This and Morpheus. They've just deployed PS Now infrastructure to the UK for the beta and server farms are expensive (I really don't understand how they will make this service/business profitable). Morpheus, if it does launch in 2016, will require a sizeable investment this upcoming FY.
This and Morpheus. They've just deployed PS Now infrastructure to the UK for the beta and server farms are expensive (I really don't understand how they will make this service/business profitable). Morpheus, if it does launch in 2016, will require a sizeable investment this upcoming FY.
I am absolutely convinced streaming is the future of gaming but exactly when it will become financially viable is anybody's guess. Understanding the economics of server farms, as I do, I find it difficult that time is now given the commercial realities Sony live in, the tentative pricing revealed and the scale of potential uptake given how bad internet connectivity still is in many places.
It seems that Sony posted better (way better) than expected result for their last quarter. If Sony really goes better I hope they do not let the handheld market to Nintendo and fight, I don't believe the PS Vita is the right product to do so. Actually whereas it had success the PSP was the right product to fight Nintendo DS line. Simply put Nintendo nailed it with the clamshell design and the dual screen set-up (one could add conservative specs), they set the standard.
Sony should not try to reinvent the wheel they won't make something sturdier I mean by that that the screen are well protected), that offers more screen real estate relatively to the device size, etc. There is no shame in adopting de facto standard (dual analog sticks, 2 set of triggers, etc. NB Nintendo is getting there with its new handset).
Nintendo is doing great because they have set a standard (as early as the release of the DS) and nobody but the costumers adopted it, competition it seems failed to notice. If Sony wants to compete they got to present customers with their take on that standard.
Looking at how Sony operated lately I think they have a go, not because of their strength (and not that they don't have ones) but because of NIntendo's weakness. Nintendo shows a lot of concerns about BC, seems to be pretty Japan centric when it comes to the choice of its business partners, I read many time that their development tools and docs are not the best, and Nintendo have not been facing serious competition in that realm for a good while. I would had that their last up date of the 3DS line is a bit too incremental (a GC>>Wii situation).
Imo if Sony comes with the right product at an unexpected time they could gain significant traction on the market and make money. They should act free of concern for BC so they come with a really economical solution. They should decide specs based on competition. 3D is nice but not mandatory and it has a both a software and hardware cost.
Sony should leverage products they have experience with thanks to their Xperia line, they do not need to break the bank, the economic to support the creation of high quality asset on portable is not there let design the hardware accordingly.
Let go Sony dare to introduce a "new" Playstation Portable that is not afraid to look like a DS, the process would be closer to revisiting a classic than creating a new recipe.
My personal take would be something like this:
1 single SKU trying to take on the 3DS XL.
Clamshell design with a fancy hinge system.
More compact, thinner with higher screen to body ratio.
Tweaked screen format ratio: 16:9 and 1:1.
A 5.2" and 3.6" set-up sounds reasonable.
For the ref that is how the screens (5.2"+3.6") would compare respectively to the upper screen and the lower screen of the 3DS XL . Now with 5.5" and 3.8" screens: up and down
That is the XL version later on
Conservative resolution (nHD (640x360) would be great imho).
Screen quality competitive with the new 3DS.
Both screen are touch sensitive (resistive screen).
(flat) Dual analog stick design.
Gyroscope and accelerometers /good motion sensing capabilities.
Stylus.
2 cheap cameras.
Cheap SOC operating at low clock speed
real like cheap whether it is a custom design or not, I wish it is not (/costs again), the design they are competing against is quite antiquated now. For me a proper Playstation portable might not reach the performance of PS Vita, 28nm lithography is all they need.
512MB or 1GB of LDDR3 RAM (/cost)
Storage ala Nintendo (really few and user upgradable).
Easily customizable (battery, faceplate, etc).
Sony should focus on:
*great price (149$).
*having a great development environment.
*having a device that blends seamlessly into nowaday social mayem (PSN, facebook, twitch, cross-platform gameplay when relevant, etc.).
*great handwriting recognition software.
*fancy hinge.
*EDIT post is
It's an interesting idea but, unlike Nintendo, Sony won't use cheap screens and two screens is going to be expensive and hammer the battery. But I too hope they don't give up on the portable market. My Vita gets much use as my gateway to my PS4.
I'd rather see AR glasses accessory for Vita or it's succesor. They experimented a lot with AR with Vita and it was cool, but the lack of glasses prevented it from being more than gimmicky.
It's interesting technology but I think it could be quite a challenge to write games that are limited, or so freeform, that they work well in any type of environment the user may be in.
It's an interesting idea but, unlike Nintendo, Sony won't use cheap screens and two screens is going to be expensive and hammer the battery. But I too hope they don't give up on the portable market. My Vita gets much use as my gateway to my PS4.
Sony is no longer acting as a costumer for itself no matter the sometime bad impact on costs, look at theirs phones they are using parts in phase with the market segment they are addressing. Sony tried to compete with Apple with the PSV, not Nintendo, they have their tablet line to do so.
2 Screens does have an impact on battery but the same applies to their competitor (if they were to ever to compete again). In some games it could to sleep and wake up upon touch or that could be implemented as an OS option.
It's interesting technology but I think it could be quite a challenge to write games that are limited, or so freeform, that they work well in any type of environment the user may be in.
I agree the handheld are gaming on the go (and can do much more nowadays), I don't believe in VR is ready but I can't see that be the basis for a mobile product (Ar could though but it ain't close to be ready either).
2 Screens does have an impact on battery but the same applies to their competitor (if they were to ever to compete again). In some games it could to sleep and wake up upon touch or that could be implemented as an OS option.
Remember that Nintendo portables, even thew New 3DS LL, have screen resolutions that makes a 25 monitors look epic. More pixels = more power and I can't imagine Sony shipping a nextgen portable that doesn't have at least a 1080p screen. One screen on a lot, maybe the second on a lot or occasionally depending on the game, CPU, GPU, wifi, small form factor. Definitely tricky to keep it powered.
My 3DS XL struggles to maintain 4 hours with some games. Of course you can use high capacity batteries but have an aggressive price point.
Remember that Nintendo portables, even thew New 3DS LL, have screen resolutions that makes a 25 monitors look epic. More pixels = more power and I can't imagine Sony shipping a nextgen portable that doesn't have at least a 1080p screen.
The craze started by Apple is what is sucking so much of the performance improvements away. Damned lots of reviewers are focusing on offscreen results in phones benchmarks for the sake of making "proper" comparison (/evaluating the GPU not the phones as a whole) but on-screen results are sometime telling interesting stories.
The PS Vita can't always feed it qHD screens in some demanding games, why waste away extra power if Sony were pursuing the road of increasing processing capabilities. Monitors and laptops do the job, better than most TV when it comes to PPI, people got way too hot headed with resolution.
The 3DS does pretty much the same job as my 1366x768 15.5" laptop (~100 ppi), nothing great but it is not looking half bad either compared to my FHD tv.
Anything with a PPI close to 200 offers a quality unheard off a couples years ago on anything but thumbsticks and now people are toying with their e-pen way too much.
More pixels more power, indeed in every metrics we deal with extremely constrained devices, gaming requirements exacerbate the issue.
One screen on a lot, maybe the second on a lot or occasionally depending on the game, CPU, GPU, wifi, small form factor. Definitely tricky to keep it powered.
Indeed both the original 3DS XL and PS V were lasting 4 hours if what I read is correct, one use a 2210mAh battery the other a 1750mAh battery.
More pixels more power indeed
My 3DS XL struggles to maintain 4 hours with some games. Of course you can use high capacity batteries but have an aggressive price point.
It is not that bad, it is sad though that the battery is not easily replaceable like on some phones.
Sony has option they can quit the market, continue on the path they set for themselves, or they can face Nintendo. They can offer better perfs than Nintendo but that does not mean that they have to a be a good generation ahead. A good "balance" looking at Nintendo overall brand strength on segment would be something akin to a PS2/GC vs Xbox situation wrt to hardware performances. Right now Sony is way past that, to the point that the money needed to materialize their performances advantage is not there but the hardware hinders their capacity to price their system more competitively (or to make money or subsidize more games, etc.).
Anyway I was just toying with the idea
but clearly Nintendo extremely conservative increase in performances from the 3DS to the "new" 3DS opens a door for SOny to take them at their own game. There is a lot of "fat" to the 3DS design right now: lots of camera, weirdos screen, the SOC is no longer competitive in self and wrt to price on price either, I would not surprise me if Nintendo guys could actually source elsewhere something both cheaper and faster (even though I suspect that the SOC does not amount for that much in the system BOM). Shortly put they are held back by a lot BC concerns.
The realm of low-end phones tells pretty well what kind of power money can buy nowaday, and low-end phones are no longer the piece of crap they used to be. More often than not the biggest issue is software, an issue that can be alleviated on devices like Android One or Windows 435 for example (going for devices well below 100$) and it is only getting better every day (example loosely chosen from my random daily surfing, that is ~120$).
Sony is doing well in the home console realm, e-pen won't win them the handheld market. They need a proper device designed to take what one could name "Nintendo market". Sony situation is improving it seems but it would not hurt for them to (try at least) corner Nintendo on their market and establish a leadership on all gaming segments.
If you turn off the 3D, you should be able to get another 1.5-2 hours out of it. In 3D mode the New 3DS is far worse than the old 3DS due to the face tracking. But in 2D mode it actually has better battery life.
IThe craze started by Apple is what is sucking so much of the performance improvements away. Damned lots of reviewers are focusing on offscreen results in phones benchmarks for the sake of making "proper" comparison (/evaluating the GPU not the phones as a whole) but on-screen results are sometime telling interesting stories.
I would like 1080p for zero-scaling of PS4 games and movies Some UIs, text and subtitles are difficult to read on the Vita.
The PS Vita can't always feed it qHD screens in some demanding games, why waste away extra power if Sony were pursuing the road of increasing processing capabilities. Monitors and laptops do the job, better than most TV when it comes to PPI, people got way too hot headed with resolution.
Ah, but we're talking about the next portable, not Vita. Phones and tablets render games at resolutions far higher than Vita does now. The Vita was released in 2011, almost four years ago, it's ancient in mobile graphics technology terms.
HW is in no way even remotely a factor in the reason that the PS Vita failed. HW has enever been a problem in Sony's handheld business.
Their issue has always been with positioning, marketing and most importantly GAMES!
Vita and PSP were both pushed as more mature versions of Nintendo's "toy-like" DS and 3DS handheld consoles. As such the games Sony pushed and marketed were the big 3D AA console-like games that from a consumer perspective, nobody wanted to play on a handheld with such a tiny screen. Whilst on the other hand, Nintendo focussed marketing on colourful, family/kid-friendly platformer/jPRG games that resonate with the types of gamer that traditionally buy into the portable console market.
If Sony wants to salvage it's portable console business and really compete with Nintendo, then it needs to focus on family/kid-friendly titles, japanese games, and market these squarely to the primary/elementary/secondary/high school age demographic of consumers.
Sony needs to be signing deals for its next portable now, to fully/part fund development/marketing for: Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, YouKai Watch, Level 5 games and a plethora of other Pokemon/MonHun Clones and JRPGs, as many as they can get. They also need to load truck fulls of cash and drop them off at Pyramid's door in Japan to get them to make new Patapon and Locoroco games (quite why they haven't made any for the Vita is MIND BOGGLING).
Sony trying to flog the Vita without these games this gen, has been the equavalent of Nintendo trying to flog a home console that isn't able to play the likes of COD, GTA, BF, Madden or FIFA games on it; i.e. the WiiU. Trying to sell a piece of HW to an audience who plays these games and then tellig them that "nope sorry, these games aren't coming" will never fly, no matter how many screens, buttons or sticks you put on the damn thing.
Sony has published a lot of really mediocre games on the Vita (all of their remasters for example). And the lack of Monster Hunter really hurt them in Japan.
Sony has published a lot of really mediocre games on the Vita (all of their remasters for example). And the lack of Monster Hunter really hurt them in Japan.
It perplexes me why Sony hasnt tried to secure a monster hunter game for Vita. I remember the PSP having some significant sale boosts with Monster Hunter
It perplexes me why Sony hasnt tried to secure a monster hunter game for Vita. I remember the PSP having some significant sale boosts with Monster Hunter
Who says they didn't. Nintendo nailed it but I can't bring myself to play it having watched it in motion. It's sure impressive for a 3DS game but it still looks ugly as sin. Some games my brain just refuses to make allowances for on that hardware and Monster Hunter is one.
Who says they didn't. Nintendo nailed it but I can't bring myself to play it having watched it in motion. It's sure impressive for a 3DS game but it still looks ugly as sin. Some games my brain just refuses to make allowances for on that hardware and Monster Hunter is one.
