The Playstation Vita Catch-All

Then the 3DS price-dropped just a few months into release.

But isn't the Vita more powerful, more versatile, and more next-gen than the 3DS? Shouldn't it be at a higher price point?

I meant that when both of them were $249, the Vita seemed like a great deal. Now that the DS is $170 or whatever, it changes people's perception.

Or maybe it makes people think phone gaming is hurting handhelds so a Vita price drop is inevitable.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I expected the word about the memory cards to cool anticipation a bit, but wow, it's really dampened people's enthusiasm.

Also, it's interesting to see so many comments about waiting for a price drop when the universal chorus after E3 was that $250 was just the best price point ever. "Sex in the streets," was the term, I think.

The price point of the Vita itself is fine. Like I said, I just happily paid $130 for a backup PSP. So I'm fine with giving Sony my money for portables. They won me over this generation and flipped me from being a Nintendo fan (at one point the GBA and the DS were my only gaming systems period) to a fan of the Sony platform. So the price of the system isn't the issue to me. The issue is the price of the memory cards given that I already have a 32GB card in my PSP with only 14GB remaining. So I can't imagine spending the kind of money they're asking for a new memory format to play the games I can already play on the PSP in a form factor I already like.

What DSGamer said.

In the early days of the original PSP's launch, you could only buy it in a bundle that came with a 32MB card--just enough to actually use for game saves. If you wanted to do more than that, it would cost more, but out of the box it was at least perfectly usable for playing games. With Vita, that's an expense on top of the unit price itself that is, more or less, essential. Maybe it is all about preventing software piracy, but they seem to be making every move necessary to burn anyone who's interested in the platform, one way or another.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

In the early days of the original PSP's launch, you could only buy it in a bundle that came with a 32MB card--just enough to actually use for game saves. If you wanted to do more than that, it would cost more, but out of the box it was at least perfectly usable for playing games. With Vita, that's an expense on top of the unit price itself that is, more or less, essential. And that's if you, unlike me, were planning on buying your games on retail cards. Maybe it is all about preventing software piracy, but they seem to be making every move necessary to burn anyone who's interested in the platform, one way or another.

I'm shocked that there isn't onboard memory, honestly. What you said is very interesting and a good example of how this long generation has seen so much change. The PSP started at one clock speed with a small memory card and everything on UMD. By the end Sony was trying to push everything they could to PSN, which is good, in my opinion. It's really fun to pack around a portable gaming console with 20+ amazing games. It's really really cool. It's not quite iTunes, but it's pretty nice. However, it's predicated on having that on-board memory. In this case a large Memory Stick Pro Duo.

So I'm really surprised they didn't start the Vita with something like 8GB of onboard memory so you could always save games and could download a few. It feels like that old Sony nonsense of trying to launch a new platform with a new media format they hope to push into other products but never do (minus Blu-Ray).

I agree about the onboard memory.

For me, I always find the second revision of the console to be the sweet spot, DS Lite, PSP-2000, PS3 slim etc. I think $250 is a great price for the hardware but I'm on a tight budget these days so I can only justify purchasing a single iteration of any console. In this case I want to try to wait and see what they do with the Vita-2000.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I expected the word about the memory cards to cool anticipation a bit, but wow, it's really dampened people's enthusiasm.

Also, it's interesting to see so many comments about waiting for a price drop when the universal chorus after E3 was that $250 was just the best price point ever. "Sex in the streets," was the term, I think.

I think that might also be a factor of the disappointing 3DS launch. I know that's not a universal opinion but generally it seems like the 3DS didn't really become a decent purchase until after the price cut and even at this point there's not a huge reason to upgrade yet. It might have cooled the general new console (or at least new handheld) anticipation across the board.

gregrampage wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I expected the word about the memory cards to cool anticipation a bit, but wow, it's really dampened people's enthusiasm.

Also, it's interesting to see so many comments about waiting for a price drop when the universal chorus after E3 was that $250 was just the best price point ever. "Sex in the streets," was the term, I think.

I think that might also be a factor of the disappointing 3DS launch. I know that's not a universal opinion but generally it seems like the 3DS didn't really become a decent purchase until after the price cut and even at this point there's not a huge reason to upgrade yet. It might have cooled the general new console (or at least new handheld) anticipation across the board.

Yes. I was going to say this earlier, but totally agree. My general blah feelings about the 3DS have caused me to spend more money on my PSP and started to make me question if I actually wanted a next gen handheld.

My daughter is still not interested in a 3DS, at all. The moment there is a Pokemon game for it, that will change.

Plus the inevitable Zelda: Skyward based game and Harvest Moon. It seems like Nintendo is waiting for more consoles to be sold, which will help guarantee more software sales.

I think Nintendo is fine. They are definitely seeing their market shrink due to the increasing popularity of smartphones, but there is just nothing they can do about that. All they can do is maximize their sales by getting some of their system seller software out there. And that means Pokemon.

As cool as the Vita is, I think it will suffer the same fate as the PSP. I don't think it will make it on to many pre-teen wishlists. When people wonder who is buying all of those DSes every year, it is more children coming of age. Many homes have DSes for each child, and that won't happen with the PSP. Nintendo is still the go to maker of family friendly franchises, and price point matters.

We'll see. My daughter has an Android. But she really doesn't use it to game much at all. But she does carry her iPod Touch with her at all times, too. My guess is that she will finally move music to her phone, and drop the iPod in favor of a DS when Pokemon drops. But we won't be buying a 3DS until she is begging for one.

I just want to play a higher quality version of The Show on the subway, and am apparently willing to wade through a lot of Sony bullsh*t to do so.

They are definitely seeing their market shrink due to the increasing popularity of smartphones, but there is just nothing they can do about that

On hopes the Executive team at Nintendo doesnt feel the same way... adapt or die is a fundamental law in business.

DSGamer wrote:

Yes. I was going to say this earlier, but totally agree. My general blah feelings about the 3DS have caused me to spend more money on my PSP and started to make me question if I actually wanted a next gen handheld.

I bought a 3DS at launch and while I don't regret it, there is a twinge of buyer's remorse due to the lag in releasing software I'm interested in. I don't think there's much on the way for the Vita currently that really strikes a "must-buy" chord with me, so I'm content to wait a year or two. Once Atlus and Square-Enix get their JRPG goodness on the Vita I'll pay more attention.

I'm still kinda choked over the massive 3DS price drop (Best Buy and other retailers have started giving away $40 Gift Cards when you buy it at $169.99 - yet another drop imminent?) to warrant dropping another few hundred bucks on another system that will probably see its first price drop in the same year of release as well. The handheld market definitely has changed. Not in a bad way though - who can complain about the sheer amount of awesome options on the go we have now?

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/1...

PSN IDs tied to memory cards, not vita consoles
Hurray, I guess.
I have no idea how to set up a PSN ID for a different region.
Still, hurray for region-free vita game cartridges!

It was easy to set up a PSN ID for a different region (although I don't remember exactly how off the top of my head!). The only trick is to enter a valid address for that region which is supposed to be your billing address. Of course you can't use your CC if it's from a different country but it's possible to purchase PSN cards.

I have a couple of purchases of PS3 content on the Australian store but for a while now I've been buying everything on the US store so hopefully I can avoid the inconvenience of multiple memory cards.

XSeedGames announced this morning that they'll be bringing Sumioni: Demon Arts State-side. Read up on it here. The obvious comparison here is Okami, although it's a 2D platformer instead of a 3D Zelda clone.

RolandofGilead wrote:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/1...

PSN IDs tied to memory cards, not vita consoles
Hurray, I guess.
I have no idea how to set up a PSN ID for a different region.
Still, hurray for region-free vita game cartridges!

Sony backtracked on this and are now saying it is indeed tied to hardware but who knows what is actually true at this point. We just have to wait for the Japanese launch and impressions to start coming in.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/12/sony-vita-psn/

Yeah, truly bizarre. 8-4 Play is meant to be releasing a Vita launch podcast around this Sunday with all their impressions. However, we might have to wait until the US release to find out exactly how imports will work. Still, I would be interested to know if they can mix different region's PSP games on the same memory card.

I cancelled my pre-order, but if some news site confirms a couple items before release I might re-order:

- Battery life. Really gotta know how long it'll last.
- # of games that require a memory card, and how much of the card they use. If I can get by with a smaller one, and only one of them, I might be OK with that.

ahrezmendi wrote:

I cancelled my pre-order, but if some news site confirms a couple items before release I might re-order:

- Battery life. Really gotta know how long it'll last.
- # of games that require a memory card, and how much of the card they use. If I can get by with a smaller one, and only one of them, I might be OK with that.

Battery life? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
This is not Apple where they put a thin layer of electronics on top of a huge battery.
I've had my DS Lite in standby mode for the last four days. I'm never going to be impressed again.
The Vita hardware is too powerful. They've already said they're releasing an external battery.
Actually it might not be the case of being too powerful, ARM is really really good when it comes to power consumption.
However, the PS Vita has a bunch of social features requiring use of the wifi.
Still, I'm weird, I only play my portable games at home. Always did, I played my original Gameboy with it plugged in most of the time. Like I said before, I buy platforms pretty much solely on whether or not they have games I want, or in the case of the 3DS, might have games I want.

It is up to the publisher whether or not to place the save data and DLC in the game cartridge itself or the memory card.
So really I think it depends on whether or not you like to play games that will receive large DLC.

BNice wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/1...

PSN IDs tied to memory cards, not vita consoles
Hurray, I guess.
I have no idea how to set up a PSN ID for a different region.
Still, hurray for region-free vita game cartridges!

Sony backtracked on this and are now saying it is indeed tied to hardware but who knows what is actually true at this point. We just have to wait for the Japanese launch and impressions to start coming in.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/12/sony-vita-psn/

Okay, rereading them, the two stories don't actually contradict each other very much. I suspended full use of my reading comprehension powers in lieu of believing what the writer was saying. I can see why the marketing dept sent out the correction.

You'll need a different memory card for each account and you'll need to reset to factory settings if you want to switch memory cards. I can only pray that Sony stores a user's settings on a memory card, that way it can put things back to where they should be as soon as you boot up with the new memory card. Still a pain in the ass though.
Or we can just wait and see, although there won't be any non-Japanese PSN Vita games when it launches so we won't know until it launches in at least one other territory.

If you really want to drink some Sony kool-aid, maybe some knew this was a big deal, couldn't get a compromise because they're doing this for security sake, and that's why it doesn't have ANY internal storage. If it did, you'd have to wipe that too every time.

Pre-ordered. Merry Christmas to me. Also getting the ps3 wireless headphones and Wipeout 2048. I've never used a mic when playing with a console online but I've got Castlevania: Harmony of Despair now, Twisted Metal coming up, and Dust 514 this summer probably.
I got the 3G version because it comes with GPS. I have no intention of buying a data plan.

Hackable? There is the Playstation Suite although it's not meant to be that low-level because it's a platform for working on multiple Sony devices. I'm hoping the power of the device isn't gimped when accessing it via PS Suite vs native Vita games, but I doubt it. Even native Vita games can only access 3 of the 4 cpu cores (the other is reserved for the OS).

I saw Katamari and pre-ordered as well. I'm so weak.

After reading the Engaget review, I'm waiting for the next revision. 3 hours of battery life while playing games is too low.

ahrezmendi wrote:

After reading the Engaget review, I'm waiting for the next revision. 3 hours of battery life while playing games is too low.

Its on par with the 3DS... that formfactor with that much power it will be insanely tough with modern battery technology to squeeze out more.. hence once again the skew towards smartphone gaming. Double edge sword for Nintendo and Sony.. how do you differentiate yourself from smartphone gaming? by packing even more power into a handheld format.

Wow, I didn't know the 3DS had such bad battery life too. Thanks for the info, I'll have to consider this further.

TheGameguru wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

After reading the Engaget review, I'm waiting for the next revision. 3 hours of battery life while playing games is too low.

Its on par with the 3DS... that formfactor with that much power it will be insanely tough with modern battery technology to squeeze out more.. hence once again the skew towards smartphone gaming. Double edge sword for Nintendo and Sony.. how do you differentiate yourself from smartphone gaming? by packing even more power into a handheld format.

Doesn't the Vita use smart phone parts on the inside like an ARM processor and PowerVR graphics chip? And won't the die shrinks coming in 2012 (28nm) and beyond (20nm) help with power consumption? I can imagine the PS Vita-2000 using 28nm stuff allowing it to be more power efficient and extend the battery life.

BNice wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

After reading the Engaget review, I'm waiting for the next revision. 3 hours of battery life while playing games is too low.

Its on par with the 3DS... that formfactor with that much power it will be insanely tough with modern battery technology to squeeze out more.. hence once again the skew towards smartphone gaming. Double edge sword for Nintendo and Sony.. how do you differentiate yourself from smartphone gaming? by packing even more power into a handheld format.

Doesn't the Vita use smart phone parts on the inside like an ARM processor and PowerVR graphics chip? And won't the die shrinks coming in 2012 (28nm) and beyond (20nm) help with power consumption? I can imagine the PS Vita-2000 using 28nm stuff allowing it to be more power efficient and extend the battery life.

yes.. quad core A9.. its more like tablet guts than a smartphone.. that combined with the smaller form-factor and thus a smaller battery is why its a 3-4 hour affair. I'm sure with die-shrinks Sony will get a bit more battery life out of the hardware in the next couple years but I don't believe it would be significant.