is far and away the better device for the job.

Tactile controls, as I noted in another reply, may not be a long lasting advantage. Samsung may release a phone next month with analog sticks and offer it as the "definitive gaming android device" and the others may follow suit very very fast

And they may discontinue it shortly thereafter. And others might release phones with different numbers and placements of buttons.

Samsung X has two analogs a d-pad, and 2 shoulder buttons and a/b/x/y. HTC Y has 1 analog 2 dpads, 4 shoulder buttons, and x/y. Motorola Z has 1 dpad and a/b.

And most phones won't have anything.

That's not really an improvement. And few developers will likely make good use of them.

Wont be long before some one like MadCatz start offering bluetooth cases with very discrete but tactile inputs. I would expect some to show by the end of 2012.

The iControlPad that's out now, is $100, and looks clumsy as hell. You can buy a DS Lite for that, and your well on your way to a PSP or 3DS.

The overlap may not be complete, but this thing already ate into the japanese handheld market share (its not going to happen, it already happened.)

it already happened.) It has been moving so incredibly fast (in less than 3 years) that I would not be shocked if the only advantage vanished by the end of 2012.

Most phones won't have controls developers can count on being present ever. Its an add on accessory at best. Consoles also have a MUCH longer service life. Anyone who would shell out for add on controls, and is willing to carry them around... might as well just buy a console.

can it run linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

can it run linux?

Re:can it run linux?

[MagusSlurpy]

Even if it does, undoubtedly Sony will take the option away a year or two into its life-cycle.

They haven't learned one PS3 lesson

[The Dawn Of Time]

They're gonna be taking a loss at the announced price, and I suspect they'll end up with a quick 3DS-like cut and hurt themselves even more.

Here's hoping it works out for them, though. I'd hate to see interesting long-form handheld games disappear in the vortex that is Apple's destruction of that particular market.

Re:They haven't learned one PS3 lesson

[perryizgr8]

if anyone can sell consoles at a loss for long enough to drive out others and turn profitable it is sony.

Re:They haven't learned one PS3 lesson

[Narishma]

Sony said they expect to make money from the Vita (as in the hardware) in 3 years. That's not counting what they'll get from software and accessory sales.

How To Spot The Idiots In A Console Thread

[Anonymous Coward]

The ones babbling about RAM sizes.

"Good luck Sony. Even if the Vita is a kick-ass product, you've got a hell of a battle in front of you."

Uh oh Sony! A random idiot posting on Slashdot just let everyone in the world know about 'teh RAM problem'.

LOL!

105 million PS1s
155 million P32s
55 million PS3s
75 million PSPs

Just think how many consoles Sony could have sold if they had your valuable insight into console graphics hardware design!

Re:How To Spot The Idiots In A Console Thread

[Osgeld]

yes, loosing 100 million customers in less than a decade is something to brag about.

Figured it would happen sooner or later.

[Truekaiser]

Someone would eat the pandora's lunch. I can already hear those people that are still in line for the first batch stampeding to the vita, once it's jail broken there will be no need for the pandora.

Re:Figured it would happen sooner or later.

[Anonymous Coward]

The wait for the Pandora and the problems its incurred are unfortunate. It was never in line to replace the Sony or Nintendo hand helds, and the addition of the keyboard makes playing PC games or doing web work possible as well. I have one and am quite happy with it, and am not looking to go over to Sony's device. Mainly because I like to tinker, and the Pandora caters to it, where all other consoles have tended to reject that.

I'd day, from my perspective, things like Steam, the xbox indie channel, and phone games when linked with something like the iControlPad are more likely to tweak my interest than another locked down device - and even in those realms there are a ton of restrictions to watch out for.

But there are a TON more gamers than there are game creators. I think the Pandora was a noble effort, I think they'll probably do better with the iControlPad even though it doesn't do everything the Pandora can. I'd like to think when they finally switch over to a new PCB manufacturer that they can start pumping those things out in indie hardware friendly numbers. All I can say is we'll see.

Re:Figured it would happen sooner or later.

[Truekaiser]

1. a physical keyboard for a handheld is not all it's cracked up to be. sure it's fine but with a good touch screen. better then the pandora's you can do without it. with a larger, multi-touch, capacitive screen. a on screen keyboard will not be much of a pain nor any slower.

2. since it looks like at this point a normal arm chip rather then a custom mipps will power it, the vita once the drm is hacked will be able to run various arm linux distro's providing a cheaper, more abundant and more powerful Home brew platform. you may value complete openness but even the majority of the people on the home brew scene only care about what works. I fully expect what little software support for the less then 1000(closer to 4-5 hundred from what i figure) pandora's in the wild the console is basically doa.

3. claim your not competing all you want but you still are regardless, because you still have to convince people. even those who use foss that you can either provide them with better entertainment then the mainstream consoles. Or that it's a must have device to buy on top of the mainstream consoles. previous the vita, and previous the pandora home brew on consoles was to say rather limited and they tended to jump platforms at the drop of the hat when one was hacked with more capable hardware. for example the psp home brew scene virtually died over night with a lot of the software stopped being updated and the custom firmware too when the ps3 was hacked. once the vita is hacked and if the pandora project is still around you 'will' loose devs in the same way. it has newer hardware at a cheaper price. $250 for the non 3g version. while the first batchers like myself payed $300. Unless your one of the idiots who payed $500 for a premium one.

which brings me to point 4

4. In all honest truth the project is dead. it's dead and their fault because evildragon full of arrogance thought he knew what he was doing but did not do any research beforehand thinking his experience making and selling cables for other home brew uses was enough. mistake one and a big one was how he went on about paying for the project. you get loans first before taking pre-orders to pay them off. it gives you a bit more flexibility. second you don't put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a personal bank account, doing so makes the bank think your a sudden drug dealer or similar criminal. he should of set up a corporate account or at least TALKED to his bank on what to do for a big influx of cash. three when negotiating production contracts never state your budget and always put in time clauses, extra money if they finish early and penalties if they finish late. or at least the latter, this is the main reason why circut-co has been fscking with them. they have no incentive to treat them well when they have nothing to gain from it compared to putting them off to the last minute while dealing with other work where finishing early means extra pay. fourth know what you can handle, four thousand units is a damn bit ambitious for such a young company on such a small scale. instead of four thousand units for the first batch he should of done one thousand or less. this would of made testing easier, repairs easier, and much easier on their pocketbooks.

Honestly when they announced that the pcb's from circuit-co have been sitting around long enough for the contacts to corrode, i realized they had been dealt a fatal blow. before this they were just limping along and hoping to break even from reading between the lines.

oh and one last piece of advice, don't name something pandora :P

PS3 Is The 3rd Fastest Selling Console In History

[VisibleSchlong]

"They haven't learned one PS3 lesson"

Hilarious!

Sony's PS3 is the 3rd fastest selling console in history - only the PS2 and Wii sold at a faster rate. The PS3 has outsold the PS3 the Xbox 360 every year it has been on the market while being 100-200 dollars more expensive.

And all this was while the PS3 was still the launch price of the PS2.

Take the fanboy goggles off and come join reality with the rest of us.

The iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM.

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this supposed to compete?

Re:The iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM.

[Narishma]

This is a handheld console, not a computer or a smartphone. It won't have a bloated general purpose OS taking most of the RAM. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are getting along just fine with less that that amount of RAM.

who?

[Osgeld]

What is sony? It sounds like a curse word.

Phones will outperform before the middle of 2011

[poly_pusher]

Maybe even the turn of the year. I am not optimistic, I just don't see the point of a standalone portable gaming device when we have phones that are running the Unreal 3 engine and Tegra 3 is boasting 5x the processing power of those devices. They need to stop wasting their time developing hardware and start using more of the computing devices we all have in our pockets already.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Samantha Wright]

Actually, they say it'll support 3G and voice chat. And you know what that means: SIDETALKIN', the feature all other phones envy!

Basically, while Android and iOS won't necessarily disappear from the games market over night, it's lights out for them as serious competitors in the phone arena.

Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Weaselmancer]

Do this.

Release the jailbreak yourself. Better yet, make a Linux distro and dev package for it. Bonus points if you make an X server for the graphics chip.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Luckyo]

Indeed. But let's face the facts, this is sony. As their otherOS fiasco showed, they care about locking their consoles down far more then about giving their users freedom to install another operating system.

Hell, it still has a proprietary non-volatile (storage) flash memory format, just so that they can cash in. Not (mini/micro)SD like most of the ultraportable hardware like mobile phones have.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[perryizgr8]

yeah right, so every other teenage asshole can download the rip of the latest vita game and install it on his vita.
forget it, piracy is a real threat to game consoles (unlike music) and sony have shown us that they will go to ridiculous lengths to thwart piracy attempts.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Gravatron]

They care about preventing piracy. Otherwise, the ps3 was the most open of any of the hardware this gen, with lots of standardized support (usb, bluetooth, sata hdd's). The PSV does support the PlayStation suite stuff, which is an android development framework in the works, so in theory you could make homebrew games that way.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Anonymous Coward]

After the whole OtherOS debacle, Sony is likely NEVER going to naively support Linux again. It's a real shame since they supported Linux in the PS1, PS2, and PS3 (and actually seemed like they were going to support homebrew in the PSP before they realized it was leading to massive piracy). That legacy is forever dead due to some over-entitled and bitter nerds.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Sentry23]

Or do as they did now, release the dev kit for an affordable price. (1900 Euro seems very affordable for a full dev kit).
It's still quite some money, but if you're serious about development, then such an amount should be easy to recoup.
For that price, I'm even willing to pitch in with some friends to get a kit, without the risk of having your work become useless due to a firmware update.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Luckyo]

Drawing the line between "proprietary storage format" and "preventing piracy" is one hell of a hyperbole. Especially in view of sony's history of pushing essentially mangled formats that only worked on their hardware to earn a little extra on peripheral sales, and then burying them in next generation (UMD games and movies would like a word with you, as would atrac ).

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[cforciea]

Citation needed? I would think that music would have bigger concerns (even though I think they are also made up) on the grounds that you don't need to still use a proprietary console to play an MP3. Because of unique architectures, you can't get a PS3 ROM and running it on a PC with any degree of success, so you still have to get a PS3 and risk blowing a multi-hundred dollar investment if Sony bricks your machine running custom firmware. And you also likely to preclude yourself from access to online play, which is becoming more and more central as time goes on.

On the other hand, the PS3 was never hacked until Other OS was taken away, so there's at least preliminary evidence to indicate that allowing people to install Linux prevents the homebrew community from jailbreaking the system, and the people most likely to break your security are people wanting to run Linux rather than a bunch of 13-year-olds who want to pirate Uncharted.

Given all that, the only benefit I can see for not allowing controlled homebrew is security theater for investors (much like most other DRM schemes out there).

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Anonymous Coward]

... it was leading to massive piracy...

Are you talking about SONY's piracy of its customers? Perhaps you are referring to the militant, pirate-like application of self-made, self-serving rules commanded by SONY?
No, it wasn't leading to -LOL- massive -LOL- piracy, it was, at best, expanding the cadre of machinery available to those-who-oppose-SONYs-will. It was a bit player in the DRM-busting world of the digital freedom fighters, and anything that can be done on a PS3 can be done on virtually any other machine.
The bullshit coming form the SONY propaganda department still flows like a fire hose.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[Anonymous Coward]

Do this.

Release the jailbreak yourself. Better yet, make a Linux distro and dev package for it. Bonus points if you make an X server for the graphics chip.

What would be there buisness model if they did that? The current one is to sell the devices at a loss and make money off software. They also sell access to the dev packages. What buisness model to you propose? Do you think they can price the PSP Vita above cost and make money on the hardware? Should they make money with adds? donations?

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[ZombieBraintrust]

You know that is not the buisness model for this device. So why even bring it up?

Sony is hedging its bets and doing both. The Xperia Play is their open Android gamepad phone. The Vita is the traditional portable console. You can literally vote with your wallet and buy the more open device. Also Linux for portables is dead. Android has become the portable fork of Linux.

Re:Sony, if you want to sell a bunch of these

[ZombieBraintrust]

Sony is supporting Android instead of Linux. All their smartphones use Android. They have even produced a Google TV box. The Sony Google TV remote had gamepad controls. (I think with the expectatation that a app market would be created for the device.) I think people forget that Sony is a big company that lacks a unified vision. Sony is not Apple. Some of its divisions are going to pursue open source OS's.

Specs came out in January...

[iamhassi]

Specs came out in January and have been on Wikipedia for over 7 months now

Re:Specs came out in January...

[Narishma]

The memory specs weren't known until this week.

Re:Specs came out in January...

[Anonymous Coward]

Specs came out in January and have been on Wikipedia for over 7 months now

1. Quoting Wikipedia instead of the ACTUAL SOURCE makes you look like a fucking idiot.
2. If you bothered to read your precious Wiki article, it does not support your comment in the first fucking place.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

The number of real gamers is probably the same as it's always been. It's the mass adoption of computing devices and game systems that overinflated those numbers with a bunch of people who sometimes play certain games, but aren't gamers.

Re:PS3 Is The 3rd Fastest Selling Console In Histo

[Anonymous Coward]

On the flipside, the retail shelf space (and corresponding number of titles) for ps3 games is usually about a third of that for 360 games in most stores I visit. I would wager many buy it for the bluray capability foremost and games second.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

What android phones or iphone have actual joysticks? I must have missed those. And which ones have quad cores and the highest-end PowerVR GPU? And 5-inch OLED screen? This is a portable game console, not a phone that can do lightweight gaming. There IS a place for dedicated hardware, even if you personally don't need or want it.

There problem is not so much competing on specs with multipurpose hardware; but whether the much larger installed bases of A)expensive smartphones that people already have, linked to impulse-buy download stores and B)cheap handheld consoles like their own now-reasonably-priced PSP and anything Nintendo that isn't a 3DS will cause their game libraries to suffer...

It is hard to deny that this device will be a technologically superior mobile gaming device; but it is much less clear that it will achieve the critical mass needed to get a good library of titles: The techheads(and, with iPhones, also the suits and the soccer moms) already have an inferior; but zero-additional-cost-because-they-already-have-it smartphone that is still pretty powerful(those that care about games may well also have a console at home and/or strong opinions on PC gaming). The impecunious and the kiddies probably aren't going to like the Sony price for a 5-inch OLED, highest-end SoC, slabs of RAM, and new-release titles. A fair few members of both will lust after this; but will they drop their smartphones/NDSes/PSPs-with-a-memory-stick-full-of-ISOs and shell out?

Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[HumanEmulator]

So there have been a number of articles about how the 3DS (with an actual 3D screen) is having a hard time competing against the iPhone. Sony's entry? Basically the same specs as an iPhone 4. Yeah the Vita has a faster cpu and hardware buttons, but it also has a lower resolution screen and the games will be more expensive. Needless to say all the rumors point to a new iPhone being released in the next few weeks which would probably close the gap on the cpu. Are hardware controls really going to sell $40 games?

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[Luckyo]

Vita games will also be about as comparable to iphone games in the same way as sex compares to masturbating with sandpaper.

Seriously, there are maybe 10 games total worth playing on iphone, and that is a very optimistic view (+ badly working console emulators). Rest are designed for people with severe attention deficit disorder and are typically less interesting then old 8-bit nintendo games.

They certainly do work for the masses that never gamed before however, as well as people who only play on the road in sessions of a few minutes. I.e. they're very well suited for their audience, and that audience is not gamers.

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[Anonymous Coward]

The same specs? Yeah, I guess if you ignore the newer generation CPU, the fact that said CPU is quad core, that the GPU is two generations more advanced and also quad core. Don't forget the dual analog sticks, d-pad, face and shoulder buttons.

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[perryizgr8]

playing games on iphone is like you gave a child a packet of m&ms. playing on the vita will (hopefully) be like eating at a lavish buffet.

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[Narishma]

The Vita is two or three generations ahead of the iPhone 4 in terms of specs.

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[Lisias]

Are hardware controls really going to sell $40 games?

YES. At least, I'm going to.

I'm a Nexus One user for almost a year now. My little Android companion serves me in every need on field - EXCEPT GAMING. I just can't play games on that thing (exception made for Angry Birds and similar gaming), and I spent a good 30 bucks on a lot of games trying to find one that I could play using virtual buttons.

I just gave up and brought a PSP. Ok, the games are 40 to 60 bucks each (new). But I can resell them or exchange by second handed games that I'm going to play,

Using the Nexus One's wifi hotspot, I can even use PSN on field.

Re:Competing with the iPhone / iPod Touch

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait what? "Basically the same specs as an iPhone 4"?? Do you even know the hardware capabilities of EITHER machine? Here are the differences:
- iPhone 4 has a slower, single core GPU, and Vita has a faster (per-core), quad core GPU
- iPhone 4 has a single core A8, and Vita has a quad core A9
- iPhone 4 only allows you to use ~70MB of RAM (crashes after that, and not sure about texture memory usage), and the Vita allows you to use the whole shebang (probably minus 32MB for the OS and persistent services)
- you don't need to go through the layer that is called OpenGL, which means your graphics performance doesn't suck
- lots of other differences, such as much better input mechanismS
Not sure how you came to the conclusion that they're "basically the same specs."

And no, hardware specs aren't going to sell $40 games. It's content/substance, not $0.99 short unpolished throwaway shovelware mentality, that's gonna sell $40 games.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[vux984]

I just don't see the point of a standalone portable gaming device when we have phones that are running the Unreal 3 engine and

Driving games are quite bearable. A few other genres work... some puzzlers... But playing an FPS on a phone sucks donkey balls. And anything that requires more than one or two buttons is unplayable... Scrolling shooters? 2D-fighters? Platformers... Disasters all of them.

Let me know when it's hacked.

[Ryantology]

All I ever did with my PSP was run emulators on it. Maybe someday I'll get the Vita, when my PSP finally goes tits up and I need a new portable emulation device.

Re:Let me know when it's hacked.

[amiga3D]

Exactly! If I can use that hardware I'll buy it. If all I can do is what Sony says it's okay for me to do with it then they can eat it. I love the hardware specs. It's exactly what I want to replace my nokia n800. The screen is absolutely perfect and the quad core arm is great too. Plenty of RAM for a handheld computer. I'd pay 500 bucks for that if it ran Meego or, with that hardware, some form of Debian.

PS2 Compatibility....

[ELCouz]

That would be good! Imagine playing Gran Turismo 4, Dark Cloud 2, FFXII, etc while riding in the bus ! :) nuff said!

Re:PS2 Compatibility....

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine any kind of backward compatibility from SONY. No, SONY consumer, you will pay yet again for that which you have already purchased, and you will only be allowed to keep it as long as SONY says it's OK.

Sounds Familiar

[fletto]

Call me dumb, but the Vita definitely sounds like a tweaked Pandaboard ( http://pandaboard.org/ ) to me...

Re:Sounds Familiar

[Truekaiser]

your not the only one. once the system gets rooted i can see it becoming the favorite of the home brew scene killing off other home-brew projects like how the first rooting of the ps3 almost completely killed off the psp home-brew scene.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Dr Max]

The specs are solid and will stay ahead of phones for atleast 6 months more like 12 months and maybe even longer for one particular brand. Also they bring thumb sticks and all the ps titles which are alot better than any app. I would of liked to see a hdmi out though.

OpenPandora Console, Neo OpenMoko Freerunner.

[Anonymous Coward]

I only listed these two not only because of their capability but because their fully-documented platform integrates in an abuse over-regulated network of competing equipment of strip-mined caquisitions. Sony products should all be boycotted when you realise they sell computer tim-shares that prevent you from running your own software. Looking a Cell phone networks, a Neo Freeerunner can run Linux or Android in addition to it's other built-in OS. and every aspect of it's hardware is in full control of the owner whether GPS queries from the Cell network provider to the frequency if you prefer non-encrypted modes like how was a repeater Host for communication with Ham radio operators. Open Pandora is the portable console about the same size as a Nintendo DS, but a completely documented custom computer that when used in conjuction with external Cell network adapter it gives more potential to the owner.

Basically the goals of the Cell Service companies and Cell Network companies are cross against the people, in that the people want to isolate their network partition to more routes with non-metered communications, but the companies want to control your hardware and software so you must use their service at all times and only their software. The Sony Mylo and Mylo 2 are perfect examples of that kind of debauchery in which you have a computer more expensive than some desktops that you are locked-out for no practical reason.

Just imagine if there was free independent competition to NetFlix and Amazon, known as Bittorrent, on your own network service of cascaded WiFi hubs throughout your region, and there were no administrative agencies with acceess to regulate this. That is freedom like a library and a pub while in a swimming pool that none can rent to you because you own it.

People just need to not buy the package by supporting open standards and owning their hardware without payments.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Anonymous Coward]

And as a game company, where are you going to put your investment?

Are you going to invest 10+ millions to sell a 50 dollars game to one million gamers, or are you going to invest less than 1 million to sell a 99 cents game to 500 million gamers?

Decent...

[DarkEdgeX]

...but still lacking. I'm sad to see they're going with a proprietary memory card for games. I was hoping, at worst, they'd have two memory card slots, one proprietary one for games, and a standard SD or MS slot for expanding memory. Also sad to see video out is gone (PSP had video out at least, and I was hoping for a mini-HDMI connection or possibly wireless HDMI (since the standard is almost complete IIRC)). Oh well... maybe next console generation.

Re:Decent...

[Anonymous Coward]

The proprietary memory card shouldn't be a surprise, considering it's the physical distribution format for the device. The second memory card being proprietary is slightly annoying, but who knows, it's Sony...they're making new memory card formats all the time. Regardless, piracy is a real concern with the device, so some measures to prevent it shouldn't be surprising.

The PSP-1000 didn't have video-out either (and what you can get from the 2000/3000 isn't exactly perfect). Apparently the developer units for the Vita have HDMI (and 1GB of RAM), so I'd imagine the system is capable of it. My guess would be less of a next generation, and maybe more something they're saving for a revision.

Re:Decent...

[Narishma]

I was hoping, at worst, they'd have two memory card slots, one proprietary one for games, and a standard SD or MS slot for expanding memory.

That's exactly what it has, except we don't yet know if the second slot takes SD cards, memory sticks or something else.

Re:Decent...

[Anonymous Coward]

It mentions a separate 'memory card slot', whatever that actually is. Also if it had hdmi then you wouldn't need to buy the game on ps3 as well.

Re:Decent...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean you can't use an SD card to load with pirate titles?

Re:Decent...

[Anonymous Coward]

If only you weren't still a virgin too!

Re:Decent...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess if it had tv out it would cut into PS3 sales.

Re:Decent...

[gmhowell]

The proprietary memory card shouldn't be a surprise, considering it's Sony.

FTFY

Re:PS3 Is The 3rd Fastest Selling Console In Histo

[The Dawn Of Time]

Yeah? How much money did Sony lose while trying to get the PS3 positioned? Remember Ken Kutaragi getting his ass fired for bungling what the entire industry assumed was a surefire launch?

I'm just going to suggest I'm not the "fanboy" wearing "goggles" here, chief.

It needs games!

[Anonymous Coward]

The PS3 had no games for four years after launch, except MGS4.

The PSP still doesn't have any games.

It's funny because Sony really courted developers in the PSX/PS2 days and let everybody develop for relatively cheap. As a result both systems had enormous software libraries. I don't know why they dropped that strategy for the PS3 and PSP. Wouldn't you want to repeat a working formula?

Re:It needs games!

[Nyder]

The PS3 had no games for four years after launch, except MGS4.

The PSP still doesn't have any games.

It's funny because Sony really courted developers in the PSX/PS2 days and let everybody develop for relatively cheap. As a result both systems had enormous software libraries. I don't know why they dropped that strategy for the PS3 and PSP. Wouldn't you want to repeat a working formula?

/quote

This is the worse Troll attempt I have every seen. You new the interwebs?

Wrong, batteries simply last longer than that

[SuperKendall]

Apparently, "real people" buy a new mobile device every 12-24 months

Are your friends doing that? I've never had to do that with any iPhone. For one thing if you got Applecare and the battery were dead within three years, they'd replace it for free. But in reality battery life has never dropped that much even after two years of solid use on the older phones.

Replaceable batteries are just pointless, since in the same (or possibly better) form factor, I can carry an external battery if I really need more time... which once you take out having get get a new battery because the old one failed, is the only other reason to possibly want a replaceable battery.

And the thing it gives you is significantly better battery life because all the space that would have been taken up with a door mechanism and battery casing can be battery.

Re:Wrong, batteries simply last longer than that

[Anonymous Coward]

Any iPhone? Haven't they only been around for 4 years? If you've had two (or 3 or 4) during that time, you're not disproving his point.

Re:Wrong, batteries simply last longer than that

[Anonymous Coward]

How much space does it take to have the plastic case slide off with a couple tiny plastic latches compared to just a solid piece of plastic? I've seen plenty of phones with user serviceable batteries that are not ridiculously large bricks.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[PopeRatzo]

yawn at Sony's new gizmo

Sony is dead to me. They could come out with the greatest device ever and I would not give them a thin dime.

Further, anyone over the age of 12 who has a Sony Vita PS will be widely seen as a cunt.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[RoFLKOPTr]

And as a game company, where are you going to put your investment?

Are you going to invest 10+ millions to sell a 50 dollars game to one million gamers, or are you going to invest less than 1 million to sell a 99 cents game to 500 million gamers?

There are many game companies out there that make games because they enjoy great games. They're not out to make a quick buck on some shitty game, they want to make a slow (but often immense) buck on a great game they can be proud of. BioWare, DICE, Infinity Ward, Valve, and countless indie developers meet this criteria. Yes, as a decision out of pure financial interest, it is better to invest a smaller amount of money on a game that will attract many more customers, but 95% of game developers did not get into the industry because of the money. They do it because of the games.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[jonwil]

Work with phone manufacturers to produce devices like the Experia Play with actual control buttons. Or work to produce devices that can attach to phone and give them buttons via a bluetooth HID device.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[RoFLKOPTr]

The impecunious and the kiddies probably aren't going to like the Sony price for a 5-inch OLED, highest-end SoC, slabs of RAM, and new-release titles. A fair few members of both will lust after this; but will they drop their smartphones/NDSes/PSPs-with-a-memory-stick-full-of-ISOs and shell out?

MY problem (and I'm sure I'm not alone) with handheld gaming devices is that I just don't have the opportunity to use one. The Vita looks awesome and I'd love to get one, but I don't think I'd use it enough to justify the price. If I had a lot of downtime away from other things maybe I could use it, but here's my life right now: Five days a week I get up at 4 in the morning, drive myself to work, work 8 hours, and drive myself home. When I get home, I'm greeted by a PS3 hooked up to a 42-inch plasma screen in my family room, and a PC (which I have spent a few thousand dollars on over the years) hooked up to a 24-inch LCD display in my bedroom. Why would I want to sit on the couch and play tiny games on a tiny handheld when there's a PS3 in front of me?

If I was able to take the train to work, or if I flew and/or travelled a lot. If I did things where bringing a console or my PC were infeasible, or I had time alone away from home for more than a few minutes during which I did not have to be focused on other things (like driving or working), then a handheld gaming device would probably be worth the investment. But for anybody in my situation, it just isn't.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[Gravatron]

so instead of buying a portable game console, you'll buy a more expensive phone, then a ton of add ons that will probably cost a lot as well, and never be fully supported by games?

Re:PS3 Is The 3rd Fastest Selling Console In Histo

[VisibleSchlong]

If you are going to lie about something, don't do it about something everyone can see with their own eyes.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[Narishma]

We're already past the middle of 2011 and I don't see any phones with equal specs, let alone better. Even when we have phones with such specs, Vita games will still look better for a generation or two since developers get to have low level access to the hardware, unlike with smartphones.

4 years too late

[byronblue]

So if I duct tape a cheap ass flip phone to the back of a Vita it'll be just as good as an iPhone 4/5?

Re:PS3 Is The 3rd Fastest Selling Console In Histo

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Sony's PS3 is the 3rd fastest selling console in history - only the PS2 and Wii sold at a faster rate.. Take the fanboy goggles off and come join reality with the rest of us..

Settle down, he wasn't saying the PS3 wasn't a success, he was saying that the PS3 did not live up to Sony's expectations. Their strategy is to overload the hardware up front and take a loss on it, hoping it'll have a longer life cycle It worked really well for the PS2 and they've struggled with the PS3. It's nothing to take offense to.

"Multi-Use Port"?

[pecosdave]

Look! It's another word for "another stupid proprietary cable to put in your back pack when we could have used a micro-USB port and a TRRS head phone jack instead!

Re:"Multi-Use Port"?

[Osgeld]

well with their history that usb port would be device only and no host, functionally useless

Why bother?

[__aazsst3756]

All that matters to end users is if the games play and look great. You are going to buy this if you want dedicated controls (the differentiation), not by processor specs. Why bother even releasing the specs unless it is just to gloat a little? This Vita looks pretty good for a dedicated device (not something I personally would buy).

Re:Ddi they also announce

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

That certainly isn't going to help them. I wonder if they are shooting for sales in train-heavier parts of the world?

Re:Ddi they also announce

[hairyfeet]

Yeah but they are making a crucial mistake...the economy is DOA so this is about the WORST time they could possibly be thinking of releasing crazy priced gear! Just look at the HP Tablet, according to most sources with specs a hell of a lot less than this they had a BOM of $318 for the 16Gb. If they can't get this thing at or below the $199 price point then it is gonna just rot on the shelves. look at how the PS3 sales jumped when they hit $250.

You just won't see crazy priced gear sell in this economy, well except if it starts with a lower cased i. If those specs are true unless they sell at a loss (which considering how much money Sony has bled these past two years is doubtful) this thing will sit gathering dust by those inventories of 3DS units. why would you pay crazy money for a games unit when you often see ION based Atom netbooks going for around $250 now? Or have the original PSP or DS for less than $150 bucks?

Personally I wish them luck but I doubt it'll sell. maybe I'll get lucky and score one when it hits $99 like the Touchpad did. i missed out on those dammit. Oh well I got 4 off lease laptops in today to play with and I'll probably pick up one of those cool "portable emulator" game handhelds for when I want to blow something up. I hear the dingoo is quite nice.

Vita makes Wii U obsolete

[orthicviper]

since vita can also be a ps3 controller, if you buy it and already have a ps3, you just made the Wii U obsolete. who will buy a Wii U when vita can do similar graphics and yet is entirely portable? i'm not paying 250 dollars for a vita though...after seeing how crappy their d-pad on psp was which made diagonals nearly impossible, and a lackluster "analog" slide pad, i don't want to risk paying such a price for a portable device only to be stuck with crappy controls.

Re:Vita makes Wii U obsolete

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure about the d-pad, but the analog stick were one of the things that they addressed on the Vita. They are actual sticks now instead of that sliding pad.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[SimonTheSoundMan]

When have you heard the major game companies ever think about the sub culture a game creates, or even car how happy the user is? It's all about number of units sold, "2 million sold in first week" is all they care about. They majors can manufacture their market through promotion, indies cannot.

Small companies may care, but they are they are not the ones spending £20m+ developing a long playing game for the Vita, the small companies are making the casual games that sell for 99p for Android/iOS.

Same hardware as iPad

[loufoque]

This is essentially the same hardware as the iPad 2, but a bit better.

Awesome, but knowing Sony....

[Vandil X]

...will it have some kind of "PSN required" function to play "offline" and single-player games? Will it silently snoop on my usage habits and report those habits to Sony and "partners"? Which firmware-encoded software functions will they later remove in the name of security?

Linux on a console will never happen again

[abigsmurf]

Officially at least.

Why would any console maker in their right mind include it? People simply didn't use it on the PS3 (I'd be amazed if it got 0.1% of users using it regularly). Then you got people using it as a method of hacking into the PS3, forcing their hand to remove it. People then used it as (frankly stupid) justification hacking the PS3 to play pirated games and hack the PS3 servers.

No mainstream console maker will ever include Linux or an ability to unsigned low level code again thanks to these people. Sony did more than anyone had done to make their console more open and look what it got them.

Re:Linux on a console will never happen again

[Anonymous Coward]

... you got people using it as a method of hacking into the PS3, forcing their hand to remove it.

Yeah, SONY is a real victim in this circumstance. I *feel* for them. Imagine the grief they must have gone through, removing that marketed feature. I'll bet one of the execs even shrugged his shoulders.

If you build it, and you sell it, you are obliged to maintain it. SONY stole this feature from PS3 owners; it is no longer present on upgraded systems which once had it.

Interesting

[Ant P.]

...as in, it'll be interesting to see how Sony manage to royally fuck up this time. Maybe the games will "expire" to make you re-buy them every so often?

cool hardware, but no sale.

[Vectormatic]

I have a PSP, and i love the thing to bits. Compared to my DS, the psp actually has some worthwhile games and stuff. Then in the meantime, Sony did the whole otherOS thing, and the PSN hack happened, and i am very adamant that sony wont receive any money from me, ever again.

Which is a shame for them, by now the PS3 is in a price bracket where i would gladly buy it, if only to scratch my recurring "i want some new hardware" itch. The PSV (i refuse to call it a the vita for now) looks cool too, but their business practices means i dont want to deal with sony.

Re:cool hardware, but no sale.

[AmberBlackCat]

There's also this.

No, just one, and zero when the iPhone 5 ships

[Henriok]

iPhone 4 use the Cortex-A8, one generation behind the Cortex-A9. The GPU in Vita is SGX543, one generation ahead of iPhone 4's SGX535. Not particularly surprising since the iPhone 4 is about 1 and half year old. Incidentally, these are the cores that the Apple A5 uses, that sits in the iPad 2. Grantend, the CPU and GPU in Vita is quad core, and the iPad 2 is only dual core, but it's still the same generation. Give Apple a month or two to bring the iPhone 5 and the iPhone will be of the same generation as the Vita, and it will ship worldwide, at least a quarter or more before the Vita. Any questions?

Re:No, just one, and zero when the iPhone 5 ships

[Anonymous Coward]

The GPU in Vita is SGX543, one generation ahead of iPhone 4's SGX535.

Two generations. The SGX535 is below the SGX540, which is below the SGX543 in performance. Also the iPhone 5 will only be about half as powerful as the Vita.

iPhone 5
ARM dual core Cortex-A9
PowerVR dual core SGX543

Playstation Vita
ARM quad core Cortex-A9
PowerVR quad core SGX543

Re:No, just one, and zero when the iPhone 5 ships

[Anonymous Coward]

And the Vita will have 512 Mb RAM, 128 Mb of video RAM, quad core vs dual core, with proper gaming controls at a fraction of the price of the iPhone and iPad.

Any questions?

Low-Res Camera

[AmberBlackCat]

There should be some kind of law that your camera's resolution has to be at least as good as your screen resolution. Any pictures, taken with this thing, won't be displayed at native resolution.

Made by Sony

[sgt scrub]

The name should be POS Vita.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[sonicmerlin]

They didn't want the Vita competing with the PS3, thus no HDMI out.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[RoFLKOPTr]

You are way overgeneralizing. I shall repeat: Money isn't what draws people into the gaming industry. People enter the gaming industry for the games. You try and tell me that companies like BioWare and Valve don't give a shit about how good their games are. They absolutely have both the marketing prowess and the loyal customer base that they could sell millions of copies of a new game that is absolute crap... but they won't because they care about making good games.

Yes, there's a lot of greed. It's primarily from the major publishers. Activision, EA, etc. They're the greedy ones. They're the ones that only care about profit. But the thing is that accomplished developers have some control in the relationship. People always think it's the publisher in control of everything but if you've made extremely successful games, you've got the publisher by the balls. They basically have to listen to what you say, or else you take your business elsewhere (or even be your own publisher if you're successful enough that you can fund a game yourself).

Re:Ddi they also announce

[hairyfeet]

Question: All modern smartphones have doc connects right? So why not simply add a joypad and buttons that connect to the port? Then those that only want phone games don't have to shell out and those that want something meatier can have it.

Because that seems smarter to me than coming out with a $500+ device that only plays games in a dead economy. Did you look at the specs? there ain't no way in hell unless Sony is willing to take a bath on the BOM to get that thing for less than $500, and as we saw with the 3DS folks just ain't shelling out right now, not at those prices.

Bottom line: Under $250 a decent hit, under $200 a major seller, over that price it is DOA and will end up next to the Gizmondo and Touchpad on the "cool but stupid priced" shelf.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Tumbleweed]

Because that seems smarter to me than coming out with a $500+ device that only plays games in a dead economy. Did you look at the specs? there ain't no way in hell unless Sony is willing to take a bath on the BOM to get that thing for less than $500, and as we saw with the 3DS folks just ain't shelling out right now, not at those prices.

I don't know where you get $500 from. Sony announced the price of the Vita months ago: $249 for the wifi-only model, $299 for the one that also has 3G (I think it's going to be on AT&T in the U.S. Ugh.).

Don't forget the added benefit of the Vita - it'll work with your PS3.

Near

[Anonymous Coward]

Failure to mention the biggest software feature: Near, the location based gaming stuff, sounds really interesting

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Dr Max]

Interesting. Still its a pitty cause it would of made a great work playstation (for lunchbreaks) if i could plug it into my monitor.

Lots of fine data to collect

[syousef]

The raw RAM number hardly matters as much as how it is applied in a phone. If Android has been filled with bloatware requiring you to root the phone to get rid of it, then a gig of RAM won't do much good. If it's efficient, half that can run games quite well. Also, look at the actual RAM of some gaming systems and you'll be surprised at how little it takes.

Only true if you don't factor in data. These days you can have maps of most streets on every major continent, every family picture or video you or your loved ones have ever taken, every movie, TV show or documentary you own etc. etc., scientific catalogs (I have legal copies of several multi-GB astronomy catalogs), entire book and encyclopedia collections. Some of this data compresses well. Most of it does not. There's always a need for more RAM and storage.

Your quote brings to mind 640k should be enough for anyone. Not everyone does little other than browse the web, read email, and use online apps.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[wardred]

Then there are devices like the iControlPad. Have your phone when you want it to be just a phone, strap on gaming controls when you want something more than Angry Birds or driving games.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[vux984]

Or work to produce devices that can attach to phone and give them buttons via a bluetooth HID device.

As any console developer will tell you. If the console didn't come with it, there is no point in developing a game that requires it.

Even if someone makes an analog controller + dpad accessory that will bolt on awkwardly to (some small fraction!!) of available handsets and probably won't attach well to any handset realeased 6 months before the accessory launches or any handset release afterwards... virtually nobody is going to have one, and even fewer will develop games that make use of it.

Vita

[Anonymous Coward]

Weeeee-tahhh!
Weeeee-tahhh!
Weeeee-tahhh!

Re:Ddi they also announce

[donaldm]

And as a game company, where are you going to put your investment?

Are you going to invest 10+ millions to sell a 50 dollars game to one million gamers, or are you going to invest less than 1 million to sell a 99 cents game to 500 million gamers?

Yes I can do the math and a $0.99 game being sold to 500m people is the way to go however where do you come up with 500m people who will buy that particular $0.99 game? If you produce a good $0.99 game then you may if you are very lucky you may get say 10m purchases. Lets be honest here how many really good and even not so good games are available for the Android and iPhone and out of those games how many people will purchase that game?

Personally I am not really interested in hand held gaming machines nor am I interested in PC gaming. When I play games I prefer to play on a console that will display on a large HD Wide screen TV. I do have an Android phone and while I do play games on it when I am travelling I always go for the free games of which there are many and admittedly not many of those are much good but the same can be said for games that you pay for.

To make money in the smart phone market you really need to give your game away for free but with advertising. Even then the competition is cut throat and only exceptional games actually make money.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[Darthwickett]

The 3DS has been a flop due to lack of software.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[m50d]

Games on my phone are now good enough that it's not worth carrying around a second device just for games. If Sony wants to sell this thing they should make it capable of making phone calls and running standard android apps. Either that or make it wafer thin and close to weightless.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[powerlord]

Games on my phone are now good enough that it's not worth carrying around a second device just for games. If Sony wants to sell this thing they should make it capable of making phone calls and running standard android apps. Either that or make it wafer thin and close to weightless.

You mean like the Xperia play they are putting out?

- Makes calls
- Runs Gingerbread (with Android Marketplace)
- Runs PlayStation games

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/xperia-play?cc=gb&lc=en

They are working through their Mobile phone arm to create a PlayStation platform in phones.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[man_the_king]

Further, anyone over the age of 12 who has a Sony Vita PS will be widely seen as a cunt.

Ah, a troll. Quite possibly a Microsoft (or Nintendo) fanboy.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[vux984]

Then there are devices like the iControlPad. Have your phone when you want it to be just a phone, strap on gaming controls when you want something more than Angry Birds or driving games.

And ease of use on par with the DOS command line. With 4 different modes, only 2 of which work unless you jailbreak the phone. Bluetooth pairing fun on android that requires a separate Bleuz IME to be installed. Manually mapping controls. Interchangeable clamps for different phones - with additional clamps envisioned for your next unit. Separately managed battery.

And then when its all done, you've still got haphazard game support.

Yep, its for people who like setting things up to play games almost as much as actually playing them.

Oh, and at $75 + $25 shipping, its almost the same price as a Nintendo 3DS.

Yeah, this is gonna be HUGE! :p

Don't get me wrong its pretty cool, and I kind of want one myself now... but I don't think its going to be the future of handheld gaming.

Re:Phones will outperform before the middle of 201

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd guess a suped up xperia play like device - not a PS1 rehash - would be the handheld phone/gaming platform of the future. I'm guessing whatever you end up with will look more like a phone than a traditional portable with either slide out controls or a clamshell design.

The iControlpad firmware is still a work in progress, and they've no control over what controls other's software supports - but something like it for those who want more than touch controls and/or the tilt detection built into phones is certainly promising. It'll never be as popular as the phone itself, especially since it changes the form factor of the phone. It's definitely a niche device with emulators in mind, but if enough people buy something like it for the emulators, others might start supporting said modes for any game that would benefit from dedicated controls - a BIG if, I'll grant you

I haven't followed it as closely as I might've as my phone, alas, is a bit slow for gaming, I know they're working on making it more like the iCade's ease of use. Some of the modes are forced on them because Apple, in all its locked down wisdom, doesn't follow the hid guidelines with its devices, and/or many bits of software aren't written to recognize an external joystick, and some won't recognize a keyboard either.

Ultimately an experia play like phone and market, if done right - the phone portion of things working as well as the gaming portion of things, and able to support much "newer" games than another PS1 portable, is probably the future for better or worse.

It's a challenging world for the dedicated gaming device. Nintendo had to concede the price of the 3DS was too high - especially with the lackluster line up for it. A lot of people will haul around a dedicated gaming device, but more and more people are going to find that a pain when they have a phone that's as capable or even more powerful then said gaming device. Especially given the premiums on the dedicated gaming device's hardware, extra space needed to carry it, and especially its software.

Re:Ddi they also announce

[sonicmerlin]

Which is exactly why they didn't want it to have HDMI out. The Sega Nomad had VGA out and I'm sure it ate into Genesis sales.

Should've used Tegra

[Anonymous Coward]

PowerVR SGX? Come on, the Tegra2's GPU runs circles around that, even if the CPU is only dual core. And Tegra3 is supposed to be out soon and it's quad core and runs Unreal engine 3 at 1080p. Maybe Nvidia couldn't supply the volumes Sony wants, but I doubt that given that Nvidia uses TSMC to make the chips, all they have to do is put in a bigger order.

Prince Tennis Racquets

[Anonymous Coward]

Racquetball Wilson Badminton Racquets, unlike many other types, generally have little or no neck; the grip connecting directly to the head. They also tend to have head shapes that are notably wider at the top, with some olderWilson Badminton Racquets looking almost triangular or teardrop shaped. Head Tennis Racquets Using an illegal will result in forfeiture of the game in progress or, if discovered between games, forfeiture of the preceding game. The Babolat Tennis Racquets frame must include a cord that must be securely attached to the player's wrist. The Prince Tennis Racquets frame may be any material judged safe.