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[Zombie James]

People don't consider it a success because they compare it to the gargantuan numbers that the DS put up.

While ignoring that it was probably the most successful non-Nintendo handheld ever.

It is, by a wide, wide margin.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

The PSP has been a huge success for Sony, what are you talking about?

I never said the PSP wasn't a success. I said Sony didn't learn from their mistakes from the PSP

 

[MightyKAC]

Price and a gimmick

Look at the best selling handhelds of the past. They all have long batteries, low prices and some sort of pronounced gimmick (for many, the price was the gimmick).

All of the failed handhelds of the past followed the patterns the Vita is going for right now. High entry price, low battery life, and shooting for the moon for specs. Sony should have just looked at what hurt their PSP and learned from it instead of releasing a new system that does everything the PSP did wrong to a multiple of 100.

Price and a gimmick

The bolded is incorrect. What made money for the DS (and the PSP for that matter) wasn't the dual screens but the amount of great games that took advantage of them. It's never the gimmick that makes the money, it's the way the gimmick entices the consumer that does it. But I'm sorry, I'll let your post continue because I like the next part the best.

Look at the best selling handhelds of the past. They all have long batteries, low prices and some sort of pronounced gimmick (for many, the price was the gimmick).

All of the failed handhelds of the past followed the patterns the Vita is going for right now. High entry price, low battery life, and shooting for the moon for specs. Sony should have just looked at what hurt their PSP and learned from it instead of releasing a new system that does everything the PSP did wrong to a multiple of 100.

How can you know what the battery life is? Do you own one? And by what metric are you deciding that the price is high? And also, last time I checked piracy and the LACK of support (I.E. games) is what hurt the PSP more so than any other factor. And while I have no idea how the Vita will fare on the former, I fail to see how it's lacking in the latter.

 

[odhiex]

I think that Sony will be facing a marketing dilemma with their PlayStation line - Vita is a rather amazing piece of kit, but they can't over-sell it since it will make their PS3 tech look bad. It must be hard to hit a middle ground where both compliment each other.

Why the PS3 tech look bad? Sure, it will look dated (it's the 2006 tech anyway). But many PS3 Games are way beyond bad.

I think it is smart for sony to aim highest benchmark on their device at the current time, so we can moved on from this "long consol generation cycle" the next 2-3 years later. I know Innovations drive technology, but I truly believe that Technology will inspire more innovations going forward.

 

[Shalashaska161]

People don't consider it a success because they compare it to the gargantuan numbers that the DS put up.

While ignoring that it was probably the most successful non-Nintendo handheld ever.

No probably about it, it was. The thing definitely made money for Sony, and is continuing to do so. It just looks like it did poorly when it's compared to the behemoth that was the DS. I think if Vita can do as well as the PSP did then Sony will be very happy with that.

 

[daoster]

yep, let's just forget 2 decades of successful handhelds and what made them successful and pretend power = sales

What exactly was gimmicky about gameboys before the ds?

I hate this idea that price is the only thing that matters for an item to succeed. So the 3ds is now cheaper... That does put a pressure on sony, but it's also their job to show consumers that the vita is worth 250. If the consumers won't bite, then okay, we'll take a step back and see what they should do...

But just because nintendo slashed their prices does not mean sony should be sucked into a pricing war, especially before it's even released! ... That just shows a lack of confidence in their own product.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

The bolded is incorrect. What made money for the DS (and the PSP for that matter) wasn't the dual screens but the amount of great games that took advantage of them. It's never the gimmick that makes the money, it's the way the gimmick entices the consumer that does it. But I'm sorry, I'll let your post continue because I like the next part the best.

How can you know what the battery life is? Do you own one? And by what metric are you deciding that the price is high? And also, last time I checked piracy and the LACK of support (I.E. games) is what hurt the PSP more so than any other factor. And while I have no idea how the Vita will fare on the former, I fail to see how it's lacking in the latter.

So what's the gimmick that games can take advantage on for the Vita? Good graphics? A console like experience? Why would anyone pay 250 dollars for those two things when they can get an identical experience for the same price on the PS3, or even less money for the 360.


I'm being reasonable with the battery life. A device that scale, running that power is just not going to have a good battery life. It's just the logistics of the design.

We don't know what games the Vita is launching with. A year ago we had a long list of games the 3DS was launching with, and yet pretty much none of them were launch titles. You can't judge the launch titles 8 months before the system even launches.

 

[pharmboy044]

I never said the PSP wasn't a success. I said Sony didn't learn from their mistakes from the PSP

Really? I guess you haven't read the recent article regarding the cost for the PSVita dev kit.

That's just one of many things Sony has learned from the PSP.

 

[Emitan]

Buying this as an umemployed student would net me a loss of over half my wealth.

But it's a worthy loss.

You and I are of the same mind on this. If this comes out in 2011 in NA I'm going to be so broke.

 

[twinturbo2]

Buying this as an umemployed student would net me a loss of over half my wealth.

But it's a worthy loss.

It sounds like it's going to be out in early 2012, so you have time to save up.

 

[Rolf NB]

Oh good. I love memory. Always have.

 

[twinturbo2]

Oh good. I love memory. Always have.

Don't you hate it when you forget stuff?

As for price, $250 is fine for me. If they want to compete with the 3DS, why not add an extra-value item, like a $50 PSN card that can be spent any which way the customer wants? They can buy an extra game with it or something...

 

[Emitan]

Don't you hate it when you forget stuff?

As for price, $250 is fine for me. If they want to compete with the 3DS, why not add an extra-value item, like a $50 PSN card that can be spent any which way the customer wants? They can buy an extra game with it or something...

How about a decently sized memory card? Can't wait to pay $250 for the system another $50 for a decent sized memory card and then have no money left for a game.

 

[Xiaoki]

He's obviously trolling. Wheres the mods?

The mods troll the Vita too, so no help there.

 

[MightyKAC]

So what's the gimmick that games can take advantage on for the Vita? Good graphics? A console like experience? Why would anyone pay 250 dollars for those two things when they can get an identical experience for the same price on the PS3, or even less money for the 360.

I dunno. 2 touch screens. 2 analogues. More input options then any other handheld has ever had and the best online features a portable system has ever seen? I'm sure that some cool games could be made around that.

I'm being reasonable with the battery life. A device that scale, running that power is just not going to have a good battery life. It's just the logistics of the design.

No, you're not being reasonable. You're regurgitating an unproven talking point. Some have said the battery is as good as the PSP 3000 and some say it's as good as the NDS but since no one knows for sure can we please stop pretending that we do?

We don't know what games the Vita is launching with. A year ago we had a long list of games the 3DS was launching with, and yet pretty much none of them were launch titles. You can't judge the launch titles 8 months before the system even launches.

Uhh, yeah we do. And that's not even the full list. More may come during TGS. And call me a fanboy if you want but to me it's already more impressive then what the 3DS launched with.

 

[pharmboy044]

How about a decently sized memory card? Can't wait to pay $250 for the system another $50 for a decent sized memory card and then have no money left for a game.

Hey, you have your 2 PSP games from the welcome back program to hold you over until you get some more cash.

 

[SneakyStephan]

http://www.sys-con.com/node/1947549

     Dimensions        (tentative, excludes largest projection)
                       5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors,
    Screen             OLED
   
    --------------    ------------------------------------
   [B][I][U] Main memory       512MB[/U][/I][/B]
    -----------       -----
  [B][I][U]  VRAM              128MB[/U][/I][/B]
    ----              -----

    format            Videos
    ------            ------
                       -- MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC),[B][I][U] H.264[/U][/I][/B]/MPEG-4 AVC
                       High/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)
                     
                      -----------------------------------------

AMSSKMLHSJQSGQSLSHQGHQSLSQHBG OMG H264 support (mkv too hopefully?) and 512MB RAM?
And it's not even my birthday yet sony! thank you!

Someone post some extremely overjoyous gifs, I don't have any.

 

[Ark]

It sounds like it's going to be out in early 2012, so you have time to save up.

Excellent.

 

[bone_and_sinew]

...

Why we still got PS3?

 

[Emitan]

Hey, you have your 2 PSP games from the welcome back program to hold you over until you get some more cash.

I own a bunch of PSP games on PSN. But they're old. PSP games? I doubt they haven't rusted over or something by now.

 

[KAL2006]

Really? I guess you haven't read the recent article regarding the cost for the PSVita dev kit.

That's just one of many things Sony has learned from the PSP.

Not to mention they learned that they need 2 analogs this time and not a shtty nub
They learned they need casual appeal with motion and touchscreen controls
They learned they need to have new IP as well as old IPs for launch (original PSP launch was mainly old IPs)
They learned not to use shitty UMDs that give you load times
They learned online features are important, as shown by 360
They learned online store is important as shown by XBLA/PSN/iOS, by having every Vita game being downloadable

As for battery concerns, due to battery tech not improving it is normal to have shitty battery life in this day and age. Most smartphones and 3DS have shown this. As for price, $250 is great, I wonder what direction you wanted Sony to go, make a cheap $150 that is basically a slightly more powerful 3DS without the 3D. What would be the point, Sony should stick to what they do best, and make end premium gaming device instead of cheaper kids device which Nintendo owns the market of.

 

[tehbible]

I see a lot of what if's with the Vita launch.

Sony seems to be banking on the quality of their launch titles. Isn't that a pretty big 'if' scenario?

I don't see how Vita is sustainable at $249 on launch. They're gonna have to get to reality and stay competitive.

 

[twinturbo2]

How about a decently sized memory card? Can't wait to pay $250 for the system another $50 for a decent sized memory card and then have no money left for a game.

I'd take a memory card, too. Preferably one that's at least 8 gigs, so I can stuff some stuff on there.

 

[Ratrat]

Why do people want mkv? Thing doesn't even have hdmi out.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Have very high resolution textures, more objects on screen at the same time and good AA (no ugly jaggies).

Most of what you're saying can be accomplished even with a large amount of really slow RAM.

No, the thing that gets me excited is the frame-buffer, transparency, and particle effects.

Depending on the speed and bandwidth we could end up with more realistic looking hair and explosions than UC2.

 

[faridmon]

But what does it mean? Its not like the PS3 or the 360 run poorly? I mean there isn't enough heavy OS works in the system, right?

 

[SneakyStephan]

Why do people want mkv? Thing doesn't even have hdmi out.

Watch high quality rips of my blu rays in bed (and on the train)? why the heck else?

BATMAN on the train yo.

 

[pharmboy044]

I own a bunch of PSP games on PSN. But they're old. PSP games? I doubt they haven't rusted over or something by now.

I've never had a PSP so I'm pretty excited to play all the PSP games that I got off of PSN for cheap.

 

[KAL2006]

Why do people want mkv? Thing doesn't even have hdmi out.

Er, to watch videos on the device. I usually watch videos on my iPhone, but I would love Vita to do this so I don't have to waste iPhone battery life as well as the Vita screen being much bigger and the sexy OLED quality.

If I wanted to watch videos on my TV, I'd just do that through my connected PC or PS3.

 

[Lazy8s]

The GPU will of course have sufficient access to the 512MB pool, too. Sony shouldn't use anything more than "cellphone" RAM there, either, because the chosen parts are efficient (latency tolerant) enough to benefit more from the extra space.

The RAM amounts are more than just what's implied by the numbers when you consider PVRTC.

People are always looking at the wrong parts of a system when they infer that the hardware must be expensive to build. Extra GPU and CPU cores amount to a few bucks in silicon and royalties.

 

[Andrefpvs]

Why do people want mkv? Thing doesn't even have hdmi out.

The hell. Portable device.

 

[MightyKAC]

Why do people want mkv? Thing doesn't even have hdmi out.

I'm hoping against hope that some where down the line we can get both.

But I'm as happy as a pig in shit with what they've given us so far.

 

[tehbible]

Watch high quality rips of my blu rays in bed (and on the train)? why the heck else?

The hell. Portable device.

Seriously? Maybe its the smartphone user in me thats saying, terrible idea.

You're going to put 4GB+ 720p rips stored locally onto Vita?

Makes no sense.

Additionally, streaming is the mode of choice for Sony, as well as the rest of the industry, hence why they have the 3G model as well.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

The GPU will of course have sufficient access to the 512MB pool, too. Sony shouldn't use anything more than "cellphone" RAM there, either, because the chosen parts are efficient (latency tolerant) enough to benefit more from the extra space.

The RAM amounts are more than just what's implied by the numbers when you consider PVRTC.

People are always looking at the wrong parts of a system when they infer that the hardware must be expensive to build. Extra GPU and CPU cores amount to a few bucks in silicon and royalties.

But that's mainly because most people, even enthusiasts, barely understand the tech of these things.

 

[KAL2006]

I see a lot of what if's with the Vita launch.

Sony seems to be banking on the quality of their launch titles. Isn't that a pretty big 'if' scenario?

I don't see how Vita is sustainable at $249 on launch. They're gonna have to get to reality and stay competitive.

I disagree, as long as the product is good people would pay a lot of money for it (as long as it ain't $599). Nowadays we have so much expensive gadgets that still manage to sell, such as iPhone, Kinect, Kindle, iPad and etc. Hell, here in the UK, the 3DS drop as low as £150 (DSi launch price) before the price drop. I think 3DS was unpopular not due to the price, but due to the lack of good software, bad marketing (people not knowing it was a next gen handheld), and negative backlash of 3D.

 

[onQ123]

Er, to watch videos on the device. I usually watch videos on my iPhone, but I would love Vita to do this so I don't have to waste iPhone battery life as well as the Vita screen being much bigger and the sexy OLED quality.

If I wanted to watch videos on my TV, I'd just do that through my connected PC or PS3.

convert your MKV to MP4 , H.264 it's easy

 

[SneakyStephan]

Seriously? Maybe its the smartphone user in me thats saying, terrible idea.

You're going to put 4GB+ 720p rips stored locally onto Vita?

Makes no sense.

Additionally, streaming is the mode of choice for Sony, as well as the rest of the industry, hence why they have the 3G model as well.

What's with the trolling?
First you go armchair marketing analyst over the price, now you are going to tell people what they can and can't enjoy about their handhelds?
Had a bad day flipping burgers?

 

[Mrbob]

I never said the PSP wasn't a success. I said Sony didn't learn from their mistakes from the PSP

Then you are living in a bubble if you think this is a repeat. Outside of having higher hardware price, Sony is doing everything better than Nintendo at the moment comparing their next portables, including games. Sony is attracting low cost indie content.

I'm not guaranteeing success, as I don't know how the market will look at the Vita in this new ipod touch world, but I would not put this on sony repeating the mistakes of their predecessor. It looks to me Sony has a better grasp on the changing landscape of the portable market than Nintendo does.

Nintendo has, well, Nintendo games. 3DS will continue to be a failure for everyone that isn't Nintendo.

 

[staticneuron]

yep, let's just forget 2 decades of successful handhelds and what made them successful and pretend power = sales

Why are you being selective in your memory. Every nintendo competitor simply didn't stand up, price or gimmicks did not help. Only Sony was able to achieve these numbers. So as a gamer who enjoys their products and as a person who likes to watch the industry. I see nothing that proves your point because for all anyone knows, nintendos dominance could be off of name alone after so many years.

 

[tehbible]

What's with the trolling?
First you go armchair marketing analyst over the price, now you are going to tell people what they can and can't enjoy about their handhelds?
Had a bad day flipping burgers?

i should have originally posted here. I was not aware that multiple Vita related threads were open. Apologies for that.

I don't mean to come off as trolling, I'm just trying to give a different viewpoint. Thats all.

not flippin burgers, i'm currently in my cubicle right now at work

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Excellent news.

I'm no tech expert, but this should mean PS2 and even PS3 ports should be easier to achieve?

 

[pharmboy044]

So someone must have asked Sony at Gamescom if Vita is region free or not.
?

 

[Kogepan]

What's with the trolling?
First you go armchair marketing analyst over the price, now you are going to tell people what they can and can't enjoy about their handhelds?
Had a bad day flipping burgers?

why would you need 720p movies to play on a 960x544 screen?

480p xvids should look the same.

 

[jackdoe]

Er, to watch videos on the device. I usually watch videos on my iPhone, but I would love Vita to do this so I don't have to waste iPhone battery life as well as the Vita screen being much bigger and the sexy OLED quality.

If I wanted to watch videos on my TV, I'd just do that through my connected PC or PS3.

I don't think Sony will ever support MKV. I mean, that video format is the format of choice for HD movie rips which are illegal and anime fansubs which are barely legal (and maybe even a little illegal).

 

[tehbible]

why would you need 720p movies to play on a 960x544 screen?

480p xvids should look the same.

great, but you're still going to have transcode it so that it fits on a 960x544 screen.

transcoding a blu-ray disc, that is. unless ya'll are pirating.

 

[KAL2006]

why would you need 720p movies to play on a 960x544 screen?

480p xvids should look the same.

So you don't have to go through the hastle of converting, you can just wack the videos on the device and go. No need for conversion. I do this with my iPhone 3GS all the time. The iPhone 3GS screen res is not that high, but I just wack in any video no matter the resolution, no need to worry about anything as the Oplayer app on iPhone plays practically any video. This is something I want on Vita. I hated PSP where you had to convert videos to a format the PSP recognises. Also 960x544 is still quite a high resolution, so videos still should look sharp on it, and the OLED screen quality should make videos look better than on iPhone. And finally the 5" size makes it more appealing to watch videos on it than iPhone.

I don't think Sony will ever support MKV. I mean, that video format is the format of choice for HD movie rips which are illegal and anime fansubs which are barely legal (and maybe even a little illegal).

Don't really care for MKVs, it's any avi/xvid/mpg format I want the Vita to play. Basically as long as the codecs match the PS3 I would be happy, as my PS3 plays most of my videos. I just don't want another PSP situation where I need to always convert.

 

[paskowitz]

Seriously? Maybe its the smartphone user in me thats saying, terrible idea.

You're going to put 4GB+ 720p rips stored locally onto Vita?

Makes no sense.

Additionally, streaming is the mode of choice for Sony, as well as the rest of the industry, hence why they have the 3G model as well.

Yes, yes I will. All my HD Top Gear episodes are in MKV as well. Also I really hope there is a Netflix app for the PSV as well. That would get a lot of use. Pandora and Spotify as well.

 

[onQ123]

The GPU will of course have sufficient access to the 512MB pool, too. Sony shouldn't use anything more than "cellphone" RAM there, either, because the chosen parts are efficient (latency tolerant) enough to benefit more from the extra space.

The RAM amounts are more than just what's implied by the numbers when you consider PVRTC.

People are always looking at the wrong parts of a system when they infer that the hardware must be expensive to build. Extra GPU and CPU cores amount to a few bucks in silicon and royalties.

I was reading this post & when I got to the PVR part I knew who was posting before I even looked at your name lol.

Vita reminds me a lot of the Dreamcast mostly because it seem like it's going to be easy for devs to put out games that show off the power even at the beginning, I get that same feeling I got when I 1st seen the dreamcast games.

 

[Lonely1]

Is the Feb-March date solid?

 

[Ratba]

But is it zero region?