Introducing: PlayStation Vita

Introducing: PlayStation Vita no comments

Posted at 9:03 pm in General

For many years, Sony kept its nose out of the handheld gaming market, allowing it to be dominated by Nintendo. The Game Boy and its many follow ups of the early 90s were hugely successful, and it took years until Sony became ready and willing to compete, culminating finally in the launch of the PlayStation Portable (or PSP) in 2004. Yet Nintendo maintained the favour of the majority of handheld players, and the PSP, although garnering a niche fan base with hard-core tech gamers, failed to match up. Since then, dedicated gaming handhelds have been growing increasingly obsolete due to the rise in popularity of casual gaming and apps on formats such as the smartphone and tablet. The time has come, however, for Sony to attempt to turn the tables in its favour, with the console originally known only as the “Next Generation Portable”. This console is the PlayStation Vita, and it is due to be released in the UK on February 22^nd, 2012.

Having already launched in Japan with a strong line-up of available titles, the PS Vita proves once and for all that Sony has not been sitting idly by whilst Nintendo built their handheld empire: instead Sony has been watching Nintendo closely, especially over the past few years, and learning from its mistakes. The latest Nintendo handheld offering is the 3DS, which not only performed relatively poorly on release causing its price to be dropped dramatically only four months down the line, but has also failed to deliver many of the key titles Nintendo promised when the console was initially revealed at E3. The Vita, on the other hand, launches with strong titles from established franchises, as well as new offerings from some of the world’s top developers. Unlike the 3DS, the PS Vita is region free and built as an online system, incorporating the latest and greatest in social networking including Facebook, Twitter, and Skype, as well PlayStation’s own new social platform, Live Area. Games^TMmagazine called it “a high-tech Swiss Army knife of gameplay possibilities”, and they weren’t kidding.

The PS Vita’s OLED screen displays approximately 16 million colours.

Sony have always placed importance on getting the most out of its products technically: most of those who preferred the PSP over the DS and DS Lite claimed to do so simply because of the former’s superior graphics. Here the Vita continues what the PSP began with its larger OLED touch screen, bigger than the main 3DS screen and more than double its resolution. The capacitive display responds to electrical impulses in your fingers, allowing direct multi-touch input similar to the iPad, rather than the somewhat awkward single input of the DS which works best with a stylus. Powered by the quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore, the same processor as the iPad 2, gameplay and graphics should be swift and smooth. The console also features the six-axis motion sensor as used in PS3 controllers, allowing for a fully kinetic gaming experience as the console responds to your every movement.

On a more innovative note, the PS Vita also utilises something never before seen in a handheld; a rear touch pad on the back of the console which can also be used in gameplay. Along with the two analogue sticks included on either side of the screen, this makes the PS Vita one of the most immersive handhelds every developed, allowing gamers to play with multiple controls at once. However, this does run the risk of Sony encouraging all developers to shoehorn the feature into every game, even when it would perhaps benefit from its exclusion. The other Vita controls are recognisable and standard, easy for any gamer to quickly adapt to. The Vita also incorporates a unique cross-play system with the PS3, allowing you to switch from one console to another mid-game.

The rear touch pad on the Vita is an entirely new handheld innovation.

What most people are interested in when it comes to the PS Vita, though, are the games. A console is nothing without a strong games catalogue, a lesson that the 3DS has been forced to learn the hard way. Whilst Nintendo are only just catching up with their initial promises, the Vita is already way ahead of the curve. It will be released with over 20 titles available for purchase, both in physical form and via download, including Uncharted and Little Big Planet. In this the Vita is also startlingly unique – every single game released physically will also have a digital equivalent. There are also plenty of additional games available online at the Vita store including PSP titles, PSOne classics, and the range of PlayStation “Minis”, small, cheap games available on various different Sony platforms. There are is also a selection of non-gaming content on offer at the store, such as videos and digital comic books.

Whether the Vita is enough for Sony to combat the encroaching world of apps and mobile gaming will have to be seen, but preliminary comparisons to the 3DS suggest the dominant opinion that the Vita could very well blow Nintendo out of the water in 2012. In its first week the console sold 325,000 units in Japan, a “solid if unspectacular” start according to The Guardian. More predictions will surely arise when Vita launches in the US and in Europe, but until then let’s end with a quick preview of one of Vita’s most exciting features, its cross-play with the PS3.