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[Gustav]

What I don't understand is, if Vita isn't region locked why not have one PSN account that can access content from all regions? I mean, if people want content that is in Japanese, but they're in the US let'em have it. Same with Japanese gamers who want games in English. Having 3 different stores with different content doesn't make sense. Have one account that can buy any of the content.

Because for some content the rights may lie with multiple parties depending on region. So if for example Sony would release Demon's Souls (I know it's not a Vita game, but bear with me) in the JP store, because they are the publishers of that title in Japan, and everybody could buy it, Atlus AND Namco Bandai would get screwed out of their money, since they have the rights for US and EU distribution respectively.

And that is illegal.

 

[Eusis]

Because for some content the rights may lie with multiple parties depending on region. So if for example Sony would release Demon's Souls (I know it's not a Vita game, but bear with me) in the JP store, because they are the publishers of that title in Japan, and everybody could buy it, Atlus AND Namco Bandai would get screwed out of their money, since they have the rights for US and EU distribution respectively.

And that is illegal.

I mentioned Microsoft's policies on XBLA exclusives, but that might actually be highlighting part of why they're done. A very small publisher probably can't front the money to get through the ratings process of each region, we may be seeing that even with those with multiple games like Xseed with their games not being out in Australia/New Zealand. Perhaps then Microsoft forces smaller publishers to go through them so they can front costs like that and ensure each game can be everywhere, whereas publishers who managed to get enough games under their belt probably have the means to get everything covered themselves.

 

[Riposte]

If that is how you are going to play it...

bring back memory card stickers you'd get from magazines!

I had one of Crono on my memory card and my brother had a Final Fantasy 8 one. (Wow, it is impossible to find images of these stickers on google. Couldn't have been that obscure?)

 

[Panajev2001a]

There is no way that the Vita memory cards will be coming close to that (hell it's probably no faster than a Class 6 SD card)

Considering that you can download and install full games on it and they have to perform just as fast as the retail game cards, I'd say you have no basis to claim that.

Also, Class 6 --> 6 MB/s, Class 10 --> 10 MB/s (minimum write speed).

Memory Stick Pro Duo (not exactly a new format, the Pro standard dates to 2003) --> 1.875 MB/s so, it is not like even Class 10 SD cards are unbeatable speed kings.

 

[mclem]

- Sony have probably developed these things to be as uncrackable military grade security nutto level data storage cards to avoid the PSP Pirate Ships Second Voyage. Theyre not just off the shelf shit, a substantial amount of R&D went into this stuff. And until some murky den in deepest asia creates a hack-card or whatever or worse someone hacks the machines internals, Sony still get to make some money from the only portable storage solution for the machine. Welcome to the real world and a business thats suddenly realised the folly of too many freebies. Microsoft make their money from Xbox Live subs the masses continue to pay without a second thought that actually offer nothing beyond PvP, Sony have turned to something material.

So *basically*, what you're saying is that Sony have shiny new DRM and they're passing the costs onto their consumers? Just this time the costs are largely financial, rather than a hit to convenience like many current DRM methods are?

 

[DangerousDave]

So *basically*, what you're saying is that Sony have shiny new DRM and they're passing the costs onto their consumers? Just this time the costs are largely financial, rather than a hit to convenience like many current DRM methods are?

Well, I think that it has DRM into DRM into DRM into DRM.

They don't want to make the same mistake of PSP, and selling a hardware on loss and with a very high piracy that compromise their software benefits. And it seems that Vita it has a lot of anti-piracy layers.

Still, even if the propietary cards are an added cost for the users, the discounts in digital games are compensating that cost, so is quite neutral for the users. We're talking that most games will be cheaper than 3DS games (if you buy them in digital), even if the development cost is bigger.

 

[Pie and Beans]

So *basically*, what you're saying is that Sony have shiny new DRM and they're passing the costs onto their consumers? Just this time the costs are largely financial, rather than a hit to convenience like many current DRM methods are?

Well yeah. I mean you can't have it both ways really. Either you want the horrendous DRM checking you're online at all times and that kind of invasive stuff, or you pay a little bit of a premium to ensure a better way of doing things.

I mean not to play the bleeding heart for a massive global corporation, but we've all seen Sony's dire financial reports and whatnot over the years. Gamer's can expect the world, and in some cases justifiably, but if you want Sony to keep on trucking and making any of this shit, I don't think demonising them for selling some product at a somewhat inflated price to make their position in this business profitable is really the right mental path to be taking.

 

[charlequin]

Bit early to say that about the Vita.

Nah, not really. Outside software (and yes, software is far and away the most important part of any platform, and the part that's least possible to predict upfront) the Vita is already straight-up worse (relative to when it's being released) than the PSP for me. Unless some of these account-related issues get walked back between now and release, that's basically unavoidable.

I'd bet there's only one reason, SCEI. They give the 3 divisions WAY too much freedom and that results in a lot of redundancy between them all (each have their own QA, PS Store, websites and even the bloody twitter handles). If they had any brains they'd try to merge things together to create the impression that there's some semblance of unity but that'd require co-ordination, something SCE has lacked since the division was created.

But if they did that, SCEA would have to give up its hobby of inventing a new stupid rule to keep Japanese games out of America each generation!

This also seems to entirely block game sharing, which seems over-strict.

Yup. I don't mind having to have a second memory card for a second account that much on its own (and eventually the cards will be cheaper) but if one of the results is that a digital game I buy on my account can't be played on my wife's account via any means, that makes DD purchases way shittier than physical ones (or digital purchases on PSP and PS3.)

 

[patsu]

Dual sticks, multi-touch screen, and modern OS features on Vita already empower Vita to be a much much more usable software platform and experience than PSP.

 

[daffy]

Nah, not really. Outside software (and yes, software is far and away the most important part of any platform, and the part that's least possible to predict upfront) the Vita is already straight-up worse (relative to when it's being released) than the PSP for me. Unless some of these account-related issues get walked back between now and release, that's basically unavoidable.

You think they're gonna redesign the Vita, a handheld designed around mobile use coming out in like 2 weeks, into the PS3, a system designed to control a living room? Have you went to Sony about this? Like, does your phone allow easy logging out and directly switching accounts for content sharing? Does your... anything mobile? Saying console-like promo doesn't cut it, you know full well its still mobile. Did you complain about no 1080p HD support, or HDMI support, or hard drive support, or it not being $499 at launch? Its not a PS3, it has PS3-like features but they never said all encompassing.

Yup. I don't mind having to have a second memory card for a second account that much on its own (and eventually the cards will be cheaper) but if one of the results is that a digital game I buy on my account can't be played on my wife's account via any means, that makes DD purchases way shittier than physical ones (or digital purchases on PSP and PS3.)

I don't know why you're pitching a tent when what you're suggesting is basically unheard of for mobile devices. Maybe you should sit SCE down and try hitting them. Or you can try handing the Vita over to your wife and letting her play it. How is that shittier when its the exact same as PSP digital except you can quickly switch accounts by switching memory cards instead of deleting your whole account and micromanaging useless content vs useful content on one card?

 

[DangerousDave]

Nah, not really. Outside software (and yes, software is far and away the most important part of any platform, and the part that's least possible to predict upfront) the Vita is already straight-up worse (relative to when it's being released) than the PSP for me. Unless some of these account-related issues get walked back between now and release, that's basically unavoidable.

Not really, because is the same (or similar) for PSP, but now, because of features than PSP don't have (friend list, trophies), you want an improve. But is not worse.

Also, take in consideration the differences between PSP when it launched (no PSX, no PSN, not even a web browser) with the features that Vita will have from start, that there are already much more than the ones that PSP has at the end of his lifetime.

About trophies, well, I don't care at all about them. I'm proud of having more than 100 games and not a single platinum one.

 

[Argyle]

This also seems to entirely block game sharing, which seems over-strict.

Eg I buy a PS Vita game on my PSN account and put it on my Vita. If my son/daughter has their own vita, they'll have their own PSN account. But won't that mean they can't now transfer that game to their PSN account? Or does it just factor in the region of the account? i.e we both have UK accounts, so I can transfer a UK Vita game to both of them?

Game sharing is mostly blocked, but by the new two console activation limit, not this. They said you can have two memory cards with the same account, I don't see why you couldn't give one memory card to say, your son, and tell him to play in offline mode on his Vita (or sign in when you are not playing on your Vita).

 

[Lothars]

My frustration comes from the fact that both of this new generation's handhelds are downgrades in many real, meaningful ways over their predecessors: badly priced, filled with arbitrary content restrictions or horribly designed online systems, features left out, games or accessories price hiked, etc. while at the same time both systems are passing over obvious improvements to their predecessors. I'm going to wind up buying both of them but neither is going to be as good a system as it's predecessor, and that irritates me greatly.

I disagree I think there's odvious improvments and with this issue, we only have little tinbits of information and not the whole story, We don't know how exactly the process is with multiple accounts if you can have content from more than one account on the same memory card but with the ability to only play with the account it was bought on.

I think the Vita is an huge improvement in many ways over the PSP and the biggest issue IMO is the prices of the memory cards, I believe that will change but I think until the Vita is offically out in Japan, we can't say it's automatically worst than the PSP in some ways.

 

[charlequin]

You think they're gonna redesign the Vita, a handheld designed around mobile use coming out in like 2 weeks, into the PS3, a system designed to control a living room?

Well, no, I don't. That would be why I said "Vita is a worse system than PSP for me."

Like, does your phone allow easy logging out and directly switching accounts for content sharing?

Actually, yes. I have multiple Google accounts on my phone and I can switch between them with a few clicks to listen to different streaming music on Google Music, download different paid apps, access different email accounts and Google Docs, etc. I have two on there right now.

Did you complain about no 1080p HD support, or HDMI support

I did actually complain about a lack of TV Out, yes, because it's a valuable feature that was present in the PSP for years now and it's only being excluded due to bullshit market-positioning reasons, not any actual cost or technological reasons.

How is that shittier when its the exact same as PSP digital except you can quickly switch accounts by switching memory cards

Because I can't play games bought on one account using another account (thereby shutting out the use of valuable platform features like trophies and friends lists), which you would know if you'd read my posts in the thread before responding to them.

 

[Curufinwe]

I would like TV Out. I still have a launch PSP so I never got to try it on that system, but I could see it coming in handy in some situations.

 

[Kyoufu]

I would like TV Out. I still have a launch PSP so I never got to try it on that system, but I could see it coming in handy in some situations.

It'll be handy for recording gameplay with a PVR. That is the only reason (albeit a good one) I'd use it for.

 

[FireCloud]

We've already got many devices now that provide TV out. I don't need that from Vita. I'm picking up one of the early models because, in the past, those have had the best build quality as far as Sony devices go.

I've got a PSP 3000 and have never felt the need to hook it up to an external display.

That and I've spent far too long on the hype train to get off now.

 

[Nora Kisaragi]

I did actually complain about a lack of TV Out, yes, because it's a valuable feature that was present in the PSP for years now and it's only being excluded due to bullshit market-positioning reasons, not any actual cost or technological reasons..

Didn't the PSP not have video-out until the PSP Slim?

Maybe we have to wait for the Vita Slim? Haha.

just like how Apple added HDMI out adaptor to iPad and iPhone via the dock connector.

wouldn't be surprised if apple patented that technology

 

[patsu]

Vita has an accessory port (for docking). Sony may be able to add HDMI output to Vita via that port, just like how Apple added HDMI out adaptor to iPad and iPhone via the dock connector.

 

[charlequin]

We've already got many devices now that provide TV out. I don't need that from Vita.

not sure if serious

 

[patsu]

We've already got many devices now that provide TV out. I don't need that from Vita. I'm picking up one of the early models because, in the past, those have had the best build quality as far as Sony devices go.

I've got a PSP 3000 and have never felt the need to hook it up to an external display.

That and I've spent far too long on the hype train to get off now.

One of the best use cases for me is still RemotePlay. Being able to watch BR or Hulu Plus or play a game while my family watch American Idol is rather useful and common. But Sony hasn't follow through.

 

[x3sphere]

TV out would be killer on the Vita. Nice little portable media device, and it's probably powerful enough to output 1080p. Not to mention the internal res is high enough that games wouldn't look like utter shit on a TV display.

 

[onken]

Lack of TV out sucks because it's basically a standard feature these days, but honestly I never used it a single time on my PSP so I can't get too worked up about it.

 

[jetsetfluken]

So we still can't play for example...JP content under our US account, right?
The JP content will only play on the JP-account asigned memory card.

No JP (Vita) trophies for us US/EU people?
We totally sure there is no work-around?

Really hope there's little to no digital exclusive Vita games/DLC in Japan.

 

[kswiston]

If that is how you are going to play it...

bring back memory card stickers you'd get from magazines!

I had one of Crono on my memory card and my brother had a Final Fantasy 8 one. (Wow, it is impossible to find images of these stickers on google. Couldn't have been that obscure?)

I had two PS1 memory cards, one with a Chrono Cross sticker, and one with a Vagrant Story sticker. Crazy to think those stupid things were $30, and could hold 15 game saves at most.

 

[x3sphere]

So we still can't play for example...JP content under our US account, right?
The JP content will only play on the JP-account asigned memory card.

No JP (Vita) trophies for us US/EU people?
We totally sure there is no work-around?

Really hope there's little to no digital exclusive Vita games/DLC in Japan.

We don't know yet. All signs point to no, though.

 

[jetsetfluken]

We don't know yet. All signs point to no, though.

I really have no problem using an individual JP account assigned memory card for JP PSP/PS1 games, but if there's digital (JP PS Store) exclusive Vita software then we are locked out of trophies for those and will be forced to play on the JP dummy account.

Has there been any word yet of if there will be digital-only Vita software? Currently there are a handful of JP exclusive PSN games, all of which very unique and interesting, but this is a different situation.

We can compare to the PSP. Just how many Japanese PSP games were digital (PS Store) only and had no retail version?

I'm fine importing retail copies of JP games, as long as I can play them on my US account.

 

[FireCloud]

One of the best use cases for me is still RemotePlay. Being able to watch BR or Hulu Plus or play a game while my family watch American Idol is rather useful and common. But Sony hasn't follow through.

With what they've already shown with the Vita remote play playing KZ3, I'm very interested in it. If I can play my PS3 games while the rest of the family is watching generic reality show X, it will make the Vita worth it for me. I just need to wire some ethernet to the PS3. If not remote play won't work well (based on PSP remote play experience)

 

[Takao]

Lack of TV out sucks because it's basically a standard feature these days, but honestly I never used it a single time on my PSP so I can't get too worked up about it.

Standard? 3DS doesn't offer it, and that's the rest of Vita's direct competition.

 

[OneMoreQuestion]

We don't know yet. All signs point to no, though.

I'm sure you can still play RETAIL japanese games on your US/EU account, which nets you those precious trophies

DLC is probably out of the question though.

 

[jetsetfluken]

I'm sure you can still play RETAIL japanese games on your US/EU account, which nets you those precious trophies

DLC is probably out of the question though.

Yep, as far as we know now, playing physical retail copies of JP games will be the only way to play under your US/EU account.

But yes, the problem comes in with posible DLC trophies.
I'm fine if the DLC doesn't add trophies, I can just buy the DLC on my JP account and play the DLC there.

But say you 100% JP Vita game #12 and DLC w/ trophies are released, lowering your percent to 84%. You will forever be stuck with it incomplete.

The lesson that I think will be learned is: if you care about DLC/trophies, don't import Vita games unless there is an absolute 0% chance it will get localized.

I think though that not as many Vita games will be DLC. Just how many PSP games have DLC anyway?
The only DLC we see so far are semi-minor ones like the Ridge Racer Vita's BGM, tracks, etc., which I can almost guarantee will also be released in US/EU PS Stores.

 

[x3sphere]

I really have no problem using an individual JP account assigned memory card for JP PSP/PS1 games, but if there's digital (JP PS Store) exclusive Vita software then we are locked out of trophies for those and will be forced to play on the JP dummy account.

Has there been any word yet of if there will be digital-only Vita software? Currently there are a handful of JP exclusive PSN games, all of which very unique and interesting, but this is a different situation.

We can compare to the PSP. Just how many Japanese PSP games were digital (PS Store) only and had no retail version?

I'm fine importing retail copies of JP games, as long as I can play them on my US account.

There will be digital only Vita software -- Super Stardust Delta and (possibly, not 100% sure) Escape Plan come to mind. As far as exclusive to JP PSN games -- I don't know of any yet. I'm sure there will be some.

The PS Store was more of an afterthought on PSP, so there weren't a whole lot of games only available digitally. With the Vita, I think we'll see a selection similar to PS3.

 

[jetsetfluken]

There will be digital only Vita software -- Super Stardust Delta and (possibly, not 100% sure) Escape Plan come to mind. As far as exclusive to JP PSN games -- I don't know of any yet. I'm sure there will be some.

The PS Store was more of an afterthought on PSP, so there weren't a whole lot of games only available digitally. With the Vita, I think we'll see a selection similar to PS3.

Yeah, those games listed so far are western and will be coming 100% to US/EU PS Stores.
I guess it comes down to the "Japanese way", in which what method of distribution is more favorable.

From what I see with PSP, they buy more retail. I'm willing to bet the more digital-exclusive software will be western, with Japanese mostly having retail versions (and digital counterparts for some) with minimal digital ONLY software.