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

[patsu]

Sony Prez Promises More Game Heaven
http://andriasang.com/con09h/game_heaven/

Kawano says that he's been reading opinions about the event, and acknowledges that the event did not meet the expectations of many. He and Sony's staff will be using this "harsh criticism" as a lesson for future services.

...

Too late (and not harsh enough really). The damage has been done. Since Kawano is the top man in the Japan organization, he should take full responsibility for the blunder. Otherwise, his underlings will believe that it's ok to screw up blatantly, and there is always a second chance after that. From outside, his expectation seems to be pretty low and sloppy.




Kotaku interviewed the PSP Emulator hacker, Wololo...

Cracking the Vita: A Hacker Speaks
http://kotaku.com/5891527/cracking-the-vita-a-hacker-speaks

Wololo stated that Sony's immediate removal of the game, as well as the counter-piracy measures that were implemented in the development of the Vita seemed a little "over the top" and restrictive, especially for legitimate users. "In particular," Wololo explained, "the PC specific software (CMA) required to copy content from and to the vita is way too restrictive and intrusive—it requires people to be constantly connected to the internet when the copy files."

Most of the measures put in place by Sony, are to counteract piracy. Wololo made the distinction between hacking and piracy and stated that much like Sony, he does not agree with piracy, and even showed empathy to Sony for wanting to protect their product. But he reiterated his disappointment in the fact that Sony's anti-piracy measures could dishearten honest customers more that pirates.

...

I agree Sony should continue to improve CMA. It's too primitive right now. >8^/

 

[Prophecy2k]

Oooorrrr.. don't be so sensitive~ I'm counting on people who don't own a Vita yet to keep the pressure on Sony (just so Sony keep improving !). ^_^

With Vita, they have made an impressive platform. PS Suite sounds neat and useful too. However judging from yesterday's Japan event, they still don't know how to communicate their product virtues. They don't know how to talk to the core gamers. Plus there are "rough spots" in Vita they need to address quickly.

Some top Sony execs should probably half their pay and then promise to fix all these issues before getting their full salary back... or something.

Patsu you missed the air of tongue-and-cheek with my post ;-)

I agree that Sony can improve and should do, but sometimes people just like to complain about non-issues. I can cover all four face buttons of a duel shock controller with my thumb (it's how i so easily pull of the 10-hit combos in Tekken games ), But i admit that it's just because I have massive thumbs ;-)

 

[Arwin]

The Vita is a very Western device at the moment. They don't seem quite ready to properly sell it to their Japanese audience. I don't know that they need to try that hard at this point yet either, just make sure that they're ready by the end of this year. At TGS they should have the right games ready for release (including obviously something like Monster Hunter 4 ) and get the price down to something like twice the PSP's current price in Japan including a basic memory card.

 

[wco81]

The Vita is a very Western device at the moment. They don't seem quite ready to properly sell it to their Japanese audience. I don't know that they need to try that hard at this point yet either, just make sure that they're ready by the end of this year. At TGS they should have the right games ready for release (including obviously something like Monster Hunter 4 ) and get the price down to something like twice the PSP's current price in Japan including a basic memory card.

It has Western content but really, the idea of a dedicated gaming device is very Japanese.

 

[Arwin]

It has Western content but really, the idea of a dedicated gaming device is very Japanese.

Not if you go by sales though, then it's something distinctly global.

One that has integrated online features for competitive and comparing progress however is very much not Japanese at all, if you ask me. They seem to be far more interested in cooperation (and not even necessarily online) and far less in competition?

 

[wco81]

Well we'll see how sales patterns develops over time. Obviously Sony wants it to be a global device.

Both Vita and 3DS will be boosted by games which are big in Japan but not so much elsewhere.

Also, maybe this is mistaken but I get the impression that the whole smart phone and tablet thing isn't as big in Japan as other countries. Maybe because there are no prominent Japanese manufacturer of these devices -- Sony Ericsson is trying but they're behind Samsung and the Chinese companies, not to mention Apple

 

[ban25]

Also, maybe this is mistaken but I get the impression that the whole smart phone and tablet thing isn't as big in Japan as other countries. Maybe because there are no prominent Japanese manufacturer of these devices -- Sony Ericsson is trying but they're behind Samsung and the Chinese companies, not to mention Apple

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401407,00.asp

A casual observation on the JR in Tokyo shows a fair amount of iPhones, maybe a third. That's a dramatic increase from a few years ago when everyone was using those crazy keitai dumb phones.

 

[wco81]

I thought the Docomo phones with TV tuners and with electronic wallets were the big thing over there.

 

[patsu]

Patsu you missed the air of tongue-and-cheek with my post ;-)

I agree that Sony can improve and should do, but sometimes people just like to complain about non-issues. I can cover all four face buttons of a duel shock controller with my thumb (it's how i so easily pull of the 10-hit combos in Tekken games ), But i admit that it's just because I have massive thumbs ;-)

Heh heh, I did the same exact experiment after reading the original post. Yes, my thumb can cover the DS3's dpad too. ;-)

 

[patsu]

iOS devices are indeed very popular in Asia, including Japan. But Docomo's Syabette Concier schooled Siri yesterday in Japan language support.

Apple will accelerate their Japan thrust no doubt.

 

[patsu]

On Vita's 3G capability..

Phantasy Star Online 2 Producer Addresses PlayStation Vita Concerns
http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/1...producer-addresses-playstation-vita-concerns/

Phantasy Star Online 2 producer, Satoshi Sakai, has taken to the series blog once again this week, this time to address concerns from fans regarding the PlayStation Vita version of the game.

...

One concern Sakai touches upon is that of updates. While the PlayStation 2 version of Phantasy Star Universe didn’t support large updates, Sega couldn’t add new content such as new stages and enemies. The Vita won’t have this problem, Sakai assures, especially since it has storage ...

Cheating is another issue Sakai brings up. Cheating will not be as easy as it was in the original Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Portable 2, as player data is stored at the server end.

Finally, while Sakai and his team are aiming to make the PlayStation Vita version of Phantasy Star Online 2 fully cross-playable with the PC version, they will conduct a separate test for Vita players in the future to determine whether this will indeed be possible. ...

Phantasy Star Online 2 will be playable both via Wi-Fi and 3G on the Vita. However, there are special plans for 3G players in order to compensate for lower data transfer speeds, although Sakai didn’t mention just what these were.

Here, NPD rates iPhone 4S as a 4G device because of HSPA+:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ericas_most_popular_4g_phone_due_to_hspa.html

NPD Group has named Apple's iPhone 4S the most popular 4G smartphone, using a definition of fourth generation mobile networks that includes not just LTE and Sprint's WiMax but also the HSPA+ technology used by T-Mobile and AT&T.

What about Vita you ask ?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/250116/playstation_vita_teardown_5_findings.html

HSPA+ inside

On the backside of the Vita's wireless card, iFixit found a Qualcomm MDM6200 module, which supports HSPA+ speeds up to 14.4 Mbps. Despite this discovery, the Vita only supports regular HSPA on AT&T's 3G network, which is theoretically half as fast. (In Japan, the Vita supports HSPA+ speeds.) In my own speed tests, I confirmed that the Vita is slower than my HSPA+ Samsung Galaxy S II.

 

[ban25]

I thought the Docomo phones with TV tuners and with electronic wallets were the big thing over there.

Yeah, five years ago you could get phones with dual tuners and landscape displays, but it turns out that real web browsing trumps all else...

 

[ban25]

Apple will accelerate their Japan thrust no doubt.

I've switched to 日本語シリ, but it's definitely only so-so. I do get a kick out of how "very sorry" it is when it can't understand what I'm saying.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, five years ago you could get phones with dual tuners and landscape displays, but it turns out that real web browsing trumps all else...

Sony should improve the Vita and PS3 web browser aggressively, like this...

Sony Ericsson Releases WebGL Implementation for Android 4.0 as Open Source

...

Sony Ericsson has us covered because they’ve just released their implementation of WebGL for Android 4.0 as open source. First of all, this means all the new (and old) Xperia phones that will have Android 4.0, will have support for WebGL. And second, all mobile browsers (think Dolphin HD, Opera Mobile, Firefox Mobile) could use this open source implementation, with the necessary modifications, so even if stock Android browsers won’t have it on most phones until Google implements it, the other browsers will.

Here’s what Anders Edenbrandt, Senior Software Architect at Sony Ericsson, has to say about this announcement:

“Since we announced that we had added support for WebGL in our Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) phones, we have received a lot of feedback from the community. Most of the feedback has been very encouraging, but we have also received comments saying that WebGL needs to get a wider deployment within the Android ecosystem, for the market to take off. This is something we completely agree with.

As a way of encouraging this, and in line with our continuous support of the open developer community and open standards like WebGL and HTML 5, as well as our ambition to be transparent, we have decided to publish our implementation of WebGL for Android 4.0 as open source. This way, it’s free for anyone who is interested in using it as is, but it’s of course also there as a base for anyone who would like to contribute in further development of the code.”

 

[patsu]

PS Vita's Japanese sales stall as third-party 3DS games take off http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...es_stall_as_thirdparty_3DS_games_take_off.php

Weekly hardware sales for Sony's new portable have been sinking for some time now, stuck at 10,000 units for the last two weeks -- a fraction of 3DS's weekly sales of around 70,000, and trailing behind the 16,000 sales from its seven-year-old predecessor, the PSP.

Some have blamed the low sales on a lack of compelling software for PS Vita -- Sony held a "Game Heaven" online event for Japan last week that teased upcoming titles, but those announcements didn't appear to translate into more sales for the system.

Only one PS Vita game made it into the top 20 software sales chart last week (tracking only retail sales, not digital copies), Zipper Interactive's newly released third-person shooter Unit 13. It's the only PS Vita title to chart in the last three weeks.

Games for Nintendo 3DS, however, performed well well, making up seven of the top ten best-selling games last week. Third-party titles, often cited as a weakness for Nintendo platforms, have enjoyed strong sales on the portable.

Sega's new Hatsune Miku and Future Stars for 3DS was the second top-selling game after moving about 86,000 units. And Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D debuted with 38,000 copies, which is in-line with other recent re-releases for the franchise.

...

Would be better if the article also includes DD game sales. While Vita hardware sale is low, it is unclear software sales is weak. The Japanese has UMD Passport Program, which allow them to convert PSP games to digital form for $10. They can also buy PSP games from the PSN Store. What's more, Kawano mentioned that Vita DD sales exceeded their expectation.


According to Develop Online, the consolidated PSN sales chart looks like this:

Indie dev tops Vita digital chart with Escape Plan
http://www.develop-online.net/news/40190/Indie-dev-tops-Vita-digital-chart-with-Escape-Plan

The full PSN all-format top ten:
1. The Simpsons Arcade Game (PS3)
2. Gotham City Imposters (PS3)
3. The House of the Dead 3 (PS3)
4. Escape Plan (Vita)
5. Shank 2 (PS3)
6. NFL Blitz (PS3)
7. Super Stardust Delta (Vita)
8. Angry Birds (PS3/PSP)
9. Super Stardust Delta: Interstellar Bundle (Vita)
10. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (PS3)

 

[Gitaroo]

pso2 better have an offline and ad hoc modes seriously.... If the online let you play solo, I don't see what the problem is, just separate the save if they have to.

 

[patsu]

New PS Vita Firmware In April?
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/15/new-ps-vita-firmware-in-april/

Looks like there’ll be another firmware update for the PS Vita sometime in April, if a brief Twitter conversation comes to fruition.

When one Twitter user mentioned that Pixeljunk Monsters wasn’t compatible with the new Sony handheld, developer Dylan Cuthbert replied with some encouraging news.

“They are ‘enabling’ it with a firmware update in April,” he said. “Stay tuned.”

...

 

[patsu]

So... one of the best things I like about Vita OS is the error handling.

You can look at the device error log in "System > Error History". Very helpful in troubleshooting. Unfortunately, the error description can often be cryptic.

I found Sony's official error code list here:
http://us.playstation.com/support/answer/index.htm?a_id=3831

It explains the common error codes in greater details.

The following list of error codes is a temporary solution to assist you in diagnosing PS Vita error codes while we build a new error code solution for the Knowledge Center. In some cases, the troubleshooting steps given in the "Answer" column are less complete than what is found in articles about troubleshooting specific issues.

...

 

[Gitaroo]

New PS Vita Firmware In April?
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/15/new-ps-vita-firmware-in-april/

hope they will update the content manager soon.

 

[patsu]

Seems like a long shot. :-/

I agree information management (e.g., folders/categorization, search, sync, import/export) is critically lacking in Vita. Integration between apps could also be improved (e.g., screenshot --> image editing --> upload --> forward link to people --> check stats). But Sony typically has no sense of urgency for this sort of things.

PSP was released in Dec 2004/Mar 2005, but MediaGo finally debuted in Spring 2009 (4 years !). The broken PS3 web browser took 6 years to fix.

EDIT: Let's see how serious the new SNE management is in software supremacy and usability. ^_^