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[s0]

It's the standard question I ask people who complain about identical sequels on TIGS.

Idk I don't have much of a problem with iterative sequels but in the age of DLC we must ask ourselves the question which ones still need to exist.

[BattleBeard]

I think this AR looks great, waaaay better than 3DS in most aspects.

But we will see if the system's GAMES are good. The 3DS has a great lineup, that's why I want it. Let's see Sony make me want otherwise.

[poe]

I thought taht 3-5 hour battery life was a rumor, guess not

The games still look amazing but I'm leaning towards not buying the Vita now due to the lack of mobile games I play recently :/

[Nix]

The thing is different PS3 systems have different hardware for emulating the PS2.

[Richard Kain]

But we will see if the system's GAMES are good. The 3DS has a great lineup, that's why I want it. Let's see Sony make me want otherwise.

Well, development support is something that Sony usually beats Nintendo at. The same situation applied back in late 2004 - early 2005 when the DS and PSP were coming out. The initial development support for the DS was very weak, while the PSP had a surprisingly strong showing. It wasn't until a year later when some of Nintendo's big first-party games started coming out that the DS picked up steam. And it wasn't until piracy became an epidemic on the PSP that it started losing development support.

Sony has made some major decisions for the Vita that should severely limit piracy on the system. They've gone out of their way to curry favor with 3rd party developers on their new handheld. And after a tepid start, the 3DS has actually lost a lot of the developer support that it had initially. The early line-up for the Vita will probably be fairly strong.

[Ishi]

I had to queue for a couple of hours but got chance to have a go on a Vita at Eurogamer.

It's comfy to hold; big enough to feel quite chunky but thin enough to not be unwieldy. It was quite light, although the Sony girl said the weight might not match the final thing.

My demo game was

so I didn't get to try out the buttons or analogue sticks in-game. I messed around with them though and they felt fine. The sticks are small but aren't too resistive (similar to the PS3 sticks) so they should be easy enough to use.

The shooting game was similar to the 3DS' Face Raiders and worked just as well (except I couldn't really aim properly because the console was tied to the table). The flying thing used the motion controls and worked the same as any similar iPhone game.

I played the rolling-around game, which quite nicely showcased the main advantage of using the rear touch panel to interact with the game, your hand doesn't get in the way. I also played the whack game where you tap the monsters on the front or the back. Hitting the correct area of the rear panel was a bit hit-or-miss, literally, but I imagine experience using the touch panel will help with accuracy.

The only real issue was that when holding the console normally I had my fingers all over the touch panel, instead of making use of the finger rest grooves on the back. So in mini-games that used the touch panel, I had to consciously make the effort not to place my other fingers on it.

[Headless Man]

Sony has made some major decisions for the Vita that should severely limit piracy on the system. They've gone out of their way to curry favor with 3rd party developers on their new handheld. And after a tepid start, the 3DS has actually lost a lot of the developer support that it had initially. The early line-up for the Vita will probably be fairly strong.

uhhhhhhhhhh .... this is a very strange post.  3rd party support for vita is really thin.  all the major Japanese pubs are putting their biggest games on 3DS (so far). monster hunter, resident evil, kingdom hearts etc. what support were you thinking of?

[Geoffs]

I craving the PS Vita pretty hard at the moment. I think what's got me most excited is the cheap(ish) SDK clocking in at like $1200 bucks seems to be low enough we could see some super indie games on it. And then there is Luminses...yeah. Not to mention Disgaea and Persona...Come on just take my money!

[[RM8]]

I don't think I'm getting one at launch anymore.

First, I'm struggling to find games I really want for it. Second, the battery is kind of a big issue if it's even worse than the 3DS battery. Third, I may lose my job soon

[Kramlack]

I don't think I'm getting one at launch anymore.

First, I'm struggling to find games I really want for it. Second, the battery is kind of a big issue if it's even worse than the 3DS battery. Third, I may lose my job soon

The battery life is 3-5 hours. Same as the 3DS, but yeah, that's not a good thing.

[PKBT]

The Vita sounds really great to me, and I really want to get one when it comes out, but I do hope they can make its battery life last longer before they go full release.

With any hope, I'll probably be getting it before the end of next year.

[Uykered]

I hope you don't have to update firmware all the time with the Vita, that way emulation will be less of a hassle.

[s0]

I hope you don't have to update firmware all the time with the Vita, that way emulation will be less of a hassle.

dream on, buddy

[Hangedman]

Bigger! More expensive! Proprietary-er than before!
Sony is inventing a new memory card just for the Vita that isn't compatible with anything.
Including their own wacky memory card design from digicams and PSP.

My real underlying concern with the Vita: can it take a hit or a fall. The PSP varied widely between 'bulletproof' and 'shitting itself and dying if you looked at it askance', sometimes within the same generation or the same unit.

[Richard Kain]

Bigger! More expensive! Proprietary-er than before!
Sony is inventing a new memory card just for the Vita that isn't compatible with anything.
Including their own wacky memory card design from digicams and PSP.

My real underlying concern with the Vita: can it take a hit or a fall. The PSP varied widely between 'bulletproof' and 'shitting itself and dying if you looked at it askance', sometimes within the same generation or the same unit.

Part of the durability issue with the original PSP was a result of its titanic screen, and the UMD drive. The titanic screen was obvious, if you drop that on anything hard, you are going to get cracks and nasty scratches. That's just the nature of the beast, and applies to anything with a very pretty screen. The UMD drive was a matter of an overly complex disc drive in a relatively tiny handheld. In short, too many moving parts in too small a space. You bump that thing just so, and something goes out of alignment. Now you can't play UMDs on your PSP anymore.

The Vita is going to have similar issues with the screen, but should overall be sturdier thanks to its lack of a UMD drive. The cartridge format of the Vita is going to make the system more stable in terms of bumps and jolts. Cartridges are just more stable than discs, and don't involve moving parts.

Proprietary memory cards are partially a bid for more profits, and a way to ingratiate themselves to retailers. They are also a concession to developers, and an attempt to combat piracy on Sony's new handheld. If you deny everyday consumers direct access to the system's primary memory format, that alone will prevent widespread piracy on the Vita. It won't eliminate piracy entirely, but it WILL make it much more difficult for "casual" piracy.

Overall, I can't help but feel that Sony is actually taking the proper approach with the Vita. I think a lot of their decisions indicate that they learned a lot from the PSP. Their efforts to combat piracy on the Vita aren't limited to prevention. One BIG issue that they are addressing is homebrew. And they have come up with a constructive and cooperative solution. In November they are going to release an SDK that will essentially legitimize and open up homebrew on their Android-based hardware, including the Vita. Anyone wanting to play around with homebrew on the Vita isn't going to have to crack their firmware. They will be able to do it with Sony's blessing right out of the gate. Sony's doing a lot to de-fang the threat that piracy presents for their second handheld.

[Tumetsu]

Hmm, was that SDK priced? Or is it just Vita SDK which costs over 1k?

[s0]

One BIG issue that they are addressing is homebrew. And they have come up with a constructive and cooperative solution. In November they are going to release an SDK that will essentially legitimize and open up homebrew on their Android-based hardware, including the Vita.

But how much control does Sony have over what's being made with the SDK? Will emulators (the only PSP homebrew I care about) still be a possibility?

[Geoffs]

I hope you don't have to update firmware all the time with the Vita, that way emulation will be less of a hassle.

dream on, buddy

This was commented on by the sony brass, I believe they said something to the effect of "We are very aware that people dislike frequent firmware updates" Not that the statement says they will do jack about it.

[Ishi]

I hope you don't have to update firmware all the time with the Vita, that way emulation will be less of a hassle.

dream on, buddy

This was commented on by the sony brass, I believe they said something to the effect of "We are very aware that people dislike frequent firmware updates" Not that the statement says they will do jack about it.

I read something along the lines of, "There will be firmware updates but they'll be automatic / done in the background so they don't prevent you playing like on the PS3". Or something.

[Richard Kain]

Well, the U.S. prices for the Vita's memory cards are out...

Original Joystiq Article

Summary:
4 GB - $29.99
8 GB - $44.99
16 GB - $69.99
32 GB - $119.99
All prices in USD

Those...are some really high prices for memory cards. Granted, these memory cards are WAY larger than the 8 MB cards used on the PS2. (and those were plenty expensive themselves) But in this day and age of cheap flash memory, it's an obvious ploy to charge consumers extra.

Of course, this also strikes me as a concession to retailers. The Vita is going to have games available at retail and digitally distributed. Requiring a prohibitively expensive memory card format would seriously cut back on the looming threat of digital distribution. And expensive peripherals with great mark-ups are retailer's bread and butter. This strikes me most as an attempt to placate brick-and-mortar stores after what happened to the PSP.