PlayStation Vita: Nearly Outdated Graphically

Chris Buffa (Modojo): Like many gamers, we can't wait to buy PlayStation Vitas next year. Sony has the makings of a stellar launch lineup, and the concept of having a portable system a step below PlayStation 3 is quite an exciting prospect.

You know, despite the notion that Vita's nearly outdated.

[fluffydelusions]

Dedicated gaming buttons + Sony exclusives make it not outdated for me. Plus even the latest iPhone/touch models just announced are not quite on par with the HW specs of PSV. I'm sure Android will best it in a matter of months but again, no dedicated buttons + no Sony exclusives.

[Sunhammer]

Modojo are pro-Apple. They're just bitter the Vita is a Sony product.

[fear88]

So I gather the 3DS is ancient and pointless?

Give me a break.

Content and service makes things sell. Not specs alone. Not features alone. Not games alone. Not service alone.

Its a combination of all the above. Chris seems to have this kick that no matter what, vita is a failure before it gets to the market and 3DS is somehow an exception to his "rules" for a successful platform.

Sony is showing strengths on all areas from content, features, service, and price working together but yet it seems to elude him that that is what makes a product successful.

Iphones are a great example of content, service and features working together for a general user.

But PS Vita is geared toward a niche market that demands a lot more and sony seems every bit as determined to deliver on that front.

[ProjectVulcan]

There are some great looking smartphone games out there. However Vita is still considerably more powerful than any smartphone, this WILL show when it hits.

Besides this as has been mentioned, Vita is designed around gaming. I just wouldn't be looking to play the kind of games that Vita will offer on a modern smartphone. You cannot replicate the depth that vita games will have on any smartphone today, this is down to many factors, including screen sizes and buttons.

God i love buttons. Buttons beat up touchscreen zero tactile feedback control methods soooooo bad. You try pulling off a beat em up combo on a touchscreen, or quick turning, popping a grenade them meleeing an evil dude in the face all in the space of a split second on a touchscreen.

Not. Possible.

Some games work great with only a touchscreen, but for shooters....racers...beat/slas h/stealth em ups...you know, like nearly every game genre known to man- buttons rule.

[SilentNegotiator]

Chris Buffa is the same vita-hater that praised Mario Kart 3DS to death, but in the same week condemned Katamari (a series seeing an upcoming Vita title) for there being "so many" (One per platform, other than ps2 - just like Mario Kart).

He's clearly been attacking anything Vita-related.

[nveenio]

How many quad core portables are there on the market? That's what I thought. Vita won't be outdated until a 6-core option is released.

Furthermore, level size and physics play a big part, too. Games like Infinity Blade are on rails, and only showcase the ability to draw a few polygons and some decent textures.

[iamtehpwn]

Vita will definitely be better for a more hardcore experience. I think that there is room for both Portables and app games like infinity blade. You're not going to get the same experience you would get with Vita or 3DS, dedicated handhelds are always going to produce better gaming experience.

But I also think there's also a lot of potential for indie developers to succeed on the app store--unlike Vita or 3DS where you need dev kits which cost insane amounts of money. And there is a market for bite sized games as well, which will definitely succeed more on mobile than Dedicated handhelds, conversly, more "hardcore" games are more successful (and better) on dedicated handhelds.

[WANNAGETHIGH]

This will be the best Handheld gaming device. I still dont know who in the world thinks Smart phones are the future of gaming. What the hell is an Angry bird??? R they serious???????????

[TBM]

god this chris guy is a real DB doesnt he have anything better to do with his life and time.

plus id rather have a true dedicated gaming device than some finger swiping/poking tablet/phone.

[Lazy_Sunday]

Yes, the PSVita is awesome. I'm getting one. The graphics on it are revolutionary for it's size. Dual joysticks. The back/front touch interface is even something that I've really wanted. But... still, the comment you posted isn't very relevant to the discussion. The graphics are outdated. PS3 graphics at 540p isn't a difficult process, which explains the price pretty well. Too bad we can't stick a GTX580 in that bad boy.

[yesmynameissumo]

Everything is nearly outdated. Welcome to technology. And what's with the stealth trolling?

[RayRay36]

Is your name really Sumo?

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

I also find it hard to believe that your name really is Sumo.

[yesmynameissumo]

Yes, my name is Sumo.

[turgore]

are you fat ?

[yesmynameissumo]

Never heard that. Do you wanna know if I wrestle now?

[MagicAccent]

Do you?

[CynicalVision]

Since when is this news? It's like every other piece of technology. At the end of the day it's the games that sell the product, why do you think the PS2 is still selling to this day?

Games like "Bladeslinger" and "Shadowgun" sound like the type of games you'd find in the bargin bin. :P

[Christopher]

Ridiculous article.

With the focus on tablet and smartphone development, it's obvious that there's going to be better devices out before it considering its very long development lifecycle.

But, that's not the point. How many of those devices with better screens will also have a focus on gaming? How many will have the PSN features? How many will have the capabilities of playing all the games without having to use the screen? How many of them will have an extra touch screen?

I'm awaiting the next article that complains about the lack of cellphone capability with the PS Vita. I'm also wondering how this 'outdated' technology is relevant considering the success of the DS and 3DS.

[TheBeast]

Well said, and coming from a mod...these new mods have brains! *No offence to old ones...don't ban me!:(*

But honestly, how is the Vita "outdated" It looks great for a handheld and HAS physical buttons...

[antok34]

Totally agree and are we expected to upgrade our hardware each year to play the latest games on smartphones or tablets. Consoles and dedicated handhelds sell because gamers and parents know that they can still play the latest releases throughout the life cycle of the device.

[raytraceme]

Vita has a quad core processor and a quad core gpu. The iphone 4s has a dual core of each factor in vita's os and you get Uncharted Golden Abyss ;)

[SweatyFlorida]

AND with 2 Analog sticks and two touchscreens coupled with games made by real/professional developers and it blows anything with a "phone" or "tablet" in it's name out of the water!

[raytraceme]

and finally for the low low price of $250 :D

[kmanmx]

Even if Phones/Tablets were approaching the specs of the Vita (they're not) that is only a small part of the story.

PS Vita is a dedicated gaming platform. It's sole purpose is for games. The operating system will be designed for games, and people that buy the Vita are going to be wanting full gaming experiences, and are willing to spend a lot more buying a Vita game than a phone game.

The Vita is going into the hands of the worlds largest developers, not small indie developers like the majority of iOS/Android apps are made of.

The Vita is going to have MUCH lower level access, allowing for far better optimization for games, the hardware is also going to be consistent. A PSV is a PSV. However, an iPhone ranges from some lousy single core cpu to a 1ghz duel core, Android handsets have an even bigger variation - all things that make development difficult.

There is no way you are going to see PS Vita level games on iOS and Android devices for at least 2 years, probably longer. And even after 2 years when they may just about match graphically, in terms of gameplay and functionality they will be a long way off.

Stupid article is REALLY STUPID.

[Goozex]

Cool, so when does anyone believe vita will hit NA? I hope it earlier than April.

[GunofthePatriots]

New technology will always be old technology because when it's in development it's using current technology. When the new piece of equipment is released, better technology becomes available making it "dated".

Regardless, article is stupid.

[damnyouretall]

a handheld with outdated graphics? who would of thought. but it wont be like that in the near future though. batteries will need to take a major leap for this to happen.

[kmanmx]

I agree. CPU/GPU development needs to take a back seat, they really need to pump as much money as possible into Battery development.

Literally, a couple hundred millions or even few billion £'s or $'s in Battery research and development may be a start in the right direction.

It's one of those things that needs to be done, even without any financial gain.

[TheFirstClassic]

"Bottom line, the speed at which smart phones evolve makes it impossible for Sony to compete"

more BS that smartphones are gonna kill handhelds. Graphics don't equal gameplay. Vita has amazing graphics and amazing controls, the iphone will have even better graphics but much worse controls. Vita will have a much better selection of hardcore games, though infinity blade is an excellent game.

[smashcrashbash]

Chris if you are the one reviewing the VITA, I am going to make sure to ignore anything negative you have to say against it. You have an obvious blatent bias against the VITA for no doubt your own fanboyish reason. Therefore anything you say against it is no longer viable or relevant. So in short I won't be listening to you any more for opinions on the VITA or its games. Your pretence that you are excited about it after constantly trying to put it down using the 3DS and smartphones is crap. Your not fooling anyone.

[badjournalism]

Good luck making phone calls after you've run your battery down playing games.

[Ddouble]

Ok so graphics of phones will eventually eclipse the Vita.

If we were to do other comparisons of there respective gaming capabilities as well as games phones will not even come close and even now phones don't have the Vita's power and its much cheaper.

[f789790]

I'm actually doubting that even. How far are mobile game devs going to go with graphics? Sure you could have Uncharted Golden Abyss running on the latest phones releasing this fall but would developers bother to do it? There has to be a limit to the demand for power.

I'm content with my Droid Incredible 1. If I had my way, the Droid Incredible 2 wouldn't have had any speed improvements so that battery life would be longer. From a full charge in the morning and using it at the level I would like to (web browsing), my phone will die by 6pm. Screw mobile power, I want life.

[josephayal]

BAD NEWS

[zero_gamer]

Too bad games nowadays are being played for "zOMG LUK @ DA GRAFIKZ!!1"

Graphics are important and all, but what is happening to playing games for the fun? Why do gamers think about all the raw horsepower every time they climb vines and bust some ass?

[Protagonist]

"modojo" outdated a long time ago.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

Haters gonna Hate

[DA_SHREDDER]

It's an only a matter of months before a tab is more powerful than consoles this gen. You can already use Onlive on iPads so the games and controllers with buttons are already there. I'm just patiently waiting.

[sirdrake]

You realize that the argument most people are making is that it comes down to controls and games. With your iPad and onlive you still have crap controls and if you want good ones you have to buy an onlive controller. So much for your portability. I hope you carry a briefcase with you.

[smashcrashbash]

Oh yeah. All you have to do is walk around with controllers and keyboards in your backpack. That will look so smooth. You proping up you IPAD with a controller in your hand in public. That is MUCH better then a handheld.When I'm on the bus or train I'll just put it on my lap and bust out my controller. That won't be akward at all.

[f789790]

DURRRRRR there's more advanced technology that costs a ton and kills battery life. Lol that means Vita is outdated.

What a stupid conclusion. Gaming on phones wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to worry about a simple 3d game sucking the life out of my battery. I can't wait for these authors and analysts to be silent once the Vita is flying off the shelves.

[Der_Kommandant]

Pff... Iphone is outdated every 6 months

[f789790]

Apple is so outdated. Let's all ditch them. :P

[sashimi]

Not even 6 months, as soon as one releases you already know its outdated since Apple has another version in the making.

[Optical_Matrix]

When most of that power is dedicated to the memory consuming OS' within smartphones, Vita, with it's quad core CPU/GPU architecture will graphically outpace iPhone 4S without breaking so much as a sweat. Unless we're talking tech demo's or mini games, iPhone 4S won't do shit on games like Uncharted Golden Abyss.

[disturbing_flame]

Outdated ?

For the price of Vita, there's certainly nothing on the market that do better.

[banner]

What other handheld out dates the vita. Did I miss something? Please let me in on the "know"...

[remanutd55]

none and you havent miss anything important yet

[UP]

But infinity blade is on rails and that allows everything to be really pretty. On the PSV you get games that look like that and you can do much more.

[InTheLab]

So is the iPod I bought last year :/

[audiojet]

Apple still doesn't card about games, they're just starting to. They are a long ways off from current game devices. Games are still an afterthought.

[jams_shop]

Dedicated gaming handheld =/= phone that plays games. People should get that through their heads.

[TheGamingArt]

These guy apparently don't 'actually' look at specs judging by what they're saying.

[Ulf]

LoL. Whatever.

Objective C and iOS-burdened games, outdoing the Vita with lesser hardware specs to boot? I think not.

This guy is just another tech-wannabe, who doesn't realize that the same processes that will allow desktop processors to shrink to 10-14nm just plain won't work with mobile devices, due to power drain issues. If you have a big power supply, and constant power... no problem. Using a battery? Forget it.

The Vita is darn close to the high-end of what we'll see for mobile devices for what is probably the next 5 years or more, due to the downfall of being mobile, and needing *batteries*. How many folks do you think are going to run out and buy smartphones that choke after less than an hour of gaming, and 8 hours of "regular" phone idle time and usage? Or that need to be as large as the Vita, just to house the giant battery? Not many.

Because power hungry phones won't *sell*, they won't be *made*. Plain and simple. It's too easy to ignore the pitfalls of physics (electron loss at small fab scales) and economics, when you're a tech-wannabe, I think. Every game he mentions in his article is fundamentally a simpleton, in terms of gameplay work.

They are rail shooters, or simplistic RPGs, often with less depth than you'd find in a PS2 game, and 3D scenes in tiny rooms, or simplistic outdoor environs. Because they are *capable* of using complex fragment shaders does not make them *powerful handheld gaming devices*. The Vita will kick the tails of every "gaming" cell phone for its entire lifetime. The PSP is *to this day* a better gaming handheld than every phone in existence -- the quality of its games are that superior, despite the aged hardware -- thanks to the wonder of using a lightweight OS, combined with low-level APIs and dedicated hardware.

[UltraVegito]

This guys shows stupidity at it's highest....when will you idiots learn that a iphone will never,EVER beat a dedicated handheld device! I rather play a psp or ds over Icrap and shitphones,why,BECAUSE IT HAS BUTTONS!The the vita's graphics are on par with the 360/ps3,has unique gameplay that a iphone can only dream of,many big devs working on games for it,Buttons,and it can play iphone games!Now back to the rock you crawled from!

[plmkoh]

It will be a while before phones will even begin to match what the Vita can do simply because running quad-core with 3-5 hour battery is not good enough in its market but perfectly fine in the game console market.

[Wintersun616]

That's total bullshit. I don't even have the energy to tell why this article is so wrong, because I've done it so many times already. But to sum it up very shortly: Graphics don't matter if the controls suck, there is no mobile phone game out there that looks nearly as good as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Vita has hardcore games AND casual games covered, etc etc etc. There just is no comparison, as a gaming device both Vita and 3DS absolutely own smarphone and tablets.

[deerain]

Errr.... wasnt there tablets out before or shortly after the IPad 2 that had far better specs than the IPad 2, and dose that mean that the IPad 2 is now outdated. When xbox 360 and PS3 came the specs of a PC were far better so there were outdated before they got released. Point being the tech moves so fast that everything is outdated :) who cares I am getting the vita :)

[neversawthestars]

Wow what a joke. K looks great, but awesome now how am I going to play these amazing graphically inclined games? Over 3g? nope it'll run like shit. So now I have to use over wifi. OK so y am I going to play a cellphone game that'll eat my battery in 30 mins on the road? Oh ok so this is for at home where playing on my big screen plasma with a real controller is too bothersome? Cellphones will never replace consoles or the pc. get used to it. Toooooo inconvenient and doesn't opt for any sort of competitive play period.

[neversawthestars]

Now that I think about it Cellphones and kinect have the same chance of eradicating the controller. Lol both are about as effective anyway

[jairusmonillas]

Vita have a quad core processor and quad core GPU, now tell me again how it's outdated?

[Zero23]

the iphone will surpass the vita when it gets buttons and worth damn exclusives!!!

[user9841288]

From what I've seen the vita looks pretty good... uncharted lbp resistance and that gravity rush game alone seem to be enough reasons to get one.

[Sometimes]

The Graphics are impressive but the game play is terrible smart phones should just stick to angry birds