One of the funniest things that happened during the launch of PlayStation Vita was that the PR-lady introduced the new PSP saying: "I played with it last night and just couldn't stop... it really felt great in my hands..." of course all 640 present nerds (me included) laughed out loud (LOL) and clapped their hands. This was one of the highlights of the presentation of Sony PlayStation.
I don't want to make this posting a 'hatemail' because I love the power of PlayStation and really admire Sony, but during the presentation yesterday they tried to highlight ALL product features instead of picking just a few eminent benefits compared to modern smart phones, like the iPhone.
That's what bothered me most I feel. To name one example, PlayStation claimed to 'start the social gaming revolution', but the social gaming revolution has already started thanks to companies like Zynga with all of their 'social' games on Facebook and Spil Games with all of their gameportals around the globe... and to be honest: Battlefield and Call of Duty with all of their multiplayer features are social as well and what about World of Warcraft where you have to slay dragons with hundreds of fellow gamers in epic battles....?
The intentions of the people of PlayStation was not to be arrogant I'm sure, but promoting the fact that the PSVita has a camera on the front and on the back and that it can be connected to the internet seem outdated Unique Selling Points in my opinion since my iPhone has both of these features...
To help you to an insight on the most stunning USP's, I summed them up below in my comparison of the PSVita with my iPhone...
The advantages of PlayStation Vita compared to an iPhone:
+ Compatible with PlayStation 3 content: play anywhere and even play against PS3 players
+ 'Scratch my back' touchscreen controller for innovative gameplay
+ Physical controllers instead of 'just' touch-screen controls.
The downsides of PlayStation Vita compared to my iPhone:
- It's a lot bigger than my iPhone
- Extremely high priced games compared to 90% of all iPhone games
- PSVita was lagging behind and now just caught up instead of setting a new barrier
Other features are Augmented Reality games and motion controlled features, but that's just tech-shizzle and in my opinion seldom ads great fun to my game-experience. The fact that Microsoft has opened up to all programmers in the world also means they cannot think of enough sound and useful applications of the Kinect-technology. I keep saying that the only good example of Augmented Reality is Layers... but of course I am slightly exaggerating... ;-)
So all in all I am really sceptic if Sony's latest toy will be the big hit they need so much... I know great things will happen soon with the Sony Entertainment Network (formally known as the PlayStation Network), but until then - I don't think the PSP Vita will meet Sony's expectations... I guess Nintendo's unique selling point of providing a safe gaming playground for children is why their Nintendo 3DS is still selling so well. They have a clear focused strategy which will probably help them through these tough years of play...
Now, the retail price for the PSVita is € 249,- which is fair I guess, but games will cost you in between 20 and 50 euro's...
Please form your own opinion and check out the promotional video:
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