The Surprising Second Life of the PlayStation Vita 161
First time accepted submitter jonyami writes "It's been a slow start for Sony's latest handheld console, despite the console-like quality games that were shown off at launch, and its excellent screen and tactile controls you could take on the go, but you only have to look at the upcoming Christmas line-up to see where it's lagging behind. That said, a new article points out there's still life in the relatively-fresh handheld yet. With the arrival of the PlayStation 4 and a whole new wave of indie games and HD remakes heading to the handheld, it looks like Sony's plucky portable console is still going — but is that enough to save the Vita?"
Re: Sony hasn't given up on it yet (Score:3, Informative)
Speak for yourself. I bought a vita for the SOLE PURPOSE of using it with Ps4 remote play. And thus far I find it amazing.
Moave? (Score:3, Informative)
Resale, rental, input, pricing, exclusives (Score:5, Informative)
Not like you can access the hardware to do anything with the thing that isn't corp approved
And you're comparing this to SteamOS boxes? I don't recall Valve or any of its hardware partners saying anything about running games on them that aren't yet approved on Steam.
As I was pointing out to some folks thinking of buying a console there really is NO upsides to the consoles over the PC this gen
Resale and rental of games. Use with no Internet connection for weeks at a time, such as by deployed service members. A tradition [slashdot.org] of using multiple controllers and one machine rather than trying to sell multiple copies to each household. Motion control (or does the Steam Controller have an accelerometer?). Possibly tying up the family PC while a game is being played. And possibly price, unless one of the SteamOS boxes with enough computing power to run games locally starts selling for $400.
and when it comes to handhelds? Well the mobile devices like tablets and phones are getting crazy powerful
Computing power can't always overcome input deficiency. PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS come with an integrated controller that has physical buttons. Most tablets don't. Tablets like the JXD S5110 and Archos GamePad do but they're much harder to find in showrooms than Sony and Nintendo products. Besides, the pricing expectations on Android encourage the development of tiny snack-sized minigames rather than meal-sized AAA games. Part of this can be blamed on Google for not getting Google Checkout (now Google Wallet) implemented in enough countries during Android's first year, so apps in Android Market (now Google Play Store) had to be priced at $0.00 with ads to reach a wide audience.
What we need is for somebody to come along and do like Valve is doing with the Steambox on the mobile front, come out with a minimum set of specs and control layout and then let all the companies compete.
I think that's what NVIDIA's Shield is supposed to do: if you have this Tegra chipset and these buttons, you can run these games.
But I think the days of separate game handhelds will soon be over, folks don't like carrying extra devices around and if your phone or tablet is already crazy powerful why not just use it to game?
Because my phone is an Audiovox 8610, which isn't exactly crazy powerful. I keep it around because if I were to upgrade to even the least expensive smartphone, my Virgin Mobile bill would rise from $7 per month to $35 per month. And because people aren't aware of an Android alternative to 3DS system sellers like Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Pokemon Y ("Pocket Money"?).
Re:not really sure... (Score:5, Informative)
Why the FUCK doesn't Nintendo or Sony build a fucking gamer phone
They did [wikipedia.org].