Netferarri
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This year’s E3 was all eyes on the next-generation consoles as getting the right message worldwide and the execution were as important as ever. The conversation around them will span further than after the event has finished, right up to when the new consoles launch. However on Sony’s side, for how the PS Vita is also a part of the whole ecosystem with the PS4, they sure failed miserably for Vita owners – here’s why.
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It was clear to see where Sony’s priorities lay at this year’s E3 conference. The PS4 had major time on stage with plenty of demo walkthroughs, gameplay, announcements and trailers. With the PS4, the message was clear however for any PS Vita owners, they were simply picking up scraps. Jack Tretton said the Vita still had plenty of third-party support coming through, with the likes of Counter Spy, Destiny of Spirits, Killzone; Mercenary, Tearaway and Batman: Arkham Origins Black Gates making way to the Vita.
Disappointingly, they were all condensed into one constant reel of a trailer showcasing it at a high level with no real insight into any of them -It felt very passive and was more of a gloss-over than anything.
He also announced that God of War HD 1 & 2 and Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 HD were on their way, joined by Flower and Dead Nation (already PS3 released titles a good few years ago). All good with some games mentioned to be on the way but again a commentary highlight than anything. It didn’t bode well that being showcased at the start of the conference, it was something Sony had to fit in and get done before getting to the juicy part of the PS4.
In hindsight, the Vita was merely a shadow at E3 and what is supposed to be Sony’s current highly-powered portable gaming device and fit in the plans of the PS4, it sure was looked over quickly.
Playing the Remote Play Card
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Sony touted that remote play functionality works significantly better between the PS4 and PS Vita – the latency between the 2 devices via wireless is said to be much better that you should experience little to no lag, as if you were playing it directly from the PS Vita itself. We hope this is the case as those that may have tried it with the PS3 was inconsistent and occasionally unplayable. Some functions were limited and the whole remote play capability wasn’t implemented universally.
Sony demonstrated the upcoming PS4 exclusive, Knack, running smoothly on the PS Vita. The controls worked great and so did the graphics. Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios confirmed that remote play is mandatory for PS4 games which is a huge plus. He also confirmed unless specific hardware is required for a game such as the motion camera, PS4 games should run and play fine.
All of this is well and good however in order to experiece this with your PS Vita, you’ll need to fork out $399/ €399/ £349 for a PS4 first and then shell out further for PS4 titles. Simply put, your PS Vita is dependent on your PS4. I’m not sure on this one as I feel it removes the incentive for developers to develop natively for the PS Vita – Would you choose the console version of Batman: Arkham Origins or Batman: Arkham Origins BlackGate for Vita?
Remote play feels like a lazy way of developing for the Vita, a by-product of developing for the PS4. Don’t get me wrong, the whole idea of being able to play PS4 and PS3 games is very delectable. However it begs the question – is this a wholly satisfying replacement for the lack of native PS Vita titles?
I’ll leave that for you to decide.
No new announcements
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Whilst the PS4 was the starlight of the show with wave after wave of new announcements, the PS Vita received next to nothing. Even with the new games coming out shown above in point 1, their all received little limelight. It was anticipated a new Vita colour would be announced – the white version released in Japan late last year.
There were also little in the way of any price drops for the system to help boost sales in North America or Europe including the expensive proprietary memory cards which have proved one of the biggest obstacles to expanding a library. Sure, there may be a £149.99 bundle for the PS VIta Wifi and either Uncharted/ Soul Sacrifice or LittleBigPlanet but they weren’t announced at E3 to make people aware of the deal nor are they anything special to write home about.
Little was demonstrated about how else the Vita could interact with the PS4 besides remote play. Simply put, the Vita was casted to the side and was merely acknowledged as being ‘there’ with no real focus on the system and it’s pipeline for the next 12 months until next year’s E3
PlayStation Plus Still Second Class
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Sony sure is talking about PlayStation Plus in a value sense and how it covers all 3 of their platforms (PS3, PS4 and PS Vita). Now that’s not to say the service isn’t full of value – it is from a multi-device owner, PS3 or upcoming PS4 owner. However, the extension of including the PS Vita feels second class due to it’s smaller library. Small enough that a lot of the PlayStation Plus discounts are against PSP titles and little against PS Vita titles.
The next problem is also due to the expensive and small capacity memory cards. 64GB is mighty expensive for Sony’s proprietary card and it’s difficult to want to download all of what PS Plus has to offer when you have to start deleting your own games (hence saves) from the system. The process of backing up your games on your PC is quite tedious too so the premise of Plus on the Vita isn’t as smooth as that for PS3 owners.
Cross-buy versions with cross-saves are a nice incentive if you own both consoles though the lack of Vita only titles is making it difficult for Plus to be lucrative, especially when we are 2 years into it’s lifecycle.
Closing Stages
It’s easy to say how Sony smashed their E3 conference with the new announcement of the PS4 and in some ways they did. However, the PS Vita was simply brushed aside and for a portable device in it’s 2nd year already and the library chugging along at snail’s pace, Sony failed once again to deliver on the huge potential the PS Vita has to offer and is shaping their portable device as a complementary product to the PS4 in order to get a greater experience.
Being able to remote play of PS4 and PS3 titles sure sound great, however it’s execution is still uncertain. For all the things the PS Vita can do, it needed something fresh and unexpected to happen. Unfortunately, we got none of that and again we wait another year for something more. Sony, we hope you don’t make the same mistake a third time.
