Sony's Next Generation Portable unveiling - PSP2 in disguise

[Gitaroo]

Price is not the key problem. Nintendo can still sell 3DS game at 40 dollars. The problem is that vita doesn't have enough system sellers, and SCE itself doesn't put enough effort on the development on vita games.If they can create games like Tearaway or KZ 5~6 times per year, than vita will revive and SCE can still sell games at 40 dollars.Great games are the only way to make handheld consoles survive.

those won't do, as much as I love Tearaway, to average joe, they don't care or not aware of them. Sony really doesn't have the iconic franchise like mario cart or pokemon beside GOW, GT and probably Uncharted, The rest are not even mega huge franchise on the consoles. Would love to see a LOU for vita though

 

[Simon F]

anyone know if the vita graphics API uses PRVTC for its textures ?

I believe there are a choice of TC formats, but a dev told me they were using PVRTC 2
[clarifying](in their game .. they may also have been using other formats)[/clarifying]

 

[Arwin]

those won't do, as much as I love Tearaway, to average joe, they don't care or not aware of them. Sony really doesn't have the iconic franchise like mario cart or pokemon beside GOW, GT and probably Uncharted, The rest are not even mega huge franchise on the consoles. Would love to see a LOU for vita though

But games like Tearaway definitely have a shot at getting there. LBP is pretty popular as well. But Sony is definitely missing a more Zelda like affair. Tearaway 2 could move into that territory I think. They're trying to address Pokemon with Invisimals, but I don't think that is quite good enough.

Right now, for me Rayman Legends and Spelunky are probably better advocates for the Vita even than LBP though. If they consider an LBP 'Retro' that could be great too. Using old school 2D graphics and limited physics, or maybe Vector graphics only (I loved the LocoRoco engine) with more advanced physics, that would allow stuff spanning from Angry Birds to Loco Roco and old school Mario, but with vector graphics. I asked my 5yo son who is exposed to Mario regularly through friends if he wanted to rather play Mario than Rayman, but he said he liked them both.

Actually based on what they did with crafting in Tearaway, that could be reused for a Vector / 2D(ish) LBP quite well.

Sony doesn't have to cater to everything/everyone, but I think it would benefit them to do more for the younger public, as these will be their future customers, and you can see how many people stay loyal to Nintendo at least partly because of that (at the very least it helps create a positive association with graphics and visual design that are, imho, a very acquired taste ... ).

But to make that a success, they may have to bring out a Vita that looks like a kids toy more. Or gamble that they would make more money making games for cheap Android tablets, of course. This is a difficult choice perhaps.

Anyway, Tearaway is lovely.

Is the 3DS doing gangbusters?

Smart phones, especially iPhones, are getting popular even in Japan. Lot of cheap games for smart phones.

3DS is selling 80k a week at the moment in Japan, and is keeping up fairly well with the original DS I think. Don't know about the rest of the world.

 

[tangey]

I believe there are a choice of TC formats, but a dev told me they were using PVRTC 2.

Thanks for that. I'm trying to figure out whether any hypothetical change of hardware for the PS vita would still mandate IMG hardware, so as to keep backward compatibility with existing titles. It depends whether PVRTC/2 is mostly used, or is the exception.

PVRTC2 ? is interesting in that, the timeline is that the Vita came out 6-8 months before IMG announced PVRTC2. Was "2" supported at the outset in the Vita ?

 

[Lazy8s]

Series5XT and beyond support PVRTC2 I believe, which was a pleasant surprise considering, as Tangey mentioned, the release of Series5XT parts predated the reveal of PVRTC2.

I wonder if Series 6 has any better hardware acceleration for it.

 

[tangey]

Series5XT and beyond support PVRTC2 I believe, which was a pleasant surprise considering, as Tangey mentioned, the release of Series5XT parts predated the reveal of PVRTC2.

I wonder if Series 6 has any better hardware acceleration for it.

But better than that, one assumes PVRTC2 only became functional on 5XT with drivers that were released at the time it was announced. For developers to be using PVRTC2 in vita titles would imply that such games work on all vitas. Either vita updates their firmware in the background, or PVRTC2 support was in the vita drivers long before it was announced. (I don't have a vita)

Anyhow, I'd be keen to know how widely PVRTC/TC2 is used by developers for the reason outlined in my earlier post.

 

[Simon F]

Series5XT and beyond support PVRTC2 I believe, which was a pleasant surprise considering, as Tangey mentioned, the release of Series5XT parts predated the reveal of PVRTC2.

PVRTC2 'as revealed' supports arbitrary texture sizes, which really isn't strictly tied to compression.

 

[arijoytunir]

i think the problem with ps vita is the lack blockbuster developer support that the ps4 is enjoying. I mean naughty dog has 2 teams now but both are developing ps4 games which is where sony is mismanaging its resources . Sony really should make every 1st party studio have a second team only for their handheld softwares. In this ps vita generation we dont have developers like readyatdawn who did 3 best titles for psp . Sony really must manage their developers . They should not be focusing only ps4 and indies . an ordinary person will buy psvita for playing naughtydog games not for indie games. sony is just dedicating all their teams to ps4 which is alienating a wonderful handheld . Just imagine a small team within naughty dog , santa monica , suckerpuch , etc would bring system selling titles. This is really required as sony doesnt have mario.

from a recent interview of shuhei yoshida witht giantbomb - sony plans gaikai to be the solution for ps vita.

 

[wco81]

No, Sony is doing the right thing. PS4 is selling, Vita is not.

If anything, they should be cutting their losses on the Vita, not doubling down.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

No, Sony is doing the right thing. PS4 is selling, Vita is not.

If anything, they should be cutting their losses on the Vita, not doubling down.

IMHO, that "scratching the surface" approach is the reason why Vita had such a slow start.

Unless they scrap the Vita and stop selling/supporting it instantly (major public backlash - very bad on the long run) Sony will lose more money if they don't turn things around for Vita.
Otherwise they will just keep losing money on production, marketing and distribution with the mobile console without ever getting a decent user base -> which in turn scares off 3rd party developers -> which causes a shortage of public demand for the console -> which scares off 3rd parties -> and so on.


The Vita is here for better and for worse, and TBH the game library is really decent now. Together with excellent Plus giveaways and PS4 connectivity, I think 2014 will be a good year for the console.

 

[Brad Grenz]

I wish Tearaway had sold better, because having small teams inside their all their major studio working on little Vita projects like that would have been great for the platform.

 

[arijoytunir]

I wish Tearaway had sold better, because having small teams inside their all their major studio working on little Vita projects like that would have been great for the platform.

This way sony can sustain a handheld gaming market and compete with nintendo. I dont think streaming games aka gaikai is the future. As when fps games are really difficult to play on a small screen .

 

[Ryan Smith]

Considering the recent announcement of the Vita 2000's UK launch, did anyone ever tear apart the Vita 2000 after the Japanese launch? I'm curious as to whether Sony has given the Vita SoC a die shrink or not, since the original was a 4Xnm part.

 

[Wynix]

Considering the recent announcement of the Vita 2000's UK launch, did anyone ever tear apart the Vita 2000 after the Japanese launch? I'm curious as to whether Sony has given the Vita SoC a die shrink or not, since the original was a 4Xnm part.

I'm curious about this too; it has a modest boost in battery life yet it is smaller and has an LCD screen(consumes less than OLED).

It seems likely that it is 32/28nm.

Also the UK price for the new Vita is laughable. £180?

 

[Brad Grenz]

I kinda doubt they are producing Vita's on a scale at this point that it's worth the expense of a shrink.

 

[wco81]

So I've been the biggest Vita skeptic but am considering getting one only for Remote Play.

Do all Ps4 games support RP or do they have to add support?

Looks like Amazon has the refurbs of the OLED For $170 vs the Vita Slim borderlands 2 bundle for $200. Is it worth getting a refurbed OLED?

 

[Arwin]

All games support remote play. Only very rarely does a game block it - and usually it's a game where it doesn't make sense to use Remote Play anyway (for me out of the pretty big list of games I already have, only Singstar I think blocks it). Basically you can use your Vita as your main or extra controller where the game is shown on the Vita's display as well always, and this then also works over remote play.

I don't know if refurbishments are a good idea. The OLED is great, but it's also sensitive to sunlight. If you frequently game in sunlight, you're probably better off with the LCD version - sun kills OLEDs. Otherwise, the OLED is definitely really good. But the new model has a tiny bit of on-board memory as well I think? So if you get that as well as a game, I don't know if refurbished version is worth it. You'd have to check the difference out for yourself I think in person.

 

[Grall]

sun kills OLEDs.

It does? Are you SURE about that - this is the first time I ever hear anyone claim this... Surely manufacturers could fix that with say, an UV filter or somesuch.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Maybe he just means wipes out their visibility? OLEDs aren't bright enough to overpower bright light.

 

[London Geezer]

I also had an image of a vampire OLED screen that burns to ashes when in contact with the sun...