PSVita Released In the USA and Europe

YokimaSun writes "Sony has today released the PSVita in the U.S. and Europe. The console comes with features such as dual touch pads at the front and rear, dual cameras at the front and rear, dual analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED screen, GPS, six-axis motion sensors and a three-axis electronic compass. The PSVita is Sony's attempt at stealing the thunder away from the 3DS but also bringing back the gamers lost to the likes of Android and iOS Devices. The PSVita in Japan sold massively on its first release week but since has struggled and sold less than the PSP. With this in mind sites like Amazon have been offering many different deals to entice people to buy the console. Can Sony stop homebrewers from taking over this console?"

Scathing Review

[sehlat]

Apparently Sony is STILL letting the Hollywood Divisions call the shots, though. There's a scathing review here [aggrogate.com].

Mildly frustrating but awesome hardware.

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I picked up one early. Got the 3G early Adopter's Bundle, which came with a free month of 250mb of 3G and activation, an 8 gig memory card and a free game.

So I've more than made up my losses for going 3G, but the damn thing decided to not power back on when I got to work and I wanted to check the status of it's charge. I searched around, found out you had to hold the power button for SIXTY seconds, then another 2-3.

That aside, the screen is BEAUTIFUL. I hope more devs aside from Kojima take advantage of the rear touchpad. Played with the interface a little. Very smooth. iOS smooth. I just hope owning this thing isn't the pain in the ass I fear it will be.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Released Today?

[tysonedwards]

Sony decided to do a "pre-launch" in the US and EU at a 71% markup so that the early adopters could get it in their hands a week early.

Basically, shafting their own customer base who would stand in line on day one, but also creating two separate "stand in line" days, one for people whom money is not an issue and don't care the price as long as they get it now, one where the price is still significantly higher than any other handheld game console, but safely able to let their user base know "we aren't fisting you as much as we already did our early adopters!"

Re:Released Today?

[cornface]

Here is a novel idea. Play the games you bought for the original PSP on the original PSP that you still own.

So crazy it just might work...

Lesser of three evils

[Daetrin]

There's a reason why Nintendo is my favorite of the big three video game companies, and it's not just nostalgia. Nintendo isn't interested in crippling their own hardware in order to "protect" their own movie studio or their own music publishing business. They don't have a giant monopoly whose profits they're using to muscle their way into other areas of business. (Back in the day if you did something similar with gas stations it was definitely illegal.)

Nintendo may have done some pretty questionable things back when they were on top in the video game industry, but even then they were still restricted to the video game industry. Maybe if they'd expanded into other areas and became just as big as Sony and Microsoft then they'd be pulling the same kind of crap, but they didn't so they aren't.

Nintendo certainly has their own problems, but currently those problems stem from trying to force the game industry towards areas i don't especially care for and failing to butter up third party developers sufficiently. I'm "forced" to invest in Sony's console if i want new "old-fashioned" games like Disgaea, however in the portable arena the DS and 3DS have plenty of content spanning all genres, including the "classic" ones, so as long as i'm willing to accept alternative games in the same genre i can avoid Sony for this particular case.

But as usual these are my own opinions, i'm sure others think Sony is a great company and love the Vita.

Re:Sony lost me when...

[Dog-Cow]

You are a moron. Sony has not, by this decision, affected your finances in any way. Lost opportunity is not the same as theft! They never hinted that you would have the ability to play PSP games on anything other than a PSP. They never promised or implied that the PSP would be manufactured indefinitely.

Choosing something else when your PSP gives up the ghost is rational, but your reasons are anything but.

Re:Sony lost me when...

[fyngyrz]

So by not replacing you are scrapping your investment yourself when you could replace the broken PSP with a working model (secondhand). Since you are not going to replace Sony has made the right decision

Boy, are you confused. First of all, I might indeed buy a used PSP, but that does absolutely nothing for Sony -- they earn no income from it. Only the previous PSP owner receives my money. I'm certainly not going to buy any more UMD's -- the format is dying on the vine and the number of machines that can run them drops by the day, specifically thanks to Sony. Again, no income for Sony. Most importantly, if Sony had made the new machine UMD-capable and game-compatible, I'd have bought it no question. When it comes time to buy a NEW machine, it'll be from someone else, because Sony has lost my trust. And I should point out that the reason that they had my trust in the first place was that my PS2 ran my PS1 games, and my PS3 ran my PS2 games. It seemed that they understood the issue. And yes, I bought all three machines, though only the PS2 and PS3 are setup in the home (no need for a PS1, you see, though we still can, and still do, play the games.)

So no. Sony made the wrong decision. In every way.

Picked one up today

[RogueyWon]

I picked up my 3G model this morning. It sat on my desk at work all day glowering at me, but I've been able to mess around with it a bit since I got home. My experiences thus far can be summed up in three observations:

1) As a piece of kit to hold in your hand, it is gorgeous. It looks and feels like a premium piece of kit. It's possibly a bit on the large side for a handheld, but the quality of build feels great. The display quality is amazing and the touchscreens are extremely precise.

2) As a handheld gaming console, it is excellent. The games I've tried thus far: Uncharted, Wipeout and Super Stardust are all closer to PS3 quality than to PSP/3DS quality. The dual analogue sticks are an absolute revelation and it would be very hard to go back to a portable gaming platform that didn't support them (be it the 3DS or iPad) without feeling a twinge of regret.

3) As a general user-experience it is, at best, below average. And here's where a bit of explanation is needed.

I get the machine home, fire it up and start going through the initial setup. I set my region, set the time and date and connect it to my home wifi. I decide to leave the 3G network setup for later. So far, so good. I then get prompted to link the device to my PSN account. Great - I like the idea of having the same account shared between my PS3 and my Vita and I'm sure that Sony have made the process nice and easy. So I tap the box for "I already have a PSN account" without a care in the world.

The device does a quick scan of the network and tells me that I need to do a firmware update before I can connect to the PSN. At this point, I feel a bit irritated. The PS3 has been massively compromised by the frequency of and time required for firmware updates, and it doesn't bode well that the Vita is headed down the same path. But... whatever.

I click "ok".

And now I'm back at the prompt asking me whether I have a PSN account or not. A bit confused, I tell it again that I do. Cue the message about needing a firmware update. I'm stuck in a loop.

A quick google shows me that I have to answer "no" and create a temporary account that I use to download the firmware update and then link my "proper" PSN account. At this point, I'm really starting to get quite cheesed off. This is a long way from optimal. But anyway - I follow the instructions and set the firmware update running.

10 minutes later, the machine reboots with its new firmware. Ok, that's about 5 minutes faster than the average PS3 firmware update, but it's still pretty poor.

Ok, so, the firmware's updated and the Vita can access the net through my home network. Time to get the 3G set up. I shut the machine off, insert the Vodafone pay-as-you-go SIM that's included with UK 3G models and fire it back up. There's a nice obvious icon on the start screen to set up the 3G provider, so I tap it.

At first, everything seems to be going well. The Vita opens the Vodafone website and I opt to purchase 10 GBP of credit using my credit card. I note at this point that the web-browser is a bit shit, but in fairness, I realise that the utterly crapulent nature of the Vodafone website isn't helping either.

I fill in the form with my credit card details and tap the button to pay. But what's this? An error - saying that the service isn't available at this time. I try again - same error. I try again with my emergency backup card. Same problem.

So I go to google again. A lot of trawling through the Vodafone forums finally reveals the problem; the SIM won't activate properly if the Vita tries to do its first top-up using wifi rather than the 3G connection. I need to go into the settings menu, disable wifi and then try again. I do so, and am finally able to buy my 3G credit.

Right, now, time to transfer some content off my PS3. I got rid of my old PSP for trade-in credit a few days ago, but shifted all of my downloaded games back onto my PS3, so I could stick them straight onto the Vita. I get the USB connector that came with the Vita and hook th