Vita Thread

[Bebpo]

lolz

YsIVr can't come soon enough.


though to be honest I still haven't played half of my Vita launch games.  There are some good titles in there like 999-2, and Tales of Innocence-R, Lumines, and Wipeout 2048, but after the initial "WOAH VITA IS AWESOME AWESOME IS VITA" phase wore off, they just entered my standard backlog list and I have higher priority games to play on other handhelds like the PSP.

[Positive Touch]

http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/

[Tasty]

http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/

Onion calling things years in advance.

[cool breeze]

I completely forgot about this!

honestly I feel like it would work better on an ipad or large screen android device if you're expected to get two hands on the screen.

[Takao]

I'm not worried. I still think Vita will be a success, but the metric of success will be lower than its peers. Which is how I felt prior to release. With Monster Hunter I thought Vita could've taken Japan, but obviously things didn't work out that way. Sony's just really going to have to rally up support from the third parties to show how they can reuse assets from their HD console games on Vita to keep costs low, as well as nurture a decent indie audience with Suite. It also needs to be a point for them that the 3DS doesn't have any third party exclusives. Give developers incentives (lower licensing fees, etc.) to make sure 3DS/Vita is a thing even if the Vita version is just the 3DS version but at a higher res.

I also totally expect a phone with Vita guts inside it at some point. I think they only reason shit like Xperia Play ever existed was due to SE being a black sheep in the family. Now they're no longer a black sheep. Sony's hardware designers are capable so I'd expect a sleek phone, and based on Xperia S, there is an audience willing to buy phones made by Sony assuming it's a good product. Would that audience buy a game phone after seeing Xperia Play? I can't say.

[MrAngryFace]

PSP wasnt a success and it was a lot of fun- long as Vita gets games of the same quality ill be happy

[Momo]

Eh, PSP may not have won the handheld ghetto war but it was a great success. Having spent time with Vita I just want more d-pad options and some hardware tweaks as I mentioned.

[Tasty]

PSP wasnt a success and it was a lot of fun- long as Vita gets games of the same quality ill be happy

I'd say outselling the PS3 and 360 is a pretty good measure of success.

[bork]

PSP wasnt a success and it was a lot of fun- long as Vita gets games of the same quality ill be happy

I'd say outselling the PS3 and 360 is a pretty good measure of success.

In what country?  PSP didn't seem to do jack for shit anywhere but Japan.

[archnemesis]

Worldwide, it has sold better than Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo 64, Atari 2600, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. That's pretty good for Sony's first attempt at the portable market. The software side isn't as impressive, partly because of the rampant piracy.

[archnemesis]

Handhelds are more for personal use while the entire family can share a home console. A lot of people also double-dipped for the revisions because of the improved quality and added features.

Edit: Yes, that includes all revisions.

[Takao]

PSP wasnt a success and it was a lot of fun- long as Vita gets games of the same quality ill be happy

I'd say outselling the PS3 and 360 is a pretty good measure of success.

In what country?  PSP didn't seem to do jack for shit anywhere but Japan.

This is a joke right? Sony shipped 70 million PSPs. 20 million of those are in Japan.

where dat other 50 million come from

[Bebpo]

PSP did great hardware-wise.  Sony had a really good first step into the portable market.  And it was nice having some competition there so Nintendo couldn't half-ass it and actually had to compete.

It's too bad that Vita seems to be a disastrous 2nd try however.  It's going to take a miracle for it to come back and be anywhere near as successful as the psp.  But stranger miracles have happened in the realm of gaming.

[Takao]

For those who do own a Vita, it appears Skype will be coming later this month. As well as a drawing application, and an alarm clock app that allows you to troll your friends (you can set up their wake up times) but that has only been confirmed for Asia. Frobisher Says is also coming soon. All are supposed to be free.

Gravity Rush demo also hits the end of the month. It's most likely going to be the same English demo you can download off of the Hong Kong PSN.

[Trent Dole]

That's a lot of PSPs, I had no idea.

[Tasty]

LYTE EDGE FAIL

[cool breeze]

I think Vita is doing what people expected the PSP to do, or any non-Nintendo handheld.  Expected is the wrong word since the gaming press was rock hard for the PSP.  I just mean it's no game gear, lynx, etc.

[bork]

The PSP did not have a hardware sales problem.  The problem was that outside Japan, the software sold unbelievably poorly.  Like, it's unreal how bad the software sold after year one.  Time will tell if the Vita follows that path.  I will say that so far, software is selling very badly, so the launch halo effect that PSP enjoyed obviously isn't coming in here.

Yeah, I made my last post thinking about software sales.  PSP, outside Japan, seemed like it was deader than dead pretty quickly.  Guess a whole lot of people bought systems for homebrew/piracy.

[Tasty]

Nintendo very specifically set out to lure them away this time, and while that's not an easy task, Sony is making their job easier by their inaction.

This was always the impression I got. MGS3D, MH3G, MH4, RE Rev, KH 3D. Nintendo has gunned REALLY hard for the PSP audience with mixed success. KH bombing shows that 3DS may still be weak to a PSP-like assault from Vita, but Sony's opportunity is slipping away by the day. 3D will still sell over time and will still build an audience on the 3DS over the next two or three years if it's still the only "current gen" KH in town.

But this goes beyond KH of course. Sony was always going to be in trouble once Nintendo woke up and realized MonHun was worth moneyhatting. I'll be really interested to know how P4 does on Vita, it'll cause a bump for sure but what will be the message it sends other publishers?

Well, (enhanced) ports aren't usually good indicators but that doesn't stop pubs from extrapolating from them.

[Bebpo]

imo the 3DS hasn't really stolen the PSP audience.  Maybe a little, and they're slowly moving over, but I think most of the PSP audience is still on the PSP.  The Vita didn't convince them to move to that and the 3DS hasn't really either though it's looking better every day.  If they move to the 3DS it'll be because Sony fucked up the Vita and not because Nintendo was able to "capture" the PSP audience.  I don't see the 3DS ever getting the sales for certain series that PSP got.

I'm not even sure how Sony screwed up the Vita so bad in Japan.  Was it priced too high?  Maybe a little, should have been about $50 less.  Was it too confusing for the consumer?  Probably, should have just been 1 model.  Were there no Japanese catering games?  Sorta, I mean there was Minna no Golf, Tales of Innocence-R, Dynasty Warriors, Gravity Daze around launch but it definitely could have used a few more Japanese titles. 

Those all seem like mistakes by Sony, but not major SYSTEM WILL DIE mistakes, but rather just enough mistakes to not be a great launch.  However, the system is dying.  But yeah, I dunno how they could/will fix it.  Zero no Kiseki full voice edition should have been launch window though.  Sony should have worked with them on that since it's just a port with voice + some goodies and Kiseki is fairly popular now and fills a gap on the Vita.

[Bebpo]

I also don't believe in the magic of Monster Hunter.  Vita just getting a MH game + price drop is not going to save it in Japan.  It needs a triple hitter like 3DS got MH + ?? + ?? + Price Drop.  Good luck with that.

[Bebpo]

I heard a rumor ps1 playing was left out because of it possibly opening the system up to piracy.

I think if they had kept UMD w/installs, had ps1 on the go, and had and advertised ps2 classics on the go it probably would have done well even with no games for the first year, just as a Playstation library on the go machine.

I also don't think UMD had to go.  The only people bitching about UMD were the Americans and with all the support they gave psp, I don't think Sony should have catered to them.  I love my PSP.  It uses UMD, has good battery life and no load times anymore.  There's nothing wrong with UMD.

[Eel O'Brian]

another thing they can also do is get playstation suite out the door asap so the ios/android app and game ports can start flowing wholesale, they have this kinda-sorta-wanna-be an ipod touch + but there's not much in the way of apps

there's definitely some stupid shit going on with them, like the whole "hey dig it you can totally play fps games the way they were meant to be played" ad campaign at launch without having a single fucking fps game at launch (which i mentioned earlier)

but none of this is gonna drive sales much until they drop it to $199 and slap a memcard in the box

[Eel O'Brian]

in hindsight they probably could have just done a milder spec bump, front ips touch screen to catch some iOS runoff, maybe had rear l/r finger buttons instead of rear touch, second nub, kept the price closer to $150-175, and called it a day

i mean, it's an awesome system and i love mine, but it is clearly overkill considering the market

[Bebpo]

When in reality they should have understood there was no way to win the west, since there is no market in the west for adult portable gaming, and should have focused entirely on Japan.

Vita, like ps3 to a further extent, screams of a Japanese lack of understanding of western gaming mentality.

[Momo]

Oh God, I just read Puyo Puyo may come to Vita. Fucking killer app for me depending on the multiplayer options

[Shaka Khan]

The N-Gage port is the only one I ever played

[Momo]

*ahem* Yeah it has been ported and reskinned many times lol, It would be nice having a release date

[Takao]

Resistance is no longer running at Powerpoint speeds!



Huzzah.

[bork]

Wasn't there supposed to be a UMD addon coming out?

[Takao]

Wasn't there supposed to be a UMD addon coming out?

Sony has never talked about a UMD addon. If there ever will be one you can guarantee it'll be Japan-only.

[Momo]

Speaking of UMDs. So .. I .. uhm .. have one or two UMD movies. There's no other device I can play these on right?

[Takao]

Speaking of UMDs. So .. I .. uhm .. have one or two UMD movies. There's no other device I can play these on right?

Just PSP. UMD movies were a funny idea, though they did sell well initially. I guess before PSP memory cards got to a decent capacity.

[bork]

Wasn't there supposed to be a UMD addon coming out?

Where did you get it from? I don't even remember such rumour. UMD ripping kiosks is all I can remember and look how that turned out, lol.

That was for the PSP Go...the Vita had a rumored add-on for UMDs. 

[demi]

I have Shaun of the Dead UMD

[Takao]

I think I have Borat, Resident Evil, The Punisher, and Fun With Dick & Jane. I don't own DVD copies of those movies, and have a PSP with TV out so they're not totally useless.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm never watching those movies again

[close]

I kind of wanted to buy the last couple of movies on UMD that were released in the US just for the novelty factor. I think they stopped in 2009 with Astroboy.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

UMD movies ruled fuck the haters. Some of them had better quality than DVD versions of the same movie at the time like Terminator 2.

[Tasty]

I hate to suggest Sony planned something poorly

Is that so? 

[Momo]

i have two umd movies.  batman begins, and dark knight.  i bought them very cheaply just before getting on a plane for 12 hours.  i regret nothing.

Oh I don't regret it, served me well during a flight and bus trip up north.

[Takao]

Seems Sony still released UMD movies until 2010 in the US. Jeeze.  I know they started bundling PSN copies of their films instead of iTunes.

[Eel O'Brian]

Stardrone Extreme has the absolute worst kind of DLC, a .99 "skip level" thing.  Wouldn't be so bad, but after about the 12 level, every time you die a screen pops up asking you if you want to skip the level. Every single time, and it can't be turned off.  If you click yes it takes you to the store

Fuck Beatshapers, that shit is incredibly annoying,  I'm making a note to never buy another one of their games.

[Takao]

That Montezuma Free to Play game is pretty gross. You have like 5 lives and once those deplete you can either wait out 20 minutes or buy more lives from the PlayStation Store. The game's kind of fun so I'd actually be willing to buy a version of the game where I didn't have that junk in my way.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

It doesn't have that in my version 

[Eel O'Brian]

That Montezuma Free to Play game is pretty gross. You have like 5 lives and once those deplete you can either wait out 20 minutes or buy more lives from the PlayStation Store. The game's kind of fun so I'd actually be willing to buy a version of the game where I didn't have that junk in my way.

I agree, but I think they handle their DLC better, to be honest. At least you know going in that you only have five lives if you want to play for free. With Stardrone, even if you buy the skip level DLC it is still going to ask you if you want to skip levels afterwards every time you die, and it's one of those "you're gonna die a bazillion times" kind of games. Clearly put there to squeeze that extra buck out of you. Just price your fucking $3.99 game at $4.99 and be done with it, you skeezy twats.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I owned a few UMDs back in the day.  Back when I worked night stock at a grocery store, during my breaks, I'd whip out my PSP and watch a UMD on it.  I think they were pretty neat but once I went back to school for the year, I had no reason to keep buying UMDs so I stopped.

[Takao]

Some dude on Reddit drew this on Paint Park:



Whoa man, all I can draw are stick people

That Montezuma Free to Play game is pretty gross. You have like 5 lives and once those deplete you can either wait out 20 minutes or buy more lives from the PlayStation Store. The game's kind of fun so I'd actually be willing to buy a version of the game where I didn't have that junk in my way.

I agree, but I think they handle their DLC better, to be honest. At least you know going in that you only have five lives if you want to play for free. With Stardrone, even if you buy the skip level DLC it is still going to ask you if you want to skip levels afterwards every time you die, and it's one of those "you're gonna die a bazillion times" kind of games. Clearly put there to squeeze that extra buck out of you. Just price your fucking $3.99 game at $4.99 and be done with it, you skeezy twats.

I'm not sure if I follow, are you prompted to buy the DLC again even after you've bought it? Like is the level skip only good for one use?

[Eel O'Brian]

No, you can use it infinitely, and you aren't prompted to buy every time, but you're asked if you want to skip or restart the level every time, and there's no automatic restart option in the settings to turn the screen off. You die so quickly in the game you'll end up constantly having to click past that screen. The screen was clearly put there to nag you into buying the DLC, but even if you do it doesn't go away.

[Shaka Khan]

I've been known to give mobile F2P games a chance if they're decent enough, but Montezuma follows one of the worst models I've experienced. It's one giant scam.

I mean first you have the 5 tries restriction, which upon depletion leaves you with either waiting or paying $0.99 for a meager 5 more tries as your only options. Then you find out that every try not only consumes a life/heart but also requires you to pay a sum of money (~400 jewels). It gets funnier when you realize that no matter how good you play a level, the most jewels you get per match is 10-30 jewels. I'll admit that the game starts you off with a couple of thousands, though. I was just foolish enough to use it for something as reasonable as upgrades and power-ups, like any normal and unsuspecting gamer would do.

Speaking of upgrades, like in a true F2P fashion, everything and I mean *everything* costs a few grands or reaching a certain rank. The latter might sound reasonable, but it actually takes a ridiculous amount of time thanks to the aforementioned play restrictions.

The game itself is a decent bejeweled clone. But all it did was sell me on the on the paid iOS bejelewed game and praise Jobs, peace be upon him.

[Eel O'Brian]

it only costs you jewels if you use the power-ups

you can play without them, but you won't score nearly as many points

[Shaka Khan]

Wait a second... so if I don't equip any power-ups, I don't need to pay anything per-game? News to me if true.

[Shaka Khan]

Oh

Well, there goes my rant. It's scummy to try to exploit those going for the higher scores with the aid if power-ups.

[Owl-faced Wizard]

Oh

Well, there goes my rant. It's scummy to try to exploit those going for the higher scores with the aid if power-ups.

I haven't settled in my head how bad it is.  At first I thought it was not just scummy but game-ruining, but then I figured that it's sorta like a coin-op game with a neutered demo you can play for free.  I've never sunk so much as a penny on a string into a facebook bejewelled game, and I'm sure as shit not going to do it with a dodgy knockoff.

[maxy]

Stolen from duckroll

https://twitter.com/#!/sinobintage/status/192416746911711232
Announcement of an announcement, etc. Sinobi is a reliable Japanese retail blogger. He has posted on Twitter that there will be an announcement conference for a new Vita game called "Soul Sacrifice" on May 10 at the Tokyo International Forum venue.

The key themes of the game are "A story about magicians", "the concept of evolved co-op battles", and "high spec graphics for creating a realistic fantasy world". No word on the developer or publisher, or any other information so far.

Edit: More info.

Ah, apparently there's an illustration of the game in Famitsu. It shows 4 characters fighting against a huge monster. Definitely sounds like a Monhun clone of some sort. Apparently those who register their PSN IDs will be able to stream the conference in May. There's a website but it isn't active yet: http://pscom.jp/SOULSACRIFICE

This might be getting quite the push from Sony. Apparently there's a 6 page ad in Famitsu just promoting the upcoming announcement event for the game.

[Bebpo]

They should just announce things when they are ready to announce them.


This whole announcement of an announcement thing backfired on them badly with VITA RISE TO HEAVEN because it hyped everyone up for some amazing announcement and it was less than that.  This is going to be the same thing.  Whereas if they had just announced the game as is, people might've been "oh, hey that looks kind of neat".  When will they learn.

[Bebpo]

Sometimes I feel like I wish I ran Sony.

[pilonv1]

Sometimes I feel like I wish I ran Sony.

Do you wish you were trying to save Rome while it was burning?

[Momo]

Pretty sure if I ran SEGA and everyone actually listened I could make them money AND restore some e-cred 

[maxy]

more info

PlayStation Vita's newest game debuted in Famitsu this week through a six page teaser advertisement. The advertisement reveals little in the way of specifics about the game, except that its name is Soul Sacrifice.

Sokuho@Hokanko has provided a summary of the six page advertisement, revealing the following:

The first page shows four characters fighting a giant three headed beast. This page has those key words that we mentioned earlier -- story of magicians, evolved combat, and real fantasy shown in high spec.

The second page shows a number of illustrations of demons and monsters, presumably your enemies. Text on this page reads, "Are you ready?"

Another image shows a hooded character with his open hand extended out to you. His hand has some sort of red zipper-like mark on it.

Other text in the ad indicates that the game is an action title that will shake your soul.

Specifics on Soul Sacrifice will be announced on May 10 at an event that will be held at Tokyo International Forum from 15:00 to 16:00 (doors open at 14:00). The event will be streamed to PSN members. There may be a registration process for watching the event. We should be getting details later this week.

The announcement event is being held by Sony Computer Entertainment, causing some speculation that the new game may be a first party title. The ad does not specifically state this, although it's worth noting that SCEI is also in the ad's copyright.

[Momo]

Pretty sure if I ran SEGA it would be bankrupt by Thursday.

embezzlement 

You'd go to jail for 20 years to embezzle the $34.57c SEGA games has in the bank?

[Momo]

Sammy would probably send the Yakuza to remove your penis