PlayStation Vita Gets NA, EU Launch Date 64
Sony's upcoming portable gaming console has now gotten a firm launch date. After arriving in Japan on December 17, the PlayStation Vita will come to North America and Europe on February 22. "The two versions of the console — one with Wi-Fi only and one with both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity — will be priced at $249.99 and $299.99, respectively, in both Canada and the United States. The launch price in Europe will be €249.99 and €299.99." Users will be limited to downloading games no bigger than 20MB over 3G — larger games, which may require up to 4GB of storage space, will need to go over a Wi-Fi connection or be installed from a memory card. Despite abandoning UMD, Sony reportedly has "plans" to allow some sort of transfer of PSP games to the Vita, though it will likely cost money.
PS Vita Mix (Score:1)
I'm sad to see they didn't go with the PS Vita Mix model. A game machine that could also make me a smoothie would be a big hit.
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Don't worry, I'm sure they will make up for lack of mixability by making sure it can blend.
A rumour that's easily spread (Score:2)
I'm sad to see they didn't go with the PS Vita Mix model. A game machine that could also make me a smoothie would be a big hit.
They probably ditched it because they're *already* planning for an improved version of the original (like Nintendo did with the DS Lite). Leaked publicity suggests that the Vita "Lite" [youtube.com] will be with us soon.
AUNZ prices (Score:4, Informative)
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Yep, but somehow it's more expensive to ship to Australia than the US, even though we're closer to the Taiwanese factories that make them.
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I call it the "fuck Australia" rate. It's a legacy of the time our dollar bought 50 US cents, and companies still take the US price and double it for ours, now; though Sony haven't been quite so dickish.
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I call it the "fuck Australia" rate.
To be fair, they have to localise it before they can sell it down under. Specifically, every unit has to be turned upside down first. Also, Aussie regulations require the attachment of corks on strings to keep flies away.
Plus, they've decided to rename it as the "Bruce" for the Australian market, to avoid causing confusion.
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The U.S. doesn't have *ANY* VAT tax (just local sales taxes, which run 0%-7%). Most of the EU countries have something like a 20%-40% VAT tax added on.
This is Sony (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure they'll be more than happy to sell you new copies of games you already have.
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While it is always fun to flame Sony (especially on /., where you will get modded up automatically!), the fact is there is nothing on the PS3 that forces you to pay twice for any PS3 game at all since it was released.
I have a PS3, and for the past few years, all the games I bought, both on physical disc or through PSN, can be still played, no problem, even though I have reformatted the harddisk 3 times so far (once due to replacing a bigger disk, once due to PS3 broke down and fixed, and once when my bigger
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Did you not read the story?
Here, let me help you:
If Sony could figure out a way to make you pay twice for a game, they'd do it in a heartbeat.
Sony is amo
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And that's a problem.
A good thing I never bought a single thing on PSN because I can't get on PSN. Or use the PlayStation Store, either.
See, Sony decided to screw everyone over with a PS3. Before, you co
299 dollar = 217 euro. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why are these machines always the same number in dollars and euros (just like apple devices) while the two currencies have different values?
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Why doesn't the EU adopt the same method of calculating taxes that US and Canada does? You know, add the tax at the register?
You silly Europeans with your silly ideas of "you pay the price tag" means all taxes are built in, hiding stuff like 20% import duties and 20% VAT on top.
Bah. do it the American way. We know what the tax rate is, and we know it's $299 plus tax.
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The U.S. doesn't have VAT taxes, the EU does. And not just little sales taxes of a few percent, I mean*BIG FUCKING VAT TAXES*, no less (Sweden has an almost 50% VAT tax). So, yeah, they're going to cost a helluva lot more in Europe than the U.S.
No. (Score:3)
Issues I can see right off the top of my head:
- For that price I could get an iPad 2 (or equivalent Android tablet), which aside from being a pretty good gaming platform in its own right (arguably not as good as a dedicated device) is a net tablet, touch screen, eBook reader, high battery life device where the games are usually $1 and there are tens of thousands of non-game applications, including Kindle app, hundreds and hundreds of tools, Google maps, etc etc etc. And you can bet your arse those games on the Vita will all be $30 or more, AKA PC Game prices without even the cries of piracy to justify them. The Vita does nothing the iPad can't do, while the reverse is far from true.
- 3G enabled is pointless for modern games if there's a a 20mb cap. It becomes something to only download tiny games on, which don't need a dedicated device. So I might as well... see above point.
- No backwards compatability (can't play PS1/PS2 games). It *might* play PSP games, for a nominal fee, of course... when you could just play them on your PSP. That you presumably already own since you own the game. Pretty pointless.
- Rootkit scandal, PSHome outage, Sony's utter apathy towards the safety and privacy of their victi- uhh, consumers, blah blah blah blah. This isn't just wearing a slightly-too-short skirt to a party and getting a little too drunk, this is deliberately giving yourself rohypnol and publically signing a contract that says anyone can do anything to you while you're unconscious. Remember, you can now no longer sue Sony for any reason when you sign up to their products, so the analogy is apt. You will regret signing up to the Vita when it next gets owned by 4Chan script kiddies.
- No compelling reason why you don't just buy an Android tablet at the same price, install a bunch of emulators and play basically any kind of game that's five years older or more. And it's still an Android tablet. See point 1.
- What games? It's not like there's going to be a *good*, exclusive, Final Fantasy or anything on it. It's going to be crappy, full-price ports of old games (in which case see above point), or it'll be a bunch of shovelware with one or two good titles which you can probably get through PSN on PS3 anyway.
So, in conclusion, pass. Pass like a skanky, herpes infested crack whore offering me unprotected sex for ten dollars. Pass like the opportunity to invest in a brand new bridge in Nigeria some Prince is offering me a 50% stake in for a few thousand dollars. Pass, pass, pass.
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For that price I could get an iPad 2 (or equivalent Android tablet)
I doubt that: currently the iPad 2 is about twice as expensive as the quoted euro prices and equivalent Android tablets aren't significantly cheaper. Tablet prices might drop a bit in the next half year, but not so dramatically.
3G enabled is pointless for modern games if there's a a 20mb cap. It becomes something to only download tiny games on, which don't need a dedicated device.
You can download the games over WiFi and play them online over 3G. Probably the 3G is too slow to download big games anyway even if there wasn't a cap.
No backwards compatability (can't play PS1/PS2 games).
PS1 games could be emulated. Of course, it is very likely Sony will want you to buy the game again instead of letting you put a disk image of your PS1 game on a flash card.
I probably won't be buying one either: for simple games a smartphone will do just fine and for more complex games I prefer a bigger screen.
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Issues I can see right off the top of my head:
- For that price I could get an iPad 2 (or equivalent Android tablet),
That's OK, I bet Sony still thinks it's "probably too cheap"... like the $600 PS3. They've got a real let them eat cake attitude over there.
Hell of a statement (Score:2)
With the concern that games cause violence, and the back and
forth studies of yes they do, no the don't.
Sony promotion:
"PlayStation Vita will redefine traditional boundaries of gaming
and blur the lines between entertainment and reality,"
That should ease some minds I'm sure.
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Yes if you only buy and sell in country and don't buy or sell any goods with special VAT rates it is equivilent to paying tax on the value you added but as soon as you import and export that no longer applies.
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Well usually the companies translate 1€ to 1 USD, and despite getting the VAT out of the calculation, cash in 10-20% extra depending on the Euro Dollar fluctuation.
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I think this is an artificial limit to prevent kids wasting a lot of money exceeding the carrier monthly quota
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When you start talking about downloading 1GB+ games (this size is fairly common already among PSP games and Vita games will probably be even larger) you run into some big issues because of the time involved. This includes battery life where just about any 3G device would need to be plugged in to pull down a gigabyte of 3G data. There's also going from