PSVita Released In the USA and Europe 225
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?"
Sony lost me when... (Score:3, Insightful)
Any console manufacturer that tosses compatibility in the trash is saying "hey, feel absolutely free to take a look at all the competition and see if there's something better!" at the very same time you're steaming mad at them for turning your investment into a waste.
Can Sony stop homebrewers from taking over this.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Can Sony stop homebrewers from taking over this console?
More important question -- will Sony stop getting in the way of people wanting to make games and thus make themselves relevant again? Can you imagine how much different the Android and iOS situation would be today if Apple and Google were trying the "make life hell for developers" strategy?
LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
also bringing back the gamers lost to the likes of Android and IOS Devices
LOL. The good news is, you've got a joystick. The bad news is, the games cost $40 instead of 99 cents. Couldn't be more "sony" of a product, especially the non-usb usb cable. How sony of them.
Good luck to them. (Score:2, Insightful)
If the sales in these 2 regions don't do well, they will seriously need to consider the same action Nintendo took with the awful sales for 3DS, instant price cut and reward those who bought early. (otherwise face being hated by them, of course they'd likely do that anyway)
Sadly, it seems the whole iPad generation really did hurt gaming. Not so much consoles, but certainly the handhelds.
The poor sales in Japan might just be that Japan are going off handhelds, it might not be the same over here. I guess we will see when the numbers come in.
One thing they need to do especially is drop the damn price for those memory cards. Those prices are insane, especially if they are hoping people will download.
Good luck to both of them. I don't want that trash iPad ever becoming a winner. It is terrible for any serious gaming. It has the precision of a firehose with a spray nozzle. It works brilliantly with a very small subset of game control schemes, but fails terribly in everything else simply because of its size, the fact you need to grip with either one hand or the other and that there is no feedback.
PSV is actually a really good mix of control schemes that could cover everything, but it sadly came at such a point where the industry might be going through a huge change...
Can Sony stop itself? No... no they can't (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony just can't stop screwing itself over... the last news is that Sony will NOT be offering the service available to the Japanese to turn UMD discs into downloadable games. The reason? Low sales... piracy off course.
So... who is affected by this? The pirates? Non-Sony customers? No. They are not affected. ONLY paying customers who bought Sony products are affected by this, punished to either carry two consoles or re-buy their games at near full price.
Sony is already way behind in the west so to combat this, they provide less service to the few customers they managed to get. Either this shows an amazing disconnect with the real world by Sony exec's or they don't mind sending the message "If you buy our goods, you must be stupid enough to pay twice for the same game".
You might think Sony would have been warned to provide an amazing experience after the failure of the 3DS. It wasn't just the 3D element, it was that the device was a throwback compared to the DS XL and just didn't offer a smooth or indeed even better experience then a mobile phone, let alone a tablet. Look at the 3DS again, the screens are amazingly bad considered against the latest phones. They aren't worse then previous gameboys but those didn't have any other devices people ALREADY will have in their pocket anyway.
My prediction is that the Vita will fail even harder then the PSP. The line up games are again very slim pickings with some of the bigger games still not realizing that a MOBILE games is played OUTSIDE and that therefor the display needs to be extremely clear because a sudden ray of light while in a dark area can ruin the game. In normal PC/Console games such dark moments are called atmoshere, outside they are called "I can't see a fucking thing" and then your avatar dies.
Early GBA games required you to write down a very long hex key to "save" the game... game companies seem to barely have moved on from this... except android/ios game makers. Do you know WHY angry birds is such a success? Because you can easily start it, easily resume it. If the crappy controls cause a miss, you can easily restart with no punishment. The game would do EVEN better if you could skip levels. I never bought it because I never made it past a certain point so what is the point of buying even more levels?
Mobile games have to fun, easy to play, fast to start, playable on the go and in changing light and not punish the player for having to suddenly stop playing or even accidental input. And they should be cheap.
Sony hasn't gotten any of this right. The hardware looks okay but so did the original. And as said, this time there is a LOT more competition, competition that is often consider a MUST have (can you really exist anymore without a cellphone?). What about people without a smartphone you say? Right... they do exist but if you think the overlap between (refuses to buy a smartphone) and (wants to buy a fairly expensive handheld game console) is very large... well you must be working for Sony.
Must make shit before making gold (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sony lost me when... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ya well, may be a reason for the price (Score:5, Insightful)
In my experience, most phone games aren't worth more than $1, and many are overpriced at a dollar. They are very simple little games. Now that's fine, and indeed what I want for my phone. When I'm waiting at the doctor's office or something I want a game I can play for a bit and set down when needed.
However to pretend that they are in the same league as $40-60 computer or console games is silly. 50 Android games would not give me the same entertainment as one computer game does. Quantity doesn't out do quality always.
Re:Sony lost me when... (Score:5, Insightful)
What if I bought a camera, and then a bunch of lenses for it.
This is slashdot - We use car analogies. What if I bought a 1949 Ford and spent a bunch of money improving it. Then, just a few years later, Ford stops making replacement parts for it and my improvements are incompatible to remove and install in their new model. I could go buy the replacement parts used, but instead I'll boycott Ford.
Re:Lesser of three evils (Score:5, Insightful)
Nintendo isn't interested in crippling their own hardware in order to "protect" their own movie studio or their own music publishing business.
It is however interested in ensuring that games bought in Japan won't run on European or USA units, and vice versa. This is a far more deal breaker than what you report to me. (Microsoft leaves the lock to the publisher, while Sony, at least for physical games, goes region free).
As an owner of a USA PS3 living in Europe playing mostly Japanese games (yes, a mixture of things), I like the fact that I can get a copy whenever in the world and knowing it will run. Region lock sucks.