The PS Vita: A Biopsy

Few things that either a) Sony could do to make the PS Vita a more marketable system or b) Make it more competitive in the market.

One, an OS update. The system has more buttons on it than any mainstream handheld before now, yet you can’t use any of them for basic OS needs (navigating home menus and such- at least from what Demo store versions and others who have the system have told me). This could potentially cripple users/potential buyers/users in that if/when the touchscreen goes/dies, the system becomes more or less dead as a unit. This is only made worse in that almost EVERY GAME ON THE PLATFORM, tries to gimmick the heck out of said touchscreen. The 3DS by comparison (while not as impressive) in a power perspective, one can still nav menus with either touchscreen or by using the actual buttons, as buttons. Think of touchscreens as a sheet of ice. 3DS only ever has one skater on it meaning it won’t get chipped and damaged as quickly, the PsP2 (more on that later) has the possibility of having multiple skaters on its surface and by that alone, would likely wear away the ice/touchscreen surface faster. Which contradicts the whole purpose of showing of the touchscreen factor, as by perpetuating its use you essentially drive it into its grave (until the OS is made to work without it).

Two, system price cut or make the memory cards more affordable people. Place them in as tie ins for new major games. As mentioned above, but also release with new colours (works for Apple and Nintendo).

Three, I’ll make this one a multi-headed one. Stop marketing EVERY handheld you make as a mini handheld version of your current home console (that’s usually on its way out in the next 2-3years) and claiming it can play games from that console on the get-go. It’s ridiculous! Even if it had the power (of which I’m rather skeptical of) you’re then competing (at best) with yourself AS WELL as everyone else, this is something a company should only ever really consider when they are selling lightyears ahead of the competition, not trying to regain losses and make a profit off your current gen tech. Also you make the market of people able to play such games VERY small, as they’d probably already have the console version of the game, why would they want to play a port of said game again and pay almost as much to play a port again, its bonkers! They need to focus on what the console is, its a PsP 2. Not a revolution but an evolution of its last gen handheld hardware, focus on making games that use the colours of that OLED screen (stray away from the gritty browns and grays of most fps games) more games like Gravity Rush, less Resistance whatever the version released on it was. Focus on making games that attract new audiences, and take time to iron out bugs in AAA titles (The AI in most Vita FPS games has been considered rather lame in reviews)(glitches, loadtimes, and probably more) or if the system can’t handle “ported” code from a console level game (at the moment) don’t force it in at the cost of such things *as listed above. Focus more on core gameplay mechanics(in games) over visual appeal. One of the reasons 3DS is seeing a lot more developers on its side at the moment and more games quickly, is likely due to there (I’m not 100% sure on this) needing the game to be released in HD resolution or better, this keeps developing costs lower, and allows the teams more time to focus on making what makes a game a game… gameplay. Create, innovate, explore… that should be the mantra of gaming companies.

That’s all for now, in this VEEEEERY long post… I could probably post more if I thought about if for a little longer. Not to say that its not bad to have cross-plat in theory, thus far though unless its on a cloud based medium (where you can actually port a copy of a game from either system) without having to buy the same game twice, then that would be interesting( usually the game would probably need downgrading/compensating of some sort for both to function well). But I digress Sony once again released a system that they trumpeted was levels of magnitude greater than anything before it (when really its not, I remain unimpressed if I were to share a game such as the new lost planet 3 XD on 3DS and ps3… yet absent on the vita?!? Resident Evil:Revelations looks almost console level quality while having more features than many games on even consoles in the series-using a 4gb sd card used sold at same price as 3DS 2gb sd card games-more or less every other 3DS game. Look at Beyond Labyrinth on the 3DS, its (almost) comparable to what we see on current gen consoles, and similar in style and direction to a game on Vita e.g. Gravity Rush. I could go on for games released in the systems 1st year Capcom backs it). Getting back on tangent, Sony trumpeted (again) and right now is in the same hole the 3DS was in last year, perhaps an even bigger one considering all the hype and hope it was/had been banking on has settled somewhat and people still aren’t buying it, they’re weary of Sony, the scenario from last generation(of hand-helds) is playing out again (somewhat) are people going to flock over/back to Sony this time?

Probably, but not for awhile yet, not until they show some signs of marketing maturation from last generation. I don’t think they’re “dead” but are “sitting dead in the water” at the moment with Vita.