520°

Sony PS Vita: Game Changer or Game Over?

Sony's new portable gaming machine packs a punch, but is the PS Vita the victim of being the right hardware at the wrong time?

Popzara looks at the next-generation portable's potential in a mobile world dominated by smartphones, iDevices, and Nintendo.

Titanz4457d ago

Let's just chill out for a second.

darthv724457d ago (Edited 4457d ago )

from the perspective of those it is geared towards. No doubt the core audience that has been following along (myself included) are taking in every bit of sexiness this unit has to offer.

It would only be a game over if the casual consumer didnt find the same appeal as the core audience. That is the big hurdle to get over right now. Creating the mass market appeal to get consumers to bite.

To them, it doesnt offer anything new. Meaning it isnt a complete convenience package. This society is spoiled on tablet/phone convenience that a dedicated platform might not offer. True that sales of the ds/3ds have been great from a "gaming" pov. From an overall pov they are small. You have to figure the target audience for the ds are kids (and older but mostly kids) and parents buy them to shut the kids up.

So would that same sentiment translate to the vita? It certainly offers the better gaming experience (technically) but parents may see that price and think twice. It certainly is worth every penny but it isnt disposable. I for one wouldnt let my kids play with a vita considering i know how they treat their ds's. If theirs breaks I buy them another one. That seems to be the edge nintendo has in the "gaming" portable market.

Vita, I would say, is the more adult portable gaming market but for those that really know what its all about. You have already caught our attention sony. Now what to do about the millions of others who arent paying attention?

S_C4457d ago

agreed definate game changer

SilentNegotiator4456d ago

With the twin sticks and all that power? It's a definite game changer so long as the good games keep coming. I've dreamt of having 6th/7th gen style games in portable form for a long time.

ABizzel14456d ago

Less than 1 week in and I can say from a hardware perspective the Vita is the best handheld ever made by a large margin.

Now Sony and the devs. have to prove the Vita is worth the asking price with more games and more features.

If the Vita fails then gamers have failed themselves. Regardless if you're a hardcore fanboy of another system the Vita is the best of handheld gaming and being on this website proves that most of your are hardcore gamers so you should have a Vita.

Death4456d ago

"If the Vita fails then gamers have failed themselves. Regardless if you're a hardcore fanboy of another system the Vita is the best of handheld gaming and being on this website proves that most of your are hardcore gamers so you should have a Vita."

Of course this only applies if you are interested in a dedicated portable.

-Death

Elimin84456d ago (Edited 4456d ago )

I say game over... And it aint for sony.. My wallet's already hurting on the PS3 so imagine how raped my Bank account will feel in the next couple weeks having to buy both PS3 and Vita games..

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StraightPath4457d ago

still too early but price drop will be good :D

DragonKnight4456d ago

Oh for the love of... ENOUGH OF THIS B.S.!

Look, absolutely NO ONE can say ANYTHING about the Vita's success or failure. The damn thing just came out and we have already been plagued with 923489123491242347134891723489 1273987 "articles" about it's success or failure (mostly failure). I'm not even going to bother reading this damn article because A) Who the hell is popzara? And B) There have been too many articles about this.

Hell, any Vita article doesn't even have to be read. All you have to know about pretty much every Vita article is that they all contain at least 1 of the following.

-$250 is too expensive. (Even though we loved that price at E3, if Nintendo can't sell the 3DS for that price, no one can sell anything at that price.)

-Japanese launch was a flop (even though it wasn't)

-Memory cards are too expensive (in addition to the $250 price being too expensive)

-X Feature isn't included at launch (disregarding things like licensing and copyright issues)

-Smartphones are teh pwnz and will take over all gaming. (Even though core gamers don't want that at all and no smartphone can match the prowess of a dedicated gaming handheld for games)

Am I missing anything?

Ser4456d ago (Edited 4456d ago )

"-$250 is too expensive. (Even though we loved that price at E3, if Nintendo can't sell the 3DS for that price, no one can sell anything at that price.)"

LOL - It's funny because this is how people actually act.

Spot on post, all of your points rang true.

PinkFunk4456d ago

@DragonKnight
Hahaha. You said it brother.

TotalHitman4456d ago

American's are spoilt for shit, $250 is £157 here in the UK. People would run to the shops for a Vita at that price. But because we get fucked all the time, the RRP for the Wi-Fi version is $349 (£220). And you don't even want to know how much the 3G version costs but here is a little hint. It's over $400.

Death4456d ago

It's funny how people from other regions complain about SRPs. You need to consider cost of living and wage scale when comparing prices. SRP should be relatively close when factoring these in.

-Death

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dragunrising4456d ago

Game changer. Dual analog sticks and digital downloads available same day as retail made me a believer, not to mention the gorgeous games.

arika4456d ago

definitely a game changer! if you are a real gamer and tech savy person you have to own this. there is nothing like this out in the market right now. i believe when people realizes how amazing this machine is, it will be sold out and people will have a hard time finding it.

sikbeta4456d ago

Game Over, dedicated handheld gaming is on the way out, IOS, Android and Wphones will fix your gaming needs in the future :)

arika4456d ago

@ sikbeta game over for you probably. but unlike you a lot of gamers still prefer to have analog sticks and real buttons on their gaming machine just like me and w/ ps vita you have the best of both and then some. touch screen front and back dual analog sticks, 6 buttons, cameras, six axis or tilt control and quad core. tell me a phone that have all of this features? none? right? maybe after 2 years there will be one but as of right now vita beats every phone or handheld device out there.

mantisimo4456d ago

You just stick with angry birds Sik I'll be playing Uncharted with 2 analogues.

xtremeimport4456d ago

the biggest problem with it right now and i guess always with portable gaming these days is that its directed at a niche market. only the most dedicated gamers are going to be looking for a portable console. all the others are just gonna be on iphones or tablets.
i shouldnt say "all" the others..but a big number of them. I'll get a vita, just not the right time for me.

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LX-General-Kaos4457d ago

The Vita has not had a chance to put up a fight yet. It is far too early to make any predictions. It is fair to wait and see how things are in a year from now.

FrigidDARKNESS4457d ago (Edited 4457d ago )

I totally agree it's far to early and the developers barely scratch the surface of what it can do. I'm picking up my Vita this weekend or sometimes next week.

JoGam4457d ago

My opinion, its a game changer. This is coming from a guy who had every PSP and who currently owns two PS3's. So far, this is by far the best handheld experience I every had. I got the 3G model from Amazon.

Pixel_Enemy4456d ago

I just realized that I have also owned all the PSP models (except the go) have two PS3s and a new vita.

PSN D4RkNIKON

Game3s4456d ago ShowReplies(2)
Soldierone4457d ago

If you are not an Apple lover, it's a game changer. Anyone with eyes can see what its made for and how well it does it.

The media will do this and that to try and compare it to Apple Icrap and say its failing because it didn't have a bunch of brainless drones sitting in line everywhere when it launched, but who cares. This isn't for them. If they get a few of them to tag along that is great, but Sony is targeting the gamers and people that want actual casual games.

brettyd4457d ago

I'm a fan of Apple products, not a fan of IPad gaming though. Just got my vita this morning and in my opinion it's definitely a game changer. With the apps, console like game experiences and PSN connectivity it does everything. I was surprised how well the browser worked. I've only spent about an hour total with it and am loving the hell out of it.

Soldierone4457d ago

I don't classify you as an Apple drone. nothing wrong with liking their products, but its the people that think Apple are gods of everything that I can't stand and are the ones that are "drones"

dredgewalker4456d ago

True, you can buy any Apple product as long as you don't buy into it's fanaticism. Even PSP games are far superior to what Apple's game library.

BigBoss19644457d ago

Bloody hell it just released :/

Show all comments (91)
80°

How Many More Victims, Like Garry's Mod, Will Nintendo's Hurtful Crusade Create?

Hanzala from eXputer: "As Nintendo takes out 20 years' worth of stuff from Garry's Mod, I watch in shock, thinking why it continues to hurt and discourage its fans."

RiseNShine4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

The irony that some of the most disgusting business practices come from companies like Disney or Nintendo, i can't even begin to understand what terrible damage was Garrys Mod making to Nintendo bottom line, imho they're getting pretty nervous about where they're heading in the future, handhelds are no longer something exclusive to Nintendo, from Steam Deck to many others, now you can play the latest games and pay a fraction of the price on Steam sales, so it's up to their exclusives, which just on their own would make hard to justify purchasing a closed overpriced hardware with outrageous price policies (Super Mario Odyssey is still 60 euro 6 years later!), and as a home console they're always underperforming compared to Sony or Xbox.

gold_drake4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

i cam guarantee you, that their exclusives alone is what drives switch sales. they sell in the 10s of millions of copies.

nintendo created their franchises to be sort of nostalgia driven, exclusive only on nintendo.

people will always buy the pkmn games as they always bring in new younger fans amd is family friendly

mario kart, the same thing, mario games in general.

zelda games are system sellers. animal crossing for the casual gamers.

nintendo doesnt need third vame devs essentially. they made sure with the switch and the limitations that they looked more to pc ps and xbox.

its sad, but nintendo is more than fine with what they're doing. they positioned themselves to appeal to the more casual gamers.

but to your point, im not sure why they're doing this rly.

Inverno4d ago

Look at how they handled Nintendo games being streamed or uploaded on YouTube in the past. They killed Yuzu and Citra even when they had nothing to do with ToTK being leaked, not to mention it was basically unplayable on emulation the week it was leaked. Smash Bros tournament, that was fairly recent. They shut down their online services without any care for purchases made. I bought a switch after skipping their last 2 consoles and handhelds but I don't plan on buying anything Nintendo in the future. They take things to the extremes, they legitimately hate their fans. They're honestly right up there with the likes of Acti, EA, and Ubi, only difference is that they disguise themselves as being family friendly all the while being shady.

150°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos13d ago (Edited 13d ago )

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers13d ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

Profchaos12d ago (Edited 12d ago )

How rediculas really. You can't say a word that's allowed in most PG films and prime time TV but the game is based around killing the enemy team using guns, explosives etc.

It's just backwards.

just_looken12d ago

What your talking about is called block list

In 2006 a spaceship dropped of the playstation 3/xbox 360 i say that that generation was the last great gen with game functions/tech that has yet to comeback

Anyhow the playstation 3 if you block listed a id they could not talk to you in chatroom with either text or voice. But that was pre mind fucked 2018 when people were more human than sheep.

But hey gta 6 is coming out billion dollar budget without a single player custom character creator and without singeplayer coop off/online something saints row 1-3 had on the xbox 360.

z2g13d ago

Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.

phoenixwing13d ago

Cmon where's the pictures of your children. Don't hold out on them.

H913d ago

At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath

jambola12d ago

I genuinely get a bit worried sometimes when a friend says something that could be offensive In a party
Because I have no trouble believing some bans would happen when in a private party for saying something wrong

SegaSaturn66913d ago

I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.

Popsicle13d ago

Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.

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130°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg13d ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos13d ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion13d ago (Edited 13d ago )

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola13d ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

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