PSVita (Successor to PSP, was PSP2 then NGP)

[smouty]

The format is dead, niche at best. I'd be surprised if this actually makes a profit TBH.
Tech wise though impressive.

[Neon Ignition]

The format is dead, niche at best. I'd be surprised if this actually makes a profit TBH.
Tech wise though impressive.

I don't get it? By format do you mean the PSP2 already being niche or handhelds in general? Coz either way I figured a fanbase of 65m or a total market of 210m units was a tad big for a dead format

[smouty]

Standalone handhelds in general. I'm even sceptical regarding the 3DS and that has an even larger fanbase but we'll see. This device should have been merged with the PSPhone to have made sense. I think it probably has everything built in to be a phone if it supports 3G.
An existing fanbase is no guarantee of future sales.
This is only my opinion BTW but I don't think the PSP was actually a success.

[abigsmurf]

4million sales of Monster Hunter Portable 3 and only 1 home console title in the Japanese top 6 chart kinda put a dampener on the whole "portables are dead" thing.

A reasonably successful (not a megahit) portable title gets 500,000 sales.

That's $4million in royalties (based off of a $40 typical selling price and 20% royalties). How many games on the iphone have made royalties of that region? I'd be surprised if I'd need to move onto a second hand to count them.

iTunes is a great model for low budget titles. It's awful for anything with a budget that isn't a cheap port.

[JP]

Really impressed with the controls in the new Uncharted in that video. Sony had issues with seemingly forcing control methods into games when the SixAxis was first released but the controls in that seem spot on and where motion/touch controls are available they just seem to make sense.

The iPhone really put me off handheld gaming, it does everything that it needs to do but it doesn't seem to do anything that I want it to do.

I'm still not wanting to be interested in this but with the new Uncharted as a launch game I'd be bloody tempted irrelevant of the price.

Sony have somehow managed to bag themselves the best first part studio cache by far this generation but I'm wondering how it'll work once this is released. Bear in mind that the majority of first party franchises on the current PSP are actually produced by second party studios but I'm wondering if something like a new Killzone on this means that they'll be using resources that would have gone towards a PS3 game?

From what people like Kojima are saying the realtime stuff they are showing has been ported from PS3 to NGP in a couple of weeks with ease, of course real time demonstrations aren't full games but it does seem to be that if a studio is producing a PS3 game then it's not going to be fairly simple to get the game working on the NPG also.

Ideally, although unlikely, they'll have some sort of Steam type service where you buy a PS3 game at launch and that allows you to download the NPG version which will allow you to share saves via previously registered PlayStation Cloud service.

I have no issues with the size of the machine at all or the battery life as I've got no interest in gaming while walking around and I'd much rather have a decent screen than a console that can be carried in my pocket rather than in my bag.

Talking about the screen, I love when he twists it in the video and you get a perfect OLED image irrelevant of the viewing angle that's used.

It's interesting to see that they're seemingly trying to avoid the confusion that surrounded the PS3 around launch where they made big issues of all the different media capabilities the machine had.

Al the press I've sen so far about this carries tags like It's All About The Games, Play LIFE, etc. When it comes to things like film and music services in the console area the PS3 seems far ahead of the competition and surely this will end up with Sony's music and film services but at the moment they're only talking about it as a games machine.

I'd imagine at some point they'll introduce some sort of chat facility where if you're out with it and your friend is on his PS3 then you'll be able to phone them and set up a one to one chat with them.

I'm a little worried by how positive I'm feeling about this machine at the moment as there's almost definitely going to be something horrific which automatically turns everything on its head when it's announced.

Thinking back, the last time I was actually this positive about a handheld gaming machine was the when the first Gameboy was announced because at the time that just seemed to be exactly what it should be.

[teddymeow]

Well. Having calmed down slightly I've decided to still get my 3DS but NGP with Uncharted at launch (even if it is only a port of U1) will see me buy one of these in a heartbeat. Everything else (MinGol) is a bonus!!!

It looks gorgeous, the screen is and the controls should cater for every genre of game.

Win, Sony, win!!!

[JP]

Bad news if you were hoping to resist buying this for Uncharted as they've confirmed to GameInformer that it's a completely new game. They've also announced that it's developed by Sony Bend but under the direction of Naugty Dog so it should end up being a proper Uncharted game.

[teddymeow]

A new Uncharted game?!!!

I think I'm going to start hyperventilating!!

[JP]

Not sure if this has bee mentioned here already but 3G compatibility is optional much like it is on the iPad.

Eurogamer: How will 3G work? Obviously that's a major and very interesting new feature for a handheld console. But you have to have network partners presumably, and there must be some cost for the user, at the end of the day?

Andrew House: I think the answer to both those questions is yes. You'll hear more from us around that aspect of the strategy as we get closer to launch. We are working very hard on partnerships in that area.

The first thing to clarify, which I'm not sure the presentation did a perfect job of doing today, is that all of the devices will have wi-fi capability; a separate SKU will have 3G.

Eurogamer: OK. Like the iPad.

Andrew House: So the user gets a choice. Wi-fi is available wherever, which clearly is the most important aspect of connectivity and that connected experience; 3G will be a subset of that.

I can't imagine I'd really be wanting 3G as I get free WiFi connection from around 800,000 hot spots which I've not had any problems with so it'll be a bonus to have a choice if I do end up getting one.

Also, there's £102 difference between an IPad with 3G and one without so a bit of a saving would be nice.

[Neon Ignition]

Bad news if you were hoping to resist buying this for Uncharted as they've confirmed to GameInformer that it's a completely new game.

"Let me pre-order now, dammit!"

[JP]

Only just seen this video of the Unreal Engine 3 running on the machine!


According to Epic's Tim Sweeney it took them "about a week" to get the engine up and running like that.

EDIT:
Sorry, I got that quote from the comments but it seems that the second game they showed was ported from the PS3 to this in about a week.

[hudson]

Sony really delivered today. 2 analog sticks and lush graphics. FPS, 3rd person shooters ahoy.

Will keep my 3DS preorder for the fluffy Nintendo goodness and 3D-ness, but in my opinion, Sony have poured warm gaming meat and potatoes down my front today. Looking forward to this.

[Supergoal]

I am WET.

[MisterBubbles]

Yes ive did a sex wee with excitement

[mekanor]

For a while there I was wondering why everyone was getting excited about the neo geo pocket...