How Vita Can Avoid The PSP's Fate

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Read the latest in portable gaming news, and you might think it's 2005 all over again -- but not quite. Though Sony's higher-priced-and-powered piece of tech is once again up against a Nintendo product with a retail head-start, the former handheld doesn't seem like the destined winner this time around. For Vita, competition is stiff: Nintendo's 3DS took only eight months to match the shaky first year of DS sales, and, unlike the PSP's early days, the smartphone market currently provides a multitude of cheaper options for gaming on the go (not to mention multimedia features matching Sony's offerings). And while Vita's hardware fixes many of the PSP's flaws, power alone won't win this arms race; instead, Sony will have to rely on strategies beyond pushing the HD angle.

 

 

Don't Rely on Technical Showpieces

Yes, Uncharted: Golden Abyss stands as an amazing achievement, one the industry has been trying to reach for quite some time: a portable game nearly on par with its console counterparts. But few developers have the resources to produce such an elaborate experience, especially on a platform yet to establish a sizable chunk of market share. Remember, back in 2004, we all ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the sheer beauty of the PSP's graphics and its lovely screen, which made the DS look fairly dated in comparison. But soon afterwards, multi-million sellers like Nintendogs and Brain Trainingproved that experimentation ultimately trumped graphical prowess. This isn't to say that Sony should focus primarily on the quirky, but rather, that visuals alone won't convince an audience to invest in a Vita. Though games like Tiny Tower and Angry Birds make for relatively simpler affairs, the umpteen people who downloaded these games (and many like them) don't seem to mind graphics and gameplay not far removed from the 16-bit era. Games like Escape Plan and Sound Shapes are a good start, as long as Sony promotes them with the same gusto as their big guns.

 

Don't Turn the Vita into a Console Wannabe

In other words, let's have some new IP. It may seem novel to take authentic versions of our favorite games out on the road, but this approach isn't exactly new -- just check out the PSP, which often saw semi-sequels of popular PS2 games. Sure, some of these turned out fine -- like the handheldGod of War entries and Peace Walker -- but there's always the risk of a busy publisher outsourcing a beloved property, and resulting in an uninspired effort. There's no reason why some of our favorite Sony characters shouldn't land on the Vita at some point, though their respective games shouldn't just be console experiences displayed on a smaller screen; instead, developers should think about the features of the Vita and reshape the content to fit the format. Some of Nintendo's biggest hits started out on their handhelds, so there's no reason why Sony can't aspire to the same goals -- remember, last gen's Monster Hunter-mania showed that the PSP could be more just a PS2 Junior.

 

Don't Forget PSP Owners

Not long ago, Sony stood as one of the few purveyors of backwards compatibility -- until the company realized cutting this consumer-friendly feature could slightly boost their bottom line. Given the fact that the Vita lacks a UMD drive, playing physical copies of PSP games on this new hardware proves impossible -- which is why Sony's providing a UMD conversion program for their Japanese customers (at a price). But history has shown that such a program isn't guaranteed: Europeans had a PSP to PSP Go upgrade program in the past that wasn't duplicated for the United States. So unfortunately, again, we Americans get jack. Though the program has its issues -- namely, the price of re-purchasing digital versions of your UMDs -- giving PSP owners access to their old library provides an incentive to transition from past to present handheld. For a system designed with backwards compatibility in mind (you can play your digital PSP purchases on the Vita, after all), it's easy to see how Sony's betrayal could leave PSP fans feeling slighted -- especially those who supported the platform in its darkest days.

 

Don't Ignore the Possibilities of Social Networks

At the moment, video games and social networks haven't had the best history; think about how often you've hidden or deleted tweets of Facebook updates from friends informing you of their latest Trophy and/or purchase -- and let's not even get started on the games that prey on your feed, polluting it with demands for pumpkins and farm animal aid. But there has to be more to social network integration than just self-promotion and annoyance! Imagine a new entry in the Souls RPG series, where leaving your summon sign didn't just inform people on the same server of your desire for multiplayer action -- it also sent out this message to everyone on the social network of your choice. An idea like this would expand multiplayer beyond those with their Vitas turned on and signed into SEN. Of course, this is just one hypothetical concept, but the Vita has much more to offer than simply providing access to your network of choice. The Near service seems to be a step in the right direction, as it's far more useful than the locked-down, child-friendly networking features of the 3DS, giving the Vita a wealth of social options too "dangerous" for their main competitor to expand upon. 

Source: http://www.1up.com/news/op-ed-vita-avoid-psp-fate