Sony's NeoGeo Pocket's (PSP2/Vita) business/non technical ramifications talk

[Shifty Geezer]

I wonder how the gaming press will capture output from the device.

Open one up and redirect the RGB output to the screen into a suitable cable.

 

[patsu]

Just do wireless screen. iOS4.2 can AirPlay video and audio via AppleTV.

 

[MfA]

That is presumably streaming compressed video ... not ideal for taking screenshots.

 

[patsu]

You mean AirPlay and RemotePlay ? Yeah... for high quality screenshot, the devs will use debug units or bullshots. I think DigitalFoundry has home console dev units from the vendors now ?

If it's really a cost issue, can't they get the customers to pay for an adaptor ?

 

[patsu]

How Sony will offset loss-making Vita:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-09-how-sony-will-offset-loss-making-vita

The price, cheaper than many expected for what is a powerful gaming handheld, is a deliberate attempt by Sony to broaden the Vita's appeal beyond core gamers and technology enthusiasts, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss Andrew House told Eurogamer yesterday at E3.

And it's willing to take a hit on each Vita sold because it reckons game sales will compensate.

"We have operated by and large very successfully around a model that works on what we call a blended margin," House said.

"We have very low margins or possibly negative margins on the hardware, offset by a much more attractive margin structure on software and peripherals. We'll manage the business very much in that same way for Vita."

Sony, which makes money on every game sold on its hardware by virtue of a license fee it charges publishers, is yet to announce how much Vita games will cost.

Sony is also yet to confirm UK pricing for the Vita itself, but House described the £230 / £280 listed by UK shops as "a really good starting point".

 

[patsu]

About RemotePlay...

http://kotaku.com/5810920/ps-vita-t...ean-wii-u-style-experiences-for-sonys-console

Connectivity between Sony's two consoles was driven by developers prototyping for the Vita, the company says, and may eventually lead to the system doing a fairly good impression of Nintendo's new Wii U control scheme.

"It has been [an] interesting development, from the bottom up almost," says Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment's worldwide studios, of Vita to PS3 connectivity. "We tried to have connectivity between PSP and PS3 in the past, but our developers had a little bit of a tough time [with it] other than sharing some data or to unlock something."

[Developer examples]

Mr. Yoshida says that type of connectivity through the PlayStation Network could also mean dual-screen experiences on the PlayStation 3, played via the PS Vita. I asked him about Sony's ability to replicate the dual-screen play of Wii U after Nintendo's media briefing and if the company's Remote Play technology could offer consumers a reasonable facsimile of that.

"Remote Play, like PlayStation Network for PSP, it wasn't in the grand scheme of things when the PSP was developed," Yoshida said of the technology that streams content, including some video games, from the PlayStation 3 to the PSP wirelessly. "There are some latency issues that are natural to that system, especially going through the internet. It's very interesting how Nintendo has solved the latency issues between the second screen and the main console output."

"PS Vita has been designed after [the advent of] Remote Play, so going forward our design will allow developers to make connectivity easier between platforms," he said.

What does "so going forward our design will allow developers to make connectivity easier between platforms" even mean ?

Shocked to see Shuhei standing backstage to watch innovation instead of driving it personally.

 

[Xenus]

I find it funny that even though the vita will be released first and was set up for better remoteplay and like form the start. It's vita copying the Wii U?Sometimes guys can have the same ideas independently guys(journalists).

 

[patsu]

It sounds like they gave up because of latency issues. After seeing Wii U, they want to take a second look. Shuhei doesn't seem to track advancement in technologies ? @_@ (802.11b --> 802.11g/n)

 

[Xenus]

Indeed release a new PS3 model with wireless N and I'm willing to bet they could do all kinds of fun things far and away beyond some very nice remote play. Even Wireless g can give a spiffy bost in remote play quality that I hoep they enable with the Vita.

 

[patsu]

Not only that. There is no corporate directive to have cross-platform connectivity in the first place:

Yoshida, who manages first-party party game development for PlayStation, told Kotaku at E3 2011 that cross-platform connectivity happened without corporate directive. It was Sony's game developers who started experimenting with the possibility, somewhat to Yoshida's surprise.

I wonder what Sony corporate directives specify ("No smoking in the office ?"). And I wonder what Shuhei does when he claimed that Sony divisions are working together. Just sit back and wait for things to float up ? No wonder Nintendo could run circles around them in platform strategies.

 

[Xenus]

Um he approves vacation and drinks sake do you need more?

 

[Arwin]

If anything, I reckon people complain about too few directives from Sony!

Anyway, Playstation Beyond podcast (IGN) has Yoshida as a guest on the podcast. Listening to it right now, and I can
highly recommend listening to it. Yoshida explains the origin of the name Vita (mentioning it fits the device more if you consider the media functions, browser and social features that will be presented in more detail later), reacts nicely to the AT&T crowd reaction ("Well you know I had an iPhone when I lived in California ..."), etc. Very easy to listen to, despite his limited English.

 

[patsu]

Missed opportunity. 8^(

Should have submitted questions for Shuhei to address.

Will listen to it when I get home.

 

[obonicus]

Missed opportunity. 8^(

Should have submitted questions for Shuhei to address.

Will listen to it when I get home.

If you follow him via twitter, you can try to stalk him via 4sq.

 

[wco81]

General sense from a few gaming sites seem to be positive to the pricing. So they'll probably have a successful launch.

But that was going to be the case when the specs. were announced.

How far beyond the core gamer demographic will it reach and can it draw sustained interest, not just from the general public but from developers?

 

[patsu]

If you follow him via twitter, you can try to stalk him via 4sq.

Okay, not sure i'll go that far, but would be fun if Shuhei responds.

How to send a message to Hirai ? Want to drop him a few "encouragement" message to shorten his presentation/speech.

 

[patsu]

General sense from a few gaming sites seem to be positive to the pricing. So they'll probably have a successful launch.

But that was going to be the case when the specs. were announced.

How far beyond the core gamer demographic will it reach and can it draw sustained interest, not just from the general public but from developers?

PS Vita will be a core gamer platform for a few years. Japanese developers probably Vita since they embrace DS and PSP even today. Western devs may include iOS developers. Touch screen on Vita will allow these devs to reach hardcore gamers. I reckon we will see a new breed of core gamers on iOS/Android and consoles (DS, Vita, WiiU), spearheaded by people like my son. At 5 years olds, he could clear LBP levels that stumped me. At 6 years old, he beat both his parents in Tetris (Damn those f)&$($$(; fast levels !). Now he simply doesn't want to part with his mom's iPad.


Would like to know if Vita will run PS Suite titles. I have always assumed both PS Vita and PS3 will but I don't remember seeing an official respond.

 

[Arwin]

General sense from a few gaming sites seem to be positive to the pricing. So they'll probably have a successful launch.

But that was going to be the case when the specs. were announced.

How far beyond the core gamer demographic will it reach and can it draw sustained interest, not just from the general public but from developers?

Actually the response from developers as well as public has been quite positive. The press has been positive as well, but have always been qualifying those comments by something like 'but we still don't see that there's a market for this device now, everyone will just carry a smartphone around and have an iPad at home'.

I think we'll have to see about that. I'm personally convinced that there is a pretty big demand for something like the Vita, and while I'm sure way more people will buy 'a smartphone' obviously, that doesn't mean anything about those devices becoming the dominant platform for gaming. Because by that same logic, consoles wouldn't have existed either - everyone has a PC, right?

 

[obonicus]

It depends heavily on how hard Sony pushes PS Suite, I think. If they go for a real App Store model you might start to get some content parity with iOS devices.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Would like to know if Vita will run PS Suite titles. I have always assumed both PS Vita and PS3 will but I don't remember seeing an official respond.

PSS was announced for NGP and Android, and whether it comes to PS3 or not was up in the air.

Because by that same logic, consoles wouldn't have existed either - everyone has a PC, right?

Except PCs have some rather major use issues that consoles don't. Or at least didn't, but consoles are becoming more PC like with bugged games and patches that break games (yes, Dead Nations, I'm looking at you and your disconnect-every-time-they-try to-play-this-level bug introduced in that latest patch), and PC's aren't as awful as they used to be. Although security and junk is still an issue, and you still get random, unsolvable PC compatibility faults. This new wave of mobile devices don't have these problems yet. You buy them and they run the software and work. Vita has no advantages in that respect - it's basically the same sort of thing, only with more controls and less features, unlike PCs vs consoles that were two very different beasts.