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310°

Will the PlayStation Vita Slim be Sony's final handheld games console?

To quote the cigarette-mumbling of Samuel L Jackson in Jurassic Park: hold on to your butts.
Even for January, it's been a slow month for the games industry. Sony teased PlayStation Now, Nintendo admitted the Wii U console is still performing terribly, and a fleet of YouTube personalities were caught endorsing Xbox One for cash. That's about it, really.
Still, there are positives to the downtime. The triple-A games release schedule, currently a barren wasteland, has allowed for several new indie games to dazzle in the spotlight. Trust me: you really should take a look at the likes of Nidhogg, OlliOlli, Broken Age, The Banner Saga and D

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donnieboy3739d ago

Probably, after this handhelds are going to be cloud base....

Yi-Long3739d ago

I think they'll bring out at least one new handheld, either a HD-revision of the existing Vita, or a completely new handheld.

I expect a HD-Vita though.

Mikey322303739d ago

....... The vita is very much HD. you mean full 1080p resolution screen on a vita? idk maybe

I think many people still like handhelds, they just didnt/dont support and market the vita well.

I think many people would be sad if there was no more sony handhelds in the future.

Yi-Long3739d ago

Yeah, I mean FullHD (1080p), considering most new phones and tablets also now offer screens with that resolution (or even higher).

I wouldn't even rule out a new HD Vita that ALSO allows Android, which would basically open up a HUGE library of (obviously) Android games, along with many other apps and tools.

dedicatedtogamers3739d ago

The only way they can do another handheld is if they go cheaper. Inexpensive handhelds are the only chance of finding a niche in the crowded mobile/tablet market. I think that Sony's big mistake would be if they tried to turn the PSP3 into another phone/multimedia hub like they did with the Vita.

UltimateMaster3739d ago (Edited 3739d ago )

They'll make new Portable devices.

Yep3738d ago

@Mikey

The Vita is qHD. Not sub-hd or full or HD.

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Joey_Leone3739d ago

Watch the sales go up when Minecraft gets released on PSVITA. Kids love Minecraft, is Minecraft available on the 3DS? NO.

specialguest3739d ago

Lol! 3ds doesn't need minecraft to attract kids. 47mil 3ds vs 7 maybe 8mil Vita as of Dec 31. The vita is at an odd place where only a select few want it, and it's definitely not kids. The proof is in the sales numbers. Hell, even the psp during the first 2 yrs sold twice as many units. Kids these days are gaming on their tablet/phones or the 3ds. There will be a nice vita boost with remote play, but it's no miracle sales booster.

Muffins12233739d ago

I think their gonna make another xperia playstation,cause i really don't want to have a iphone and a vita,i like my vita,but it would be nice if i could use it as a phone.

MrSwankSinatra3739d ago

the vita will be sony's last dedicated handheld system. the market shows that people don't want to play console like games on a handheld hence why the 3ds is destroying the vita. imagine what sony could have done with all the money they used on the vita and put it towards the PS4 ecosystem. that would have been potential right there.

Mikey322303739d ago (Edited 3739d ago )

the 3DS is a Console.. thus there is a massive market. Even the PSP had console like games that did immensely well. and well... the PSP itself did very very very well. there is a massive market for this type of handheld.

Sony just went about it wrong/ supported it wrong. The Vita OS and ecosystem is wrong. The marketing is wrong.

PSNintyGamer3739d ago

I see you edited that comment

MrSwankSinatra3739d ago (Edited 3739d ago )

the 3ds isn't a console it's a handheld and The PSP did well because it was easy to hack and put homebrew on it.

Mikey322303739d ago

Yes a handheld what..? a handheld book? a handheld computer? ohhhhh its a handheld console. smh

MrSwankSinatra3739d ago

a handheld book? just shut up dumbass....

DanielGearSolid3739d ago

The VitaOS is freaking beautiful...

It would be a perfect smartphone OS imo

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OrangePowerz3739d ago (Edited 3739d ago )

Sony will have put as much money and resources into the PS4 as they felt necessary no matter if they developed also the Vita at that time or not.

Nintendo has an iron grip on the handheld market. It's not the first handheld that wouod be better but looses out. GameGear as a hardware wqs much better, but it still lost and Nintendo took ages to get the GameBoy to the same hardware level as the GameGear. If Sony can get the life time sales of the PSP 70+ million I don't see why they wouldn't make another one. If they fall way below it they might not make another one.

joeorc3738d ago (Edited 3738d ago )

@MrSwankSinatra

while i agree with some of what you stated, not every thing you brought up. the Money for design of the PSVita was nothing to really put for the PS4, hell with the cost's of each game in the Millions anyway, that would be like 3 or 4 games at the most anyway for cost's in design.

for that price the PSVita in engineering design is a steal. It would not have mattered that much anyway.

Well good thing, you will not have to wait very much more before Sony decides that this is the very last dedicated game handheld from them. with the many gamer's with this very same view of Sony's situation.

r what's inside their handhelds for the hardware.

And yet Sony is still giving you more expensive Hardware for the $$$ the consumer is paying for.

example: just in GPU's alone of each device

The Nintendo 3DS single core GPU has 6 MB of Dedicated Video Ram, with the PICA 200 running @ 268 MHz

while

Sony PSVita has a Quad Core SGX543MP4+ with a dedicated 128 MB of GPU Video Ram, with Each of the 4 Cores in the GPU running over 400 MHz for each core. this is the very same GPU that is inside the iPAD 3! but faster and more memory. But yet.

Even with Sony giving way more hardware for the $$$ the majority of consumer's do not care.

And its very clear no matter what Sony would have done, would not have mattered with many gamer's that would not have purchased the system anyway.

I think Sony is very tired of the crying over the low sales with the system right now at this point, pretty soon i would say that Sony would no doubt move to smartphones and Tablets only at this point in the future.

At this point in my opinion the majority of gamer's deserve this. If many gamer's do not want to pay $$$ for a Handheld with such hardware, Sony may as well at this point say forget it. And indirectly compete with Nintendo in this market like smartphones and Tablets already do anyway.

Leave this part of the Handheld market for Nintendo by themselves, and keep selling 10+ million xperia smartphones per sales Quarter instead of investing into building a dedicated Game handheld and concede this because it would be far cheaper to have a game pad bluetooth synq with a smartphone to give the gamer physical control's and just distribute all playstation portable games via PSN.

Because that is exactly what the vast majority of consumer base is telling Sony to do right now anyway.

PSP
PSPGo
PSVita

there is a very clear signal decline of Perception of the viability of the playstation Portable platform as a Mobile only platform.

And that is exactly why Sony invested 1.6 Billion into smartphone production, and over 300+ million in game distribution over network structure GaiKai, and also taking the playstation Vita platform into also a Micro-console than also invested day and date with the NGP ie: playstation Vita that new game distribution for app store iP's is Playstation Mobile.

I think Sony is getting fed up with this part of the dedicated Handheld market and would be better off investing into smartphones and Tablets than dealing with the dedicated GAME HANDHELD MARKET ANYMORE.

MrSwankSinatra3738d ago

you know thank you, at least someone here can give a educated response.

MNGamer-N3739d ago

I want one but they are too expensive, and lacks compelling software.

Mikey322303739d ago

This comment speaks for why it sales aren't spectacular, while it is a spectacular piece of technology.

SuperWeeb3739d ago

It has compelling software, just no huge name familiar IPs. It has a bunch of niche titles that are some of the best handheld experiences i've ever had to date, though they're not experiences the general public would rush out to buy.

FantasyStar3739d ago

I don't get it. Both of you are saying the same thing.

SuperWeeb3739d ago

No, games can be compelling, just not to the general public.
Gravity Rush, Tearaway, Soul Sacrifice, these are all amazing games and do interest gamers. But is a kid going to be interested in these or Mario and Zelda? They're going to pick what they are comfortable with.

This is why the 3DS is doing so popular, it has everything everyone's already used to. The Vita tried to take risks and offer new, original experiences (a la puppeteer) but didn't quite catch the attention they hoped for.
Is it working? Not really.
Will it work for them in the future? Perhaps.

Hicken3739d ago

It's not that much more expensive than its nearest competitor, and offers a far more comprehensive gaming experience and overall functionality.

As for the library... I suppose, if you base the games simply on the big names you see everywhere, then it's not "compelling." But if you're talking about quality, the Vita's library is more than compelling enough.

Muffins12233739d ago

Price cut is incomming and thier are now acully decent games for it,maybe not as good as 3DS catalog but at-least can challenge it.

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DCfan3739d ago

The way they're handling it, sure.

DCfan3739d ago

Keep disagreeing. The thing isn't being marketed enough. It has the games, its niche gaming heaven, but, most of the games are japan only, thats a big problem.

extermin8or3739d ago

Sony said from the start they viewed it as a niche gaming device (maybe they expected it to be less niche than it is currently sales wise however...)

Father__Merrin3739d ago

I think vita is over engineered it would have to come in very cheap lo compete with Ds

if the vita slim and vita tv come in cheap in snazzy colours then sales will pick up

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140°

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.

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Profchaos18h ago(Edited 18h 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.

exputers15h ago

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

Profchaos1m 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 really

just_looken1h 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.

z2g11h ago

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

phoenixwing10h ago

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

H911h ago

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

jambola7h 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

SegaSaturn66910h ago

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

Popsicle9h 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.

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jznrpg1d 3h 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.

Profchaos1d 2h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion1d 1h ago (Edited 1d 1h ago )

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola21h 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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280°

Sony Taps Bungie's Head of Revenue to Lead Live-Service Games

Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.

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ChasterMies21d ago

Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.

just_looken21d ago

The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.

Cacabunga21d ago

PlayStation officially losing it.. fans will never support gaas games

just_looken21d ago

@car

The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Redemption-6421d ago

@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.

Huey_My_D_Long21d ago

@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.

Einhander197220d ago

Cacabunga

Helldivers 2...

Redemption-64

In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.

So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.

FinalFantasyFanatic20d ago

@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.

@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.

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DivineHand12521d ago

True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.

Joe91321d ago

I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.

Obscure_Observer21d ago

Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.

Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.

S2Killinit21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.

Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.

Joe91320d ago

I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.

S2Killinit20d ago

Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.

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Christopher21d ago

I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.

CrimsonWing6920d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?

GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.

I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.

S2Killinit20d ago

Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.

Abnor_Mal21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.

Christopher21d ago

They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.

just_looken21d ago

Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.

You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.

700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out

Einhander197220d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Christopher

I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.

There are tons of live service games that are profitable.

Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.

I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.

Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.

FinalFantasyFanatic20d ago

I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.

romulus2321d ago

Correction, they have no issue playing good live service games

shinoff218321d ago

Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.

S2Killinit20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.

And Im a single player gamer.

mastershredder21d ago

How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.

crazyCoconuts21d ago

Headline truncated:
"... off a cliff"

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