Slashdot Mirror
The Surprising Second Life of the PlayStation Vita
First time accepted submitter jonyami writes "It's been a slow start for Sony's latest handheld console, despite the console-like quality games that were shown off at launch, and its excellent screen and tactile controls you could take on the go, but you only have to look at the upcoming Christmas line-up to see where it's lagging behind. That said, a new article points out there's still life in the relatively-fresh handheld yet. With the arrival of the PlayStation 4 and a whole new wave of indie games and HD remakes heading to the handheld, it looks like Sony's plucky portable console is still going — but is that enough to save the Vita?"
Second Life? Is that thing still around?!
There you go - no end to read the linked story. But nothing in the story suggests that sales continue to be anything but dismal.
#DeleteChrome
It didn't even try to block this page.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
but it seems to have reached a nice, rich environment by now. Handheld gaming platforms seem to cycle a lot more slowly than other handheld devices.
who wants to save the Vita? not me.
...but I just don't think the world needs another gaming platform, and definitely not one whose second life is a friggin controller.
now, if they could figure out how to get really cool games to work on, say, a mobile phone that's always in my pocket?
yeah, that would be cool.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
I own a vita, and I think its an amazing little handheld. I have no complaints about the hardware itself. And it has a handful of awesome games, too. Everyone says the vita got off to a slow start, but the first year of its life was the best thing about it. After that, the games just dried up. I look on the horizon and I see nothing interesting coming to the system. Indie games and ports? Where are all of the awesome original titles at? Soul sacrifice was interesting but ultimately not good enough. The highest ranked title on the system is a port of a PS2 game (persona 4).
If sony wants the thing to succeed, then simply relying on using the thing to play ps4 games and selling indie titles for much higher prices than than you can get them on the PC isn't the way to do it.
If PlayStation Vita is the video game industry's Windows Vista, then what's the video game industry's Mojave? Windows Mojave, aka Windows Vista Service Pack 1, fixed most of the technical problems with Windows Vista.
Not like you can access the hardware to do anything with the thing that isn't corp approved
And you're comparing this to SteamOS boxes? I don't recall Valve or any of its hardware partners saying anything about running games on them that aren't yet approved on Steam.
As I was pointing out to some folks thinking of buying a console there really is NO upsides to the consoles over the PC this gen
Resale and rental of games. Use with no Internet connection for weeks at a time, such as by deployed service members. A tradition of using multiple controllers and one machine rather than trying to sell multiple copies to each household. Motion control (or does the Steam Controller have an accelerometer?). Possibly tying up the family PC while a game is being played. And possibly price, unless one of the SteamOS boxes with enough computing power to run games locally starts selling for $400.
and when it comes to handhelds? Well the mobile devices like tablets and phones are getting crazy powerful
Computing power can't always overcome input deficiency. PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS come with an integrated controller that has physical buttons. Most tablets don't. Tablets like the JXD S5110 and Archos GamePad do but they're much harder to find in showrooms than Sony and Nintendo products. Besides, the pricing expectations on Android encourage the development of tiny snack-sized minigames rather than meal-sized AAA games. Part of this can be blamed on Google for not getting Google Checkout (now Google Wallet) implemented in enough countries during Android's first year, so apps in Android Market (now Google Play Store) had to be priced at $0.00 with ads to reach a wide audience.
What we need is for somebody to come along and do like Valve is doing with the Steambox on the mobile front, come out with a minimum set of specs and control layout and then let all the companies compete.
I think that's what NVIDIA's Shield is supposed to do: if you have this Tegra chipset and these buttons, you can run these games.
But I think the days of separate game handhelds will soon be over, folks don't like carrying extra devices around and if your phone or tablet is already crazy powerful why not just use it to game?
Because my phone is an Audiovox 8610, which isn't exactly crazy powerful. I keep it around because if I were to upgrade to even the least expensive smartphone, my Virgin Mobile bill would rise from $7 per month to $35 per month. And because people aren't aware of an Android alternative to 3DS system sellers like Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Pokemon Y ("Pocket Money"?).
Why the FUCK doesn't Nintendo or Sony build a fucking gamer phone.
Because a lot of parents don't have $35 per month (source: virginmobileusa.com) for yet another phone line. Or if the child already has a phone, a lot of parents don't have $28 per month extra (the difference between Virgin's cheapest dumbphone rate and its cheapest smartphone rate) to add a data plan.
The Vita has a pretty good library considering its age - but you need to speak Japanese to play most of it.
The situation does seem to be getting better with a lot of localization announced recently, but they unfortunately still tend to lag months or even upwards of a year behind the original release date.
Too busy playing A Link Between Worlds.
Does the Vita have a game worth buying the device for? ... yet?
n/t
then you've killed what made the original PSP great.
Without a homebrew community and the 3ds being much much more adolescent oriented and cheaper, the huge mobile market, the PS vita or any future sony handheld is doomed to fail
All the PS Vita needs is one big indie hit, and then it will become a cult device with a loyal following. Sales will never be brisk though, the handheld game market is being eaten alive by the smartphones.
The PS Vita was a successor system no one asked for. I could be wrong, but my impression was that the PSP was pretty a flop (even thought I bought the first model) and as such didn't really warrant a sequel market-wise. Add to to that the fact that Apple and Android based phones have pretty much made the Gameboy-style dedicated gaming console obsole and you have a product that was doomed to fail from the get go, despite its impressive hardware.
You can play Second Life on these things?
Sony don't seem to understand that the handheld game has changed dramatically. Now most people play games on their phones or tablets, and there's no going back.
The only company that can still do it is Nintendo - they appeal very strongly to kids, and their game franchises are extremely sought after. Nintendo could release a handheld that only played Pokemon games and they would still sell more than Sony.
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/22/report-ps4-and-vita-ultimate-bundle-coming-to-uk-this-year/
Too bad I already own a Vita and the PS4 is only getting released in Japan in February.
On a side note, I'd love if sony made the rumored PS VR headset compatible with the Vita as well. There are some funny applications I can think with a handheld+VR system.
You could say that Sony's trying to...
* sunglasses *
Vista is proprietary, which means it's still garbage
In an article about video game consoless, I don't see how switching to a free software licensing model would work. Video games are proprietary for two reasons. First, console makers ban copylefted software so that publishers can't avoid paying a console maker its royalty by using another game's "Installation Information" (GPLv3) or "scripts used to control compilation and installation" (GPLv2). Second, I haven't seen anyone demonstrate a viable model for funding AAA production values in a video game that will be released as free software and free cultural works on day one.
Maybe. Time will tell. But the device in its first two years was:
a) too big, especially for children's hands
b) too heavy for long stretches of gaming
c) too expensive, originally starting at $250
d) too few games, especially games people in the US and Europe want to play
e) too little support from Sony, who never really marketed it
f) too little memory, requiring outrageously priced proprietary memory cards
There are other reasons. Suffice it to say that I have owned one for nearly two years, and only played a few games on it. It mostly gathers dust.
once you've gone to all that trouble, why don't y ou just play xbox
Because at least one of the games I want to play is not available for Xbox. I go to the game's web site and see this:
Indie games especially tend to be (or at least start out as) PC exclusives.
too big, especially for children's hands [and] too heavy for long stretches of gaming [and] too expensive [and has] too little memory
Yet children manage an iPad, which shares these drawbacks. That leaves games in genres popular in Latin alphabet markets and marketing support from the manufacturer.
Add to to that the fact that Apple and Android based phones have pretty much made the Gameboy-style dedicated gaming console obsole
Other than Sony's Xperia Play, whose controller slides out in much the same manner as that of its PSP Go, which phone ships with gaming buttons? Phones tend not to even come with a QWERTY keyboard anymore.
I was under the impression that Nintendo had the same "game console manufacturer bullshit" as Sony. Bob's Game anyone? And you answered your own question: the big reason for an indie to go through the establishment is the "actual gaming controls" that no phone marketed in North America ships with (except perhaps the obscure Xperia Play). I tried playing the demo of Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure on my Nexus 7 tablet, and it was a pain in the thumbs to control.
people don't and won't read system requirements
That's why Google Play Store hides the Buy button for games that don't meet a device's requirements. Valve could implement something similar.
They'll purchase a game on Steambox, and if they bought the super cheap one with Intel graphics and have it run as crap
A well-behaved PC game is supposed to degrade gracefully to previous-gen graphics. Ivy Bridge could already run a PS3-class game (Skyrim) playably according to this Anandtech review, and Haswell is already out. Besides, even if your SteamOS device is cheap or a game hasn't yet been ported to Linux, the game will still run as long as there's an available PC on the LAN. It's like how PS4 games play on a PlayStation Vita.
I'm certain that would do wonders for PC gaming where everyone downvotes games
Reviews on Google Play Store are tied to a device. Valve could implement something similar.
Valve's been quoted as saying that users "can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want".
Does your quote (from this page) apply to all devices that ship with SteamOS or only to commodity PCs onto which the end user has installed SteamOS? If SteamOS device manufacturers lock out game sideloading the way AT&T did for the first six months that it offered Android phones, SteamOS in practice will end up as closed as the major consoles. I'd like to see the source of your quote so that I can try to glean more information from the context. I guess I'll just have to wait for the release of SteamOS devices to see if a manufacturer tries to lock the device down with an inflexible implementation of UEFI Secure Boot.
Like PlayStation Greatest Hits, Steam sales allow a game's publisher to extract at least some revenue from people who wouldn't pay $50 at launch for a game but might pay $20 later. People who must play during the first year subsidize those who can wait.
pc games are designed to be up close. all the font is 16 point.
This is true of some PC games, I admit, but not all of them. Look for controller-friendly designations in Steam and other stores. And before you buy, look at screenshots or YouTube playthroughs. If the text is still readable when a screenshot is resized to 432x240, or when a video is played at 240p, they'll still be readable at a TV seating distance.
this doesn't work from across the room, regardless if its an xbox or a computer.
Xbox brings up a good point: Dead Rising is among the console games with the same problem of having tiny type.
Is rumored to come out this Christmas. If they get it in for $600, that may be the death kneel for the Xbone. IF they match the price of the Xbone, 100% over. And it'll drive people away from the 3DS as well. The Vita is a great piece of hardware, they just have no games really worth investing in.
Disclaimer: Owner of 360, PS3, Wii U, Wii, 3DS, Vita, etc etc... No trolling. I'd prefer the Xbone to be the better system, but from a business perspective, there's no way they could stop a bundle like that.
The Vita is really uinderated...
The hardware is really great, the web browser is usable, it is a good movie player, and it acutally has quite a lot of games. Especially since it got quite a lot of PSNetwork/XBox Live games.
But the big publishers do not seem to believe in it. What sucks most is that the IPad got Kotor and the Vita did not get it.
Beeing an adult there are far more good games for the Vita then for the 3DS.
You can adjust font DPI and sizes in the OS.
I'm aware of the procedure for setting font size based on monitor size and seating distance. But a 10-foot UI is more than big enough text; it's also making sure that 1. windows don't have more information than will fit on the screen at a larger font size, and 2. the user can efficiently navigate the interface with a few keys on a gamepad rather than a mouse and keyboard.
Skyrim is not what I would call a PS3 class game. It is a PC game that was severely stripped down and crippled for the console releases, especially the hideous PS3 port.
Since when are 3DS games even dumped, let alone emulated?
In that case, it's even better for the PC side, as Intel's previous generation chips could run PC games the way they were before they were stripped down to run on PS3. How does Haswell compare to the AMD APU in PS4?
Who gives a shit about the vast majority of the public?
It's more profitable for a producer of goods to target the majority of consumers than a niche, especially in something like commercial off-the-shelf entertainment software where non-recurring engineering costs greatly outweigh costs per copy. And currently, the majority of people who game on a couch game on a console. This means major video game developers who want to target couches will target consoles. It's a chicken-and-egg situation: people don't buy living room gaming PCs because there aren't enough games, and companies don't develop games for living room gaming PCs because there aren't enough such PCs.
guess whre Joe and Jane have to go when they want an HTPC? To...drumroll...guys like me who know about such things
That'd be fine if Joe and Jane even knew that local HTPC builders like you exist, or where to find local HTPC builders like you in their respective areas. What Sony and Microsoft have over local HTPC builders like you is more marketing power to get their products into users' awareness and into major retailers.
one of the few positives of the new metro UI is OOTB it makes a great 10 foot UI.
I was under impression that OOTB the Metro UI didn't work with an Xbox 360 controller. One would need to learn that XBMC exists (or learn that somebody like you, who knows XBMC exists, exists) and then set XBMC as the shell.
controller friendly games, all of this was solved ages ago.
Controller-friendly PC games exist, but there apparently isn't a big enough selection. Like you, I want HTPC gaming to succeed, but I keep encountering fans pressuring me to "be realistic".