Official PSVita launch thread.

[blurredvision]

hmm.. price drop may just make me return it to amazon before it's too late. I should've waited and see how things played out... I think this system will go the way of HP WebOS...

Read the article, it's just a firm making the ground-breaking prediction that a lower price would increase sales. News at 11.

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah, I think Square deserves some credit. I'm shocked that they ported FFTactics. And its good to see that they're even trying some new IP with some depth. I didn't mean to infer no one was trying, but there's just not much. I mean, Angry Birds is probably the biggest mobile IP we've seen thus far, and while I enjoy it, its not exactly one of my absolute favorites.

A good IP is hard to develop, and expansive games can be hard because they require more extras such as dialog, voice, etc. Sometimes the simple but fun puzzle games work out because they're very easy on "the extras", which works given a lot of the indie development teams are pretty small.

Considering Microsoft has just done basically nothing in the mobile gaming space

I thought Microsoft was mixing XBOX Live into Windows Phone 8?

Yeah, exactly. Its why, despite the current problems, I think a lot of gamers should be happy about the advent of mobile platforms, as its doing more to shakeup the industry (that is, in my opinion, in desperate need of some shakeup) than anything I can remember. It and the indie game scene on PC are two or the more interesting gaming areas.

I think the mobile market is shaking things up in a different way though. It has to do a lot with being readily available. For example, if I want to play a game, I can just take out my phone, which I already have on me. The same for simple point-and-shoot digital cameras. Sales on those are dropping like a lead balloon, because it's easier to carry one device that you're already going to have anyway.

Sony needs to give people a reason to want to carry a PSV around in addition to their mobile device, which most of them can play some pretty good looking games.

I felt that way early on with Live Arcade/PSN/Nintendo Network, but they kinda stagnated some I felt . Still good, just didn't take off and improve as much as I was hoping they would, where we'd see a lot more intermediate titles in the $20-40 range.

I don't think many people really develop games that are worth that much. Sometimes a retail game will be released at $40, but that's about it. I wonder if it's partially due to the licensing fee that gets tacked on.

Speaking of $20 games and derailing the thread, I'm actually really looking forward to Torchlight II, which is only $20. Unfortunately (given the sub-forum I'm in), I don't think it's coming out for consoles.

$14.99, the same as the PS3 version.

Hm, the site I went to must have been wrong with the price. Is it one of those PS3+Vita games? I'd have much less of a problem with the price if that were the case.

 

[gorcorps]

Read the article, it's just a firm making the ground-breaking prediction that a lower price would increase sales. News at 11.

Exactly

Sony has a habit of just including more games before dropping the price. You'll see new bundles long before you see a price drop.

 

[finbarqs]

am I the only one a little disappointed with the graphics? it just seems to me this is something the iphone 4s can do easily, or the ipad2. in fact, I bet the transformer prime can blow these graphics out of the water...

 

[ViRGE]

Looks like there are talks of a price cut already

http://www.gamespot.com/news/ps-vita-sales-to-top-124-million-with-price-cut-research-firm-6350945

I'm not even sure I'd count that as "talks" when it's just an analyst firm projecting sales at a lower price. This is the same class of idiots that projected Apple would need to cut the price of the iPad 2 before Christmas to stay competitive. They don't have any inside information, they just like to make things up and get on the news.

am I the only one a little disappointed with the graphics? it just seems to me this is something the iphone 4s can do easily, or the ipad2. in fact, I bet the transformer prime can blow these graphics out of the water...

The GPU is quite literally twice the GPU of the 4S/iPad2. Those use a SGX543MP2, whereas the Vita uses a SGX543MP4, which has twice as many functional units. In terms of technology they're identical, but the Vita will have more processing power to play around with. As for the Prime comparison, given the big lead the SGX543MP2 gives the iPad 2 in the tablet space, the Prime won't come anywhere close to a SGX543MP4.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

am I the only one a little disappointed with the graphics? it just seems to me this is something the iphone 4s can do easily, or the ipad2. in fact, I bet the transformer prime can blow these graphics out of the water...

I think it looks pretty good given that all of the launch games are "first run" attempts at using the system. I downloaded Star Wars Battlefront 2 onto my Vita, because I love me some Battlefront 2 and thought it looked decent on the PSP. It looks like ass compared to anything on the Vita really.

I can imagine being blown away by the graphics on this thing when developers really get their teeth into it 1-2 years down the road.

 

[mmntech]

I'm not even sure I'd count that as "talks" when it's just an analyst firm projecting sales at a lower price. This is the same class of idiots that projected Apple would need to cut the price of the iPad 2 before Christmas to stay competitive. They don't have any inside information, they just like to make things up and get on the news.

The iPad 2 sold out within hours of launch, and was scarce for weeks afterwards. People aren't exactly fighting over Vitas, or lining up, or even mingling around the display. There were still quite a few sitting on the shelf when I got mine the day after launch. Yes, it is a game machine. Though not all use it as such, most do I'd reckon. I think Sony will reduce the price this year. Then try to make their money on the games and memory cards. Though I'm not convinced that form of "inkjet marketing" (a term I just made up) really works anymore. The problem is convincing people that $250 is a good value to warrant switching to volume marketing for games and accessories.

In reality, the Vita is doing as well as the PSP did upon launch. That's either a good thing or a bad thing. It's sold more than the PSP did on launch in Japan, but less than the 3DS did last year. Plus sales are already trailing off hard. By comparison, the iPhone 4S sold 1 million units on pre-order.

As for the graphics, they do look fantastic. It's still early in the system's life. As with most systems, graphics get better with age, as programmers learn how to take better advantage of the hardware. I'd love to see what programmers can do with the Unreal Engine 3 on this, as it's produced some beautiful mobile games on other platforms.

 

[dagamer34]

am I the only one a little disappointed with the graphics? it just seems to me this is something the iphone 4s can do easily, or the ipad2. in fact, I bet the transformer prime can blow these graphics out of the water...

Somehow I doubt that, seeing as how the Vita has twice the CPU and GPU power, plus developers can code straight to the metal.

And it doesn't really matter what kind of performance smartphone are capable of having, as I'm sure there's more than enough power to run a game like Final Fantasy X on the iPhone 4S and iPad, however there is absolutely zero financial incentive to spend that much money developing a game that can, at best, sell $9.99. Plus, touchscreen gaming controls absolutely suck.

The app store rewards 2D games because they're cheap and easy to make, can be priced at 99 cents, and often just capture a persons attention for 10 minutes before they're thrown away for the next game.

 

[tornadog]

I am just waiting for Apple to make an Ipad with dual analog sticks and games like UGA selling for 9.99 in the app store. I am sure those will sell like hotcakes and will be the ultimate in handheld gaming.....

 

[finbarqs]

Somehow I doubt that, seeing as how the Vita has twice the CPU and GPU power, plus developers can code straight to the metal.

And it doesn't really matter what kind of performance smartphone are capable of having, as I'm sure there's more than enough power to run a game like Final Fantasy X on the iPhone 4S and iPad, however there is absolutely zero financial incentive to spend that much money developing a game that can, at best, sell $9.99. Plus, touchscreen gaming controls absolutely suck.

The app store rewards 2D games because they're cheap and easy to make, can be priced at 99 cents, and often just capture a persons attention for 10 minutes before they're thrown away for the next game.

yeah, it is a quad core, BUT BUT BUT, it uses a qualcomm processor... which is probably not as grand as the Apple A5.

 

[dagamer34]

yeah, it is a quad core, BUT BUT BUT, it uses a qualcomm processor... which is probably not as grand as the Apple A5.

WTF? I've never seen someone be so wrong. Let's explore the tech specs, straight from the source: http://us.playstation.com/psvita/tech-specs/

CPU:ARM® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core) - Qualcomm does not make ANY Cortex branded processors. Period.
GPU: SGX543MP4+ - The A5 has a SGX543MP2 GPU, and 4 is 2 times greater than two.

Plus, let's not forget that since it's a console, it does not have to deal with any OS layers 99.9% of the time the game is running.

 

[warcrow]

Just hit 64million in SSD.

 

[finbarqs]

WTF? I've never seen someone be so wrong. Let's explore the tech specs, straight from the source: http://us.playstation.com/psvita/tech-specs/

CPU:ARM® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core) - Qualcomm does not make ANY Cortex branded processors. Period.
GPU: SGX543MP4+ - The A5 has a SGX543MP2 GPU, and 4 is 2 times greater than two.

Plus, let's not forget that since it's a console, it does not have to deal with any OS layers 99.9% of the time the game is running.

Do you have a Vita? on the box it literally SAYS Qualcomm! So i'm guessing it's using a Snapdragon quad core or some variant...

 

[randay]

Do you have a Vita? on the box it literally SAYS Qualcomm! So i'm guessing it's using a Snapdragon quad core or some variant...

no its the modem.

 

[Joseph F]

Do you have a Vita? on the box it literally SAYS Qualcomm! So i'm guessing it's using a Snapdragon quad core or some variant...

Aren't there dedicated Qualcomm radio modules, or is it all SoC now?
Besides, what's wrong with Snapdragon?
I thought that CPU was supposed to be pretty damn good.
Of course, the Adreno GPU that normally comes with it is garbage, but that's not the case here.

 

[ViRGE]

no its the modem.

Technically there are two pieces of Qualcomm hardware. There's a Qualcomm MDM6200, which is the GSM baseband the 3G unit uses, and then there's a PM8028, which is a power management chip in all Vitas.

The primary processor itself is a joint Sony/Toshiba design, utilizing licensed A9 and SGX543MP4 designs among other parts. Toshiba does the actual fabrication. There is nothing Qualcomm in the primary processor; if anything it has more in common with the A5 since that's also an A9 + SGX543 design.

Aren't there dedicated Qualcomm radio modules, or is it all SoC now?

Both. Qualcomm sells dedicated basebands (MDM series), and SoCs with an integrated baseband (MSM series). Though Qualcomm doesn't have any quad core MSM parts, and you'll find that it's rare for anyone to use a Qualcomm baseband unless they need CDMA support.

 

[finbarqs]

i see.. what's the memory bandwidth of the Vita? How many polygons can it push? (Transformed and lit and textured?) can it compare to the original PS2? Uncharted just seems like a jag fest to me, and low res textures sure doesn't help it out much...

 

[blurredvision]

i see.. what's the memory bandwidth of the Vita? How many polygons can it push? (Transformed and lit and textured?) can it compare to the original PS2? Uncharted just seems like a jag fest to me, and low res textures sure doesn't help it out much...

Jagfest is pretty harsh, don't you think? There's no AA but it's not bad by any means. I always feel like those who complain about aliasing just sit there and spin the camera around, looking for it, while those of us who don't complain are actually playing through the game.

 

[ViRGE]

i see.. what's the memory bandwidth of the Vita? How many polygons can it push? (Transformed and lit and textured?) can it compare to the original PS2? Uncharted just seems like a jag fest to me, and low res textures sure doesn't help it out much...

Those specs haven't been published, though SGX543MP1 is rated for 35MTris at 200MHz. The only real unknown is the clockspeed of the Vita's GPU, but at a minimum triangle throughput should be 140Mtris/second for a SGX543MP4.

Compared to other systems it's leaps and bounds ahead of the PS2 and all other 6th generation consoles. It's not as fast as the PS3/360 however (if nothing else, it doesn't have the memory bandwidth to push that many rendered pixels).

 

[JD50]

i see.. what's the memory bandwidth of the Vita? How many polygons can it push? (Transformed and lit and textured?) can it compare to the original PS2? Uncharted just seems like a jag fest to me, and low res textures sure doesn't help it out much...

It seems like you're just looking for a reason to hate on the vita.

 

[dagamer34]

As others have said, Qualcomm makes the 3G modem. And the graphics are significantly better than the PS2. They are close enough to the PS3 that developers can share assets, which significantly cuts down time needed to make multi-platform games.

My hope us that we'll be able to buy PS3/Vita bundles that save some money and let you transfer your save file between devices.

 

[finbarqs]

Jagfest is pretty harsh, don't you think? There's no AA but it's not bad by any means. I always feel like those who complain about aliasing just sit there and spin the camera around, looking for it, while those of us who don't complain are actually playing through the game.

I'm not being overly critical, just being honest. This is from playing uncharted 2, and uncharted 3 shortly before starting uncharted GA. The graphics aren't very close at all to the uncharted series, maybe character models. But textures, lighting, of course aliasing isn't very close at all... (Yes, I have beat both games in the 2 months!)

 

[MrDuma]

the biggest issue i see in this device is: no multitasking.
i mean come on we are in 2012 ffs and even a rudimentary cellphone has this ability

 

[gorcorps]

Jagfest is pretty harsh, don't you think? There's no AA but it's not bad by any means. I always feel like those who complain about aliasing just sit there and spin the camera around, looking for it, while those of us who don't complain are actually playing through the game.

Thank your lucky stars you don't notice it. I've always felt the PS3 has suffered from horrible aliasing. It's very distracting in a number of games. Given that the Vita isn't even matching the PS3 I can understand the complaint.

 

[Joseph F]

the biggest issue i see in this device is: no multitasking.
i mean come on we are in 2012 ffs and even a rudimentary cellphone has this ability

Sony will almost certainly offer multitasking with later firmware releases.