PTE36: Playstation Vita - One Year On

[Neon Ignition]

It's been just over a year since the western world recieved the Vita and it goes without saying that there's been some bumps along the way. Recent figures in Japan show that with the right incentive there is room for the Vita to do well but without an upturn in the west and a sparse schedule ahead much still rests in question about the handheld.

12 months and some change on, what are your thoughts on the Vita?

[Mr Ono]

Got one few months in and wanted to give it a really good go. Alas, it just hasn't bitten with me and I can't see why. Have every genre from simple puzzle (Lumines), adventure (Uncharted), RPG (Disgaea), sport (Everybody Golf), driving (NFS) and a game I really wanted to play again (Metal Gear) yet I haven't touched it at all. Reckon less than 2 hours in the year!

In contrast, the 3DS is getting lots more love.

Maybe I need to give it another stab.

[Anpanman]

I don't fit in to any of the selection's, nearest one would be;

Not interested, it's too expensive

Though actually it's

Interested, it's too expensive

Just waiting for the price drop in Japan to hit here really.

[wakka]

I got mine on the JP launch. It suited me brilliantly in 2012, as I was interning in various places, going for job interviews, crashing at friend's places, then looking for a place to live while commuting from outside London or crashing at friend's. This chaotic lifestyle meant I LOVED my Vita. I absolutely rinsed almost every decent title that came out last year. The gf having one helped too - lots of 2 player WipEout, Everybody's Golf and Super Monkey Ball.

Since Christmas though I got a place and got a 3DS and a PS3, so it's been seeing a lot less play time. The lack of new titles hasn't helped - I'm still playing Persona 4 because it's so bloody epic (got it back in November I think), and I'm dipping in and out of Project Diva f to try and finish Extreme mode, but that's it really.

As a piece of hardware I think it's genuinely superb. Wonderful screen, great controls (just my opinion, I know others disagree with this), and a really nice OS. By default the most amazing piece of handheld gaming hardware ever released...just at completely the wrong time. I'm desperate to see some more titles on the slate for 2013. I was looking forward to Sly Cooper Thieves In Time but by all accounts its rather average.

[Neon Ignition]

Looking back I can't work out why Sony bothered releasing the Vita when they did. It's been clear that they don't have the software lined up or the resources ro properly support the device and by pushing it out quickly the system has endured a painful year on market with any momentum now gone. If it had come out this year they could have distanced it further from the 3DS and built its launch hype ahead of the upcoming PS4's whilst staggering the software better. It's at a point where it's questionable whether the format even has much in development given one of its biggest announcements was an exclusive Bioshock that hasn't even begun work and I'd be astounded if it ever did now. Sony will try pushing the connectivity to PS4 angle but that will never shift Vita's. It's a shame as the hardware is undeniably brilliant but off current trend Sony don't deserve to have a handheld business given how poorlry supportive they are. At this point the Vita lives or dies based on this years E3 and even then it may well be too late to reverse its fortunes enough.

[Junko]

3DS still gets more love from me but the Vita is a great piece of hardware let down by woeful software support .... Slightly disappointed in that respect

[wakka]

I agree CTN. It's absurd how there's essentially nothing in development for it at all, just Media Molecule's Tearaway and that's about it. Worse, it's hard to see why anyone would bother.

Poor old Vita. Such great hardware too.

[briareos_kerensky]

Bought one recently, but due to the only game owned not being brilliant, I hardly use it.
I have mixed feelings about the hardware, I like the screen and how responsive it is when navigating through the dashboard but I don't particularly like the button/stick layout (though this is common with all Sony pads); I don't like how the dashboard is completely different from the PS3, Nintendo dashboards aren't particularly enticing but at least they are constant throughout their line-up...and I sincerely hope the PS4 won't follow the PSV style. Then I have more nitpicks (like the memory card, or how you have to use the touchscreen to use the save menu), but with just one game to test I can't say if they depend on the game or the console itself.

[Anpanman]

Wakka and CTN make some good points.

I still use the PSP every week on my work travels or simply waiting for the daughter at Saturday school and have done since 2005, a great piece of kit.

More and more though I'm using it to watch Dorama's, the Vita would be an improvement due to the larger screen so whilst I'm still intent on getting one, I suppose what I'm trying to say is that aside from perhaps EDF there isn't much game-wise I'd be looking to buy which is of course a shame.

[Asura]

Still undecided. I actually want one, a bit - but the 3DS had more interesting games on the way back when I got my XL, so I went with that instead. If I exhaust it, I may go for a Vita, but it needs some more games. Right now, I'd be sold largely on the PSP/PS1 stuff available on PSN.

[Neon Ignition]

I would love to know what Sony's intention with the Vita is. There's been plenty of poorly supported handhelds in the past but to have one with so much invested in the hardware and and existing fanbase from a previous machine, then to largely leave it to die is astounding.

[wakka]

Me too. What is/was their game plan for the system? They did well to queue up Uncharted and WipEout well ahead of time for launch, and they both ended up being high quality titles. But then when it came to FPS (which is obviously perhaps the most popular genre of all right now) they farmed out a Resistance and a CoD to the dev behind PlayStation Move Heroes, and got them to make each one in 6 months.

How they thought that could result in anything but two terrible games I have no idea. Oh, and they folded Studio Liverpool, so all of the promised 2048 DLC (bar the HD/Fury conversion) failed to materialise. It's almost like they want to punish you for supporting them.

[25.05.2005]

I want one. But I don't think its worth ?100 to me.

I suppose it's just the gaming geek in me that loves handhelds, and must have them all...rather than something I want to actually play.

I think I'll get one when they're around the ?50 mark, which will obviously be a bit of a wait....though how it interacts with the PS4 might cause me to change that opinion. If I can remote play the majority of PS4 titles, then that would be a huge plus for me.

Can we play emulators on it yet easily, that's another big thing for me as I tend to get bored with newer games quickly and rely on my old favourites to keep me going?

[buster_broon]

Voted got one but hardly use it

It's lovely and only recently started using it due to PSN part from that it was hardly touched

But I've always thought it a lovely piece of tech and some games look gorgeous on it (UMVC3, SFXT & DOA5+)

But still annoying that it doesn't have all the functionality of a PSone controller and the back touch screen it's dodgy at best

Games like abes odysee is pretty much impossible to play using the back touch screen

[Dogg Thang]

Got one and got it pretty early. I think it has some really excellent games some of which are new, some variations of familiar games and some ports that have never been portable before or never this good portable before (Lumines, Uncharted, Gravity Rush, Everybody's Golf, MK, MGS 2&3, Stranger's Wrath, Jet Set Radio, Sound Shapes, Sonic Racing Transformed).

But as amazing as some games look, I can't help feeling it's not as powerful as it should be given that many games can't utilise the resolution of the screen. And its biggest crime is the lack of games output. Many of its best games came out day one and calling it a trickle since then would be far too generous. There is almost nothing worthwhile on the horizon and Sony have shown almost no interest in the system, like they are content to let it die.

I love the machine and play it loads. I guess that's what counts but I would have to say it has not lived up to its potential.