Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Surprising Second Life of the PlayStation Vita

Posted by Unknown on from the is-it-faster-than-my-lynx dept.

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?"

5 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Is that thing still around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Second Life? Is that thing still around?!

  2. 3DS had a slow start too by ffflala · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:3DS had a slow start too by rsmith-mac · · Score: 3, Interesting

      While it's true that handhelds cycle more slowly than full sized consoles, in the case of the 3DS it was clear after the first year that it was going to do okay. Nintendo's price cut lit a fire that has kept burning since, and the console was well on its way to a long and prosperous life by the summer of 2012.

      The Vita on the other hand is coming up on 2 years old now - it launched in the US in February of 2012 - and its position keeps getting weaker, especially in the West. The number of new games that are known to be in development from major western publishers is tiny. It's like 3 or some such absurd number; The Lego Movie Game, MLB 14: The Show, and maybe a new Assassin's Creed game. Everything else is either a port, be it titles like Borderlands 2, God of War, or Final Fantasy X, or a translated game out of Japan. The Vita will likely continue to do well enough in Japan, but in the West there's a distinct lack of investment in the platform by the major publishers.

      Consequently there's no real sign of an upswing here; western publishers tried, failed, and have seemingly moved on. They're finishing out their schedules for 2013 and haven't announced anything new for 2014 and beyond. If it continues to survive in the West, it will be as an odd agglomeration of a PS4 remote control, an indie (but not open) handheld console, and a Japanese import handheld console. Which is going to be okay for some people, but for those of us that bought it expecting a more traditional range of games it'll pretty much be the end of the console.

  3. Re:Sony hasn't given up on it yet by hairyfeet · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Well what did Sony expect? Their online store stinks, prices suck, its got great hardware...but what good is that? Not like you can access the hardware to do anything with the thing that isn't corp approved so it could be more powerful than a hundred PS4s but without a killer line up the specs are just pointless.

    I have a feeling when the Steambox comes out all the other consoles are gonna be royally screwed. it seems like the corps went out of their way to be as consumer UNFRIENDLY as possible this round, like they all got together and said "if we were gonna get together and screw the buyers like a Bangkok whore on coupon day what would we do?" and they went down the list and just went nuts. 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, and when it comes to handhelds? Well the mobile devices like tablets and phones are getting crazy powerful and they seem to get the lion's share of devs anymore.

    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. 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?

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  4. Re:not really sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Because phones and gaming devices do not really go together. Modern phones are much more powerful than a 3DS or a Vita. But their design is entirely focused on gaming. They have much longer battery life than phones due to their lower specs, they have ACTUAL buttons and analog "sticks". The hardware is a stable platform that doesn't have a new version every year. The OS is streamlined, and running applications have to share very few resources with the OS.

    Hybrid devices like the N-Gage and XPeria Play just tend to not last very long on the market, because they are lousy phones and lousy game devices.

    In short, I carry two devices. My Galaxy S4 to do any real work with, and my 3DS for play. Both are terrific at their jobs.