Conclusion
Now it’s time for the wrap up and take all the positives and negatives into a nice page and really define the PS Vita for what it really is and what it really could be. Now it really isn’t difficult to see the performance the PS Vita offers and it does offer some great performance in terms of sheer processing power. That being said, it’s not something that hasn’t been seen before.
First off we really do need to state what the PS Vita is competition with and it’s not console gaming. It’s mobile gaming, so it competes with the iPhone, iPad, iPod and of course Android tablets and Smartphones. Now here is where it get’s a bit tricky. The PS Vita isn’t a phone, which means it is something extra to carry around with you and to be honest, it doesn’t offer any more functionality over some smartphones. There are some great games on smartphones.
EcoSystem
The PS vita has it’s on ecosystem and that may have been a mistake. It if was Android based like the PlayStation phone. It could have taken advantage of nearly every app on the Play Store and also had its own exclusive apps and games aswell. The reason this would have been a good idea is that Sony now have to compete with Android aswell and instead could have been on the same side.
Hardware
The PS Vita has some fantastic hardware in it. The screen is a beautiful 5″ OLED and it really is nice to look at. The PS Vita houses a decent quad-core processor and graphics processor and it does show through-out the entire system. The PS Vita takes advantage of every piece of hardware it has and put’s it to good use. Now the fact that apps and games can only use 3 of the cores is a limited factor and could possibly be changed in the future if Game designers need the extra performance. The purpose of this was solely to give the system menu all it needs and the fact you can suspend any game and go back to it at anytime is great.
Apps
There are a few apps already on the PS Vita. Now while the PlayStation store doesn’t cater for them properly right now, that should hopefully change in the near future. There is already Skype and Netflix which is great to see, but again this is making the PS Vita compete even more with smartphones and the fact this isn’t a phone means it has already lost.
The PS Vita has an amazing advantage over smart phone games and that is because it has actual buttons and controls. This makes gaming and much more pleasurable experience. While a lot of games on smartphones are better with the touch screen, there are those few games that would be many times better with actual controls. The PS Vita has also got a touchscreen, which means it has the best of both worlds.
Developers of games will put more cost and effort into a game if there is a chance a lot of people can buy it and for decent price, for the PS Vita people need to buy the console and the fact it costs €250 for the WiFi version(3G versions is kind of useless) and then you HAVE to get a memory card as you can’t use it without one and it doesn’t come with one(not sure what Sony were thinking there) it means you will be spending at around €300 and that is before you get any games. That is a massive cost and for people who already have decent Smartphone and it’s a straight up no-no. Now games on the PS Vita are way to expensive as they cost the same as most console games. That will end the PS Vita’s life before it can actually make a mark and I will tell you why, this portable gaming system will never be able to compete with console games and it can only compete with smart phone gaming and the most expensive games there are like €8 and some of those games like fantastic.
The only way the PS Vita will be successful is if games are much cheaper. The console itself is cheaper and it doesn’t keep acting like a phone and by that I mean people have their phones on them all the time, they are always within arms reach. The PS Vita will only be with you for the games and not nice apps it has.
Perhaps the PS Vita would have been better if it was another PlayStation phone and had Android. It would have been still marketable to those willing to buy the PS Vita now, but also even more people.
There really isn’t much more to say about the PS Vita. It’s now reward time….
Now this would have been a bronze if it wasn’t for the fact that Uncharted looked and played amazingly. This is the whole reason of the PS Vitas existence and if more games are like that then it’s possible the Ps Vita has a future, but they still need to be cheaper. It also stands to reason that memory cards need to be cheaper. The PS Vita again has a negative again because some smartphones can have massive amounts of memory compared to it and the PS Vita needs to get more memory for cheaper sooner rather than later.
Now while there are a good few negatives about the PS Vita, that is basically because it is new and the negatives are the most important parts. Do not get me wrong. The PS Vita is a pleasure to use and games do look fantastic on it and while there are some poor looking games, the fact it has near console like graphics already is nothing short of awesome. There are a lot of people out there that will love the PS vita and I can easily see a lot of kids wanting one and of course some adults too.
I did enjoy using the PS Vita and of course gaming aswell. It does have potential to be a great successor to the PSP. Sony just have a few things to work out.
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