Playstation Vita

[Rodster]

Yeah battery life does suck but I don't care. I still want one, lol.

[toonarmy]

That's good to hear. Will the pinball game have the option to turn the vita both horizontally and vertically?

Yes.

Sweet! Pinball, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, Hot Shots, Uncharted, F1, and on and on... Vita sounds like a handheld gamer's dream machine.

[toonarmy]

3-5 hours of battery life when gaming, and 2 hours 40 mins to fully recharge from 0 is fine with me. The DS gets about that kind of life in its battery and it has worked well for me because I never game for 5 hours on the go before being home to recharge.

[Rodster]

What's bad about the battery is that it no longer has a UMD so it's running off of memory cards. And charging the thing for 3 hours is equally appalling. Hopefully they can sell a wireless charger for the thing.

I still want one.

[wco81]

I've heard there will be an external battery.

But given what seems to be Sony's likely accessories pricing strategy from the announced memory card prices, it will probably be $50 or more.

[Rodster]

Sony has PSP UMD-to-Vita plan

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... -vita-plan

[Rodster]

I'm starting to agree with wco81 that this device maybe DOA on release. Why do I say that? Well it's been revealed the battery last between 3-5 hrs, it's sealed so you can't change it (thwart piracy), you'll need to buy an additional memory card for certain games in order to save your progress.

So basically:

1) $250 PSP Vita
2) $40 games
3) 3-5 hour battery life
4) Additional memory card for games that require it.

[dbdynsty25]

With the improvements in mobile gaming there is no way the vita is successful. It looks badass and I'm sure technically it is just awesome but there is no way it makes any money. People just aren't going to pay for it now.

[toonarmy]

I'm starting to agree with wco81 that this device maybe DOA on release. Why do I say that? Well it's been revealed the battery last between 3-5 hrs, it's sealed so you can't change it (thwart piracy), you'll need to buy an additional memory card for certain games in order to save your progress.

So basically:

1) $250 PSP Vita
2) $40 games
3) 3-5 hour battery life
4) Additional memory card for games that require it.

I would buy a memory card regardless, so that is a non-issue. However, a non-replaceable battery could be a dealbreaker for me. I'm hoping that there will be a way to replace the battery by the time the Vita releases. People figured out how to replace the Go battery, but of course it costs darn near $90. The release games for the Vita are simply awesome and the specs are sweet as hell so I am very excited to buy one, but not if the machine is essentially useless without the adapter once the battery runs out. Very stupid decision by Sony if this battery deal ends up being true.

[Macca00]

I have one pre-ordered but I'm tempted to agree with db and Rod - mobile gaming is massive on phones and the price point is incredible. I bought Real Racing 2 this weekend for 3 bucks - a similarly featured game on the Vita or 3Ds would be at least ten times the price.

[wco81]

The HW will sell well, at least initially -- tho it's interesting that they may launch in more countries than usual after the Japanese launch, suggesting that demand in the biggest markets may not be overwhelming supply, which has been the case with hot console launches.

If it could provide good browsing and video playback experience with about 10 hours of battery life for those functions, it could be popular as a mini-tablet that costs only $250 -- well you'd have to add in some expensive memory cards to store media of course.

If it runs Android apps. and games and it might kill demand for $40 Vita games. Or imagine the best Android and iOS games ported for it, with support for the controls and the screen resolution. Of course Sony wouldn't let those games be priced at $10 or less like they are on those other platforms, because there would be no licensing revenues for them (which they need to recoup the HW subsidy and ultimately to make profit) and it would kill sales of those $40 games.

Still, there are probably enough avid gamers to build an installed base of tens of millions over several years. That may however not be enough to build a healthy ecosystems of games, as was the case with the PSP, which sold way over 50 million but had disappointing software sales.

[Rodster]

Memory card prices have been announced for the Vita:

"prices for the four memory cards that will be available with the new console. The 4GB memory card will cost $29.99; the 8GB will cost $44.99; the 16GB will cost $69.99; and the 32GB memory card will cost $119.99"

[wco81]

IOW, look for bundles.

Or wait a couple of months and see if sales drop off and they have to cut prices like Nintendo had to for the 3DS.

[toonarmy]

Those prices are silly. Hopefully the Chinese will come through with some knockoff cards. All three big gaming companies do the proprietary thing to some extent. Sony claims that its memory cards need to be proprietary in the interest of speed. Not sure if I buy that. Given that the size of Vita games are going to be fairly large, these memory card prices are going to really hurt Sony's sales on downloadable titles. The 32 gb card is the only sensible size for people who plan on downloading many games. I thought Sony had learned its lesson on pricing when they announced the price of the Vita. Looks like they are cancelling out any excitement over the reasonable price of the Vita by gouging consumers on the cards. Could be a dumb move if these announced prices hold.

[wco81]

Sony also cites security.

So if you are able to pirate the games, you will only be able to load the games on these overpriced cards.

[Rodster]

I thought Sony had learned its lesson on pricing when they announced the price of the Vita. Looks like they are cancelling out any excitement over the reasonable price of the Vita by gouging consumers on the cards. Could be a dumb move if these announced prices hold.

When Sony giveth they usually taketh away.

I think they lowered the price of the system hoping to generate interest knowing the gamer NEEDED memory cards to play certain games. If they were upfront with everything gamers would have moved on. I was really excited about the Vita when it was first announced and then I did a full 180 when I got into tablets and Android devices and the cost of games.

I think wco is right on the money. Expect bundles or wait for a price drop which I think might happen just like Nintendo did.

[Feanor]

I just hope Wipeout 2048 is one of the games where you can save to the cart. That way I could pick up a Vita at launch and wait for the memory card prices to go down a little.

[wco81]

I heard some games won't run without a memory card. Not being able to save progress or scores would be a drag.

Console peripheral prices generally stay up. Look at the DS3, $55 for those unless there are some sales.

[toonarmy]

Sony would be smart to bundle a 4gb card with the Vita at launch. I understand that Sony is selling the Vita at a loss and probably wants to make up for some of that loss with overpriced accessories, but this does nothing but make for bad press. The Vita is a very impressive machine with some kickass games coming out for it, at a more than good price given the technology, however Sony is going to lose some sales with its supposed permanent battery and overpriced memory cards. Of course, this is assuming that cards will actually cost what the articles are saying. It's possible that the prices will be lower once the Vita comes out.

On a different note, the next Motorstorm will be fully cross-platform compatible between the Vita and PS3. In fact, if you buy it for the PS3 you get it for free on the Vita, and vice versa. That's pretty cool stuff.

[10spro]

Fifa on PS Vita.

[Teal]

A year and a half from now, I'll buy one, when they're sitting on the shelves for 99 bucks. DOA.

[Rodster]

A year and a half from now, I'll buy one, when they're sitting on the shelves for 99 bucks. DOA.

Why wait ?

You can buy a PSP Go for that price right NOW !

[toonarmy]

I've been watching videos from people with Vitas in Japan (launch seemed pretty successful there) and am very impressed with what I am seeing when it comes to interface and functionality. I already knew the games are cool as hell since there have been a ton of videos posted of those over the past few months. Sony has posted the US Vita's user guide on its web site and I'm glad to see that the battery is easily removable and does not void the warranty. There seem to be some freezing issues in Japan, so hopefully they can iron that stuff out by the time the Vita is released here in the US.

The use of the cart appears to translate into very quick load times for people that have full games, which is expected. That will be a nice feature for those of us used to waiting for UMDs to load. Some of the games are 3+ gb in size -- crappy for people who want to dl games onto the expensive memory cards. I still like to buy physical copies of my games (loaning to friends, reselling), so a 8 gb card should be fine for my purposes of game saves, some dlc, and custom playlists.

Sony seems to be very optimistic about Vita sales, but who knows how it will do with so much competition out there. I think it will do just fine if I had to guess. The original PSP started out at $249 and has sold over 73 million units worldwide, more than either the PS3 or 360. Once Sony can bring down production costs of the Vita and is not losing money on the hardware end they should see a tidy profit from the machine as well as the software, cards, peripherals, etc.

[Rodster]

The PSP did fine sales-wise because of piracy. I think the Vita will do good but not sure how well as there's strong competition outside of Nintendo. If Sony is smart they will keep a strong presence with first party games and hope the 3rd party devs will pick up the slack.

[10spro]

Early impression.


http://kotaku.com/5869602/sony-delivers ... tag=review