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[Oppo]

When the PS2 launched in Japan it came packed in with a memory card. And as pointed out, Sony already said that some games will require memory cards. This is Sony's tard pack. People have been bitching about a lack of built in memory since the 360 launched in 2005 and it will only continue. You would think they would at least give the system a tiny bit extra memory so all games could be saved and make the cards a true convenience fee.

Ah, I didn't realize there were download-only games. Which are they?

edit - as for 3G, it's not fast enough for CoD style stuff in terms of latency, so yeah... 3G itself is the bottleneck

 

[Emitan]

I think the BlazBlue team is thinking about allowing online play over 3G, so it doesn't have to be asynchronous.

 

[antonz]

You wouldn't want to play Call of Duty over 3g even if it let you.

Not only that I realized something that is potentially an issue. 3G is an always on constant network activity. Battery life quotes specifically say with network activity etc turned off. So in that case 3G model by default has a lesser battery life than Wifi model.

 

[Man]

One more time:

Has the Yoshida keynote happened yet? Are we expecting any announcements around it?

4 hours 30minutes. Expectations are medium-high.

 

[Oppo]

Not only that I realized something that is potentially an issue. 3G is an always on constant network activity. Battery life quotes specifically say with network activity etc turned off. So in that case 3G model by default has a lesser battery life than Wifi model.

You'll surely be able to turn it off, but yes.

 

[HamPster PamPster]

Gravity Daze isn't a launch title?

I hope it makes the NA launch. Any word on its release?

 

[btkadams]

Not only that I realized something that is potentially an issue. 3G is an always on constant network activity. Battery life quotes specifically say with network activity etc turned off. So in that case 3G model by default has a lesser battery life than Wifi model.

if it's like a cell phone, you can turn it off in the settings.

 

[gcubed]

Are they? Looks more like SD-size in pictures.

they look almost like memory stick micros (M2), so they are definitely microSD sized

 

[Emitan]

Gravity Daze isn't a launch title?

I hope it makes the NA launch. Any word on its release?

It had better be a launch title here. It's what I'm most interested in on the system.

 

[George Claw M.D.]

There seems to be a lot of moaning over the price of the memory cards. Are the performance specs available for those cards? Prices on memory cards vary greatly, depending on format and performance. A half-price memory card is worthless if it can't keep up with the games.

For comparison, a Sandisk 8GB Extreme Compact Flash card is sold by Amazon for over $53, currently, with 3rd parties going as low as $40. That's twice as expensive as the 8GB Sony card, but the Sandisk has 60MBps write speeds. There is also a Kingston 8GB CF card, that sells for only $25, but has much worse performance. How fast are the Sony cards?

Performance will tell us if these cards are actually overpriced, or not.

It sounds like people expect these cards to be in-line with shitty performing cards that they buy for compact cameras and cell phones. Those cards would NOT be viable for use in the Vita.

 

[Rolf NB]

thats my plan atleast.

You can buy any random car-lighter-to-USB adapter. Things are everywhere now that smartphones are a thing. I got one with two ports for like 5€.

 

[Kyoufu]

There seems to be a lot of moaning over the price of the memory cards. Are the performance specs available for those cards? Prices on memory cards vary greatly, depending on format and performance. A half-price memory card is worthless if it can't keep up with the games.

For comparison, a Sandisk 8GB Extreme Compact Flash card is sold by Amazon for over $53, currently, with 3rd parties going as low as $40. That's twice as expensive as the 8GB Sony card, but the Sandisk has 60MBps write speeds. There is also a Kingston 8GB CF card, that sells for only $25, but has much worse performance. How fast are the Sony cards?

Performance will tell us if these cards are actually overpriced, or not.

It sounds like people expect these cards to be in-line with shitty performing cards that they buy for compact cameras and cell phones. Those cards would NOT be viable for use in the Vita.

A rational and logical post. Get outta here!

 

[Pie and Beans]

Will the Vita at least come with its own USB cable, since it appears to be using its own fancy pants port for that? I think thats the only penny pinching move I'd scowl at the most.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

I applaud them for not including the memory card. Now I won't be stuck with a slow, small capacity card that I'll have no use for.

Battery life in gaming is the only disappointment I see there. A min of 3 and max of 5 is on the low end for me. Video and especially audio are really good, otherwise.

 

[AndrewDean84xX]

I'm gonna wait until there is a bundled 16GB-32GB memory stick or internal memory Vita at $250. Vita is not backward compatible out of box and is generally useless if you want to access the PS Store for anything other than DLC.

 

[Kyoufu]

Will the Vita at least come with its own USB cable, since it appears to be using its own fancy pants port for that? I think thats the only penny pinching move I'd scowl at the most.

From the press release:

・PlayStation®Vita Wi-Fi model ×1
・USB cable ×1
・AC adaptor ×1
・Power cord ×1
・Printed materials ×1

 

[Busaiku]

I applaud them for not including the memory card. Now I won't be stuck with a slow, small capacity card that I'll have no use for.

You never save your games?

 

[Kyoufu]

You never save your games?

Game saves are saved onto the game's cart.

 

[Pie and Beans]

From the press release:

ah cheers. did think that'd be too cruel of them. Still rocking my white PSP cloth pouch from a pack so would need one of those too.

I really wish they were launching in white as well. They always tease these other colour models and then it takes months/years for them to come out.

 

[Kyoufu]

Would be really convenient if it charged via USB also.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

Game saves are saved onto the game's cart.

Read the OP.

 

[Cruzader]

I'm gonna wait until there is a bundled 16GB-32GB memory stick or internal memory Vita at $250. Vita is not backward compatible out of box and is generally useless if you want to access the PS Store for anything other than DLC.

I hear you. It sucks but they had to bump up accessories to make up for the low intro price for the console.

Anyways MS has shown people will buy expensive accessories and dont blame Sony for following suit. Makes sense if you will, to do it. Obviously not for us but the majority don't give a funk.

 

[Kyoufu]

Read the OP.

May =/= Will and I assume it means DLC for games like LBP etc.

 

[Luigi87]

I wonder if some Vita games will need a memory card for online play, like how the 360 needs a hard drive for some games to play online.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I assume saving your progress would be possibly on any Vita game cart. I can't see a reason why not. Perhaps its about UGC etc thats too big to save on the cart partition. And transfarring stuff..

 

[lowrider007]

There seems to be a lot of moaning over the price of the memory cards. Are the performance specs available for those cards? Prices on memory cards vary greatly, depending on format and performance. A half-price memory card is worthless if it can't keep up with the games.

For comparison, a Sandisk 8GB Extreme Compact Flash card is sold by Amazon for over $53, currently, with 3rd parties going as low as $40. That's twice as expensive as the 8GB Sony card, but the Sandisk has 60MBps write speeds. There is also a Kingston 8GB CF card, that sells for only $25, but has much worse performance. How fast are the Sony cards?

Performance will tell us if these cards are actually overpriced, or not.

It sounds like people expect these cards to be in-line with shitty performing cards that they buy for compact cameras and cell phones. Those cards would NOT be viable for use in the Vita.

I've tried making a similar point myself but people just don't listen, people have got it in their heads that Sony are using the cheapest low tech SD technology dropped off the back of a Chinese lorry, stamping their name on it and ripping everyone off, "OMG look at these memory card prices, on ebay you can get blah blah blah" <sigh>

 

[DaSorcerer7]

May =/= Will and I assume it means DLC for games like LBP etc.

You can assume that, but the OP is quite clear.

 

[patsu]

When is Shuhei's keynote today ? Anyone liveblogging ?

 

[OldJadedGamer]

Anyways MS has shown people will buy expensive accessories and dont blame Sony for following suit. Makes sense if you will, to do it. Obviously not for us but the majority don't give a funk.

Two wrongs make a right? People have been complaining about this since 2005 and I doubt people are going to stop just because it's a different company doing it now. And it wasn't MS that started it, they were just continuing a tradition from as long as gaming has been around. Looks like Sony tried to be open with the PS3 and it didn't work so they are going back to the way the PS1 and PS2 were.

 

[gcubed]

You can assume that, but the OP is quite clear.

actually, no its not. A games saved data can be UGC

 

[lowrider007]

You can assume that, but the OP is quite clear.

"may require the use of separately sold memory card for saving game’s saved data"

Actual game saves should be fine.

 

[syoaran]

"may require the use of separately sold memory card for saving game’s saved data"

Actual game saves should be fine.

We have no idea at this point, which is why there is a concern. Theres also the matter of what game swill be on the PSN and what games will be retail at the start.

Still, 4 games on day1 + the machine + memory card

My wallet...

 

[A Black Falcon]

No seriously, what's going to happen 6 years from now when the next wave of handhelds come out?

Battery tech HAS to breakthrough at some point, right?

Better battery tech is possible, sure, but I wouldn't bet on a sudden, huge improvement. The last big battery improvement was with the switch to lithium (and internal rechargeables, instead of having to buy batteries each time like with older handhelds), but they've pretty much pushed that one to where it can go I think, and I'm not sure if anything's coming soon that's better, while portables are increasing in battery usage at a much, much faster rate. It's much harder to make a battery that holds more than it is to keep following Moore's Law and its descendants.

This really is an important issue, but I don't know if there's much that can be done about it...

At least Nintendo allows you to change the battery yourself, which helps a little... Sony this time, or Apple, are just cruel.

May =/= Will and I assume it means DLC for games like LBP etc.

You're being pretty optimistic there, but that wording definitely makes it sound otherwise. I wouldn't expect that to be the case, bizarrely enough. I certainly would have expected it would be, before this, but apparently not...

Do you need a memory card?, I thought the games saved on the game carts and also can't you download DLC to the games flash memory directly?

Nope, in the OP Sony says that some games will require a memory card to save.


But yeah, those memory card prices are high. The only saving grace is that because Vita games are on cards themselves, many will have internal saving on the cards. However, some will apparently require memory cards to save, too; it'll depend on the game. On the DS and 3DS, of course, Nintendo requires internal save in all games; the Game Boy line always had it as optional, so third party games frequently would ditch batteries in favor of password saves (particularly on the GB and GBC, but on GBA to an extent as well), but Nintendo changed that on DS, and it was a great change. It was so nice to finally not have to deal with passwords, and to not need memory cards either (like on home consoles at that time).

As for the Vita though, I wonder if this actually means some games won't have saving on the cards, or if some games will require more save space than the amount on the card so you need a memory card too... or will games that require a memory card to save (note I said require, not support for optional extra saves or something) actually only be downloaded games, which would be better, obviously? We'll see I guess.

 

[Zoramon089]

I've tried making a similar point myself but people just don't listen, people have got it in their heads that Sony are using the cheapest low tech SD technology dropped off the back of a Chinese lorry, stamping their name on it and ripping everyone off, "OMG look at these memory card prices, on ebay you can get blah blah blah" <sigh>

I think the bigger question is WHY do they need a high quality storage medium? What would need faster read/write speeds than the typical SD card? Even if you had digital games stored on it, I'm sure they wouldn't need a higher read speed than, say a 1080p video, which you can play off even the cheapest of SD cards. Of course I'm not entirely sure about the relative read speeds a game would need compared to that, but...I'm hoping someone can explain

 

[Kyoufu]

You're being pretty optimistic there, but that wording definitely makes it sound otherwise. I wouldn't expect that to be the case, bizarrely enough. I certainly would have expected it would be, before this, but apparently not...

I apologise if I'm being anything. I don't really care if a game requires a memory card or not because I'll get a 32GB on day one. I assume most people be getting at least 8GB.

 

[rollingstart]

Would be really convenient if it charged via USB also.

Either the PSP-2000 or 3000 started this and it carried over to the Go, which also has one multi-function port.

problem is that those systems don't let you play and charge simultaneously

 

[syoaran]

Better battery tech is possible, sure, but I wouldn't bet on a sudden, huge improvement. The last big battery improvement was with the switch to lithium (and internal rechargeables, instead of having to buy batteries each time like with older handhelds), but they've pretty much pushed that one to where it can go I think, and I'm not sure if anything's coming soon that's better, while portables are increasing in battery usage at a much, much faster rate. It's much harder to make a battery that holds more than it is to keep following Moore's Law and its descendants.

This really is an important issue, but I don't know if there's much that can be done about it...

While I'm sure some more technically minded Gaf'er can properly educate us on this, I always believed that while battery size is something we can't really change, battery consumption is the key. If you look at Intel for example, they are always striving for lower consumption (I think they announced recently they could power the next wave of low end processors by solar power alone).

So I think with the induction of high end graphics on the iOS devices, Sony and Nintendo were forced to push harder on that front to compete, which can count on a notably shorter length of battery life. It doesn't matter that an iPhone 4 care barely put out 2hrs while playing Chaos Rings, for example.

 

[Infinite Justice]

I apologise if I'm being anything. I don't really care if a game requires a memory card or not because I'll get a 32GB on day one. I assume most people be getting at least 8GB.

KAL would be pretty pissed if he was here for this...

And i think they should have bitten the cost a bit and place the 4gb in there, or at least for the western Launch.

 

[madmaxx350]

I was checking the newly designed JP vita site and it seems they have made changes to the hardware :

The memory card slot used to be at the top next to the game cart and that seems to have changed, it is now at the bottom( look at #5 in pic) next to the multiport. I wonder what else have changed maybe this is the final design.

 

[Zoramon089]

I was checking the newly designed JP vita site and it seems they have made changes to the hardware :

The memory card slot used to be at the top next to the game cart and that seems to have changed, it is now at the bottom( look at #5 in pic) next to the multiport. I wonder what else have changed maybe this is the final design.

It's kind of weird the camera isn't in the center of the device...

 

[Infinite Justice]

I was checking the newly designed JP vita site and it seems they have made changes to the hardware :

The memory card slot used to be at the top next to the game cart and that seems to have changed, it is now at the bottom( look at #5 in pic) next to the multiport. I wonder what else have changed maybe this is the final design.

Interesting change and i'm pretty sure its final since it will be launching soon (have to use those remaining months for manufacturing/packaging/etc).

And is that some slot on the right in the second pic? (Sim card slot?)

 

[lowrider007]

I think the bigger question is WHY do they need a high quality storage medium? What would need faster read/write speeds than the typical SD card? Even if you had digital games stored on it, I'm sure they wouldn't need a higher read speed than, say a 1080p video, which you can play off even the cheapest of SD cards. Of course I'm not entirely sure about the relative read speeds a game would need compared to that, but...I'm hoping someone can explain

Faster load times I guess, your transferring a lot of data with these games, look at the 3DS for example, that is a cartridge based system that has load times with is ridiculous, people have reported that load times are practically non existent on the Vita, and combined with multitasking as well I think having a decent memory card witih a fast transfer rate is very important, regular SD's are sooooooo slow, they are old tech now, a lot of memory card manufactures are moving onto faster more expensive technologies.

 

[madmaxx350]

Interesting change and i'm pretty sure its final since it will be launching soon (have to use those remaining months for manufacturing/packaging/etc).

And is that some slot on the right (in the second pic) or somethinng?

Yea it looks like it , the face buttons seem to be sticking out a bit more.

(old design, I assume e3)

(new one, TGS)

 

[dallow_bg]

Faster load times I guess, your transferring a lot of data with these games, look at the 3DS for example, that is a cartridge based system that has load times with is ridiculous, people have reported that load times are practically non existent on the Vita, and combined with multitasking as well I think having a decent memory card witih a fast transfer rate is very important, regular SD's are sooooooo slow, they are old tech now, a lot of memory card manufactures are moving onto faster more expensive technologies.

Source on the speedy load times?

 

[Betta Lines]

I was checking the newly designed JP vita site and it seems they have made changes to the hardware

The memory card slot used to be at the top next to the game cart and that seems to have changed, it is now at the bottom( look at #5 in pic) next to the multiport. I wonder what else have changed maybe this is the final design.

Are you sure it's changed? It always had two slots at the top, and it still does. They both for the larger game cards, presumably so that you can load a save off a different game card?

I want to know what the slot is on the rear left.

[edit] ah of course, it's a sim slot.

 

[Emitan]

Source on the speedy load times?

Very little loading at Gamescom.

 

[lowrider007]

Source on the speedy load times?

The developers of Resistance Burning Skies said,

“There are no loading screens for Resistance on PS Vita, it’s all seamless with no filler.”

"They explained that this is due to the fast reading NVG cards and the 512 MB RAM."

 

[Graphics Horse]

I was checking the newly designed JP vita site and it seems they have made changes to the hardware :

The memory card slot used to be at the top next to the game cart and that seems to have changed, it is now at the bottom( look at #5 in pic) next to the multiport. I wonder what else have changed maybe this is the final design.

How strange... I'm not sure I trust their own guide! There still seem to be two slight lumps on the top for the card covers, and where number 5 is used to be the Sim card slot, or at least that was the theory. I think that might still actually be the case and they messed up with the labeling here.

 

[BlueTsunami]

The developers of Resistance Burning Skies said,

“There are no loading screens for Resistance on PS Vita, it’s all seamless with no filler.”

"They explained that this is due to the fast reading NVG cards and the 512 MB RAM."

Unf unf unf

This is really an up and down handheld. Both ends are extreme.

 

[Callibretto]

The developers of Resistance Burning Skies said,

“There are no loading screens for Resistance on PS Vita, it’s all seamless with no filler.”

"They explained that this is due to the fast reading NVG cards and the 512 MB RAM."

that is really nice if true, especially if most if not all games have little to fast loading. it's nice to see Sony consider loading time when designing Vita and it's mem cards. after this and last gen where people are so used to loading, you'd think this could have been the first thing they compromise when they try to cut cost.