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"Nobody said the Vita is doomed or that it has to beat the 3DS, what I'm saying is the 3DS impacts the Vita and how much it will sell. And personally I don't see any new ip coming out for the vita any time soon that will be a system seller. I am just point ing out that they need a game built from the ground up for the vita and to be successful. And the thing about the ports are they are usually never as good as the console version"
Jay,
First of all. You need to stop framing the PSVita as only in a battle with Nintendo. Nintendo's handheld devices has already been established and you know what you will be getting. Sony on the other hand made the mistake of releasing a PSP based on gimped 1999-2003 technology at a time that online gaming was ramping up (2005). It wasn't ready for the PSN/Xbox Live online world, nor was it ready for the PS3 integration. To make matters worse the PSP was gimped in terms of game play experience by using only ONE analog stick. ONE?!? For the love of games! Why would they do that yet even expect to utter the worlds, "Console gaming on the go!" Not even close! Not even to the PS2!!!
So, lets fast forward to today. The PSVita is built for the 21st century and with the PSN/PS4 in mind. Sony has used some of the iPhone touch tech and to some extent Android OS integration and pushed it out into the market so that developers can have a go at it. The fact that it has TWO analog sticks fixes a major design flaw from the PSP in addition of adding a 5' OLED screen gets it that much closer to that immersion-on-the-go we all seek. But at no point will you get the exact experience as being in front of your 70" HDTV. That's not the point. The point is to fix the problems of the PSP that made that type of immersion impossible. And yes, you can make immersive handhelds if done right. The bigger screen and incredible graphics for the PSVita will have a lot to do with that. But the other factor was at least getting a controller that was close enough to the PS3 controler out of gate, as opposed to the PSP release, which was release close to the PS3 launch yet was 5 years behind in technology.
You have to build a solid foundation first. Now that the PSVita has been built for the 21st century, this lays a solid foundation for developers to put out games that are both the identical to the PS3s and completely different spin offs. For example, when you buy Uncharted 3, you get an identical PSVita version at a discount (or maybe free for PS+ users). Future games will have to be designed with that in mind similar to how the iPhone vs iPad apps are written. And also you'll get games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which are completely different type of games. The reason that the former type of games are important because it adds value and allows players to play UC3 (or UC4) on both the PS3/PS4 and save the save-file to the cloud and continue on with the PSVita on the go.
PSP games were so hit-and-miss there was not much chance for Sony or 3rd party developers to experiment with other types of game (lack of revenue to take risks) since the hardware was gimped in the first place. That's because the device itself was so out of touch with current technology + being a gimped version of the PS2/PS3. You have to remember that the PSP was release at the peak of the PS2 market. Yet, had a missing analog stick from the start, yet it's supposed to complete with iPhones/iPad/3Ds etc...? Please, spare me. We're not even taking about a single generation here. We're talking leaps and bounds behind. For all that the PSP was missing they did pretty well considering hardware sales (73 MIL so far). Given all that, the PSVita will sell tons more than the PSP in hardware and software. How much more I'm not sure, hoping that we get out of 2012 without blowing ourselves up in war or another global meltdown, the PSVita is built with modern technology and online features from the start.
All the other issues about price of the memory can be taken care of with a price drop overtime. That's the easy part. Redesigning the hardware was the hard part. No amount of time could fix that for the PSP since it would have fractured the game design model.
On a person note, the one feature that I'm looking forward to is the Android app market. I want the ability to read my email (gmail, yahoo,etc...) on my PSVita. I use my Amazon Fire for that as well, but I don't like keyboard functionality. The PSVita has a nice hold position with thumbs as your control (and back touch). The Amazon Fire (and to some extent the iPad) force you to hold the device on the edges and it's real easy to accidentally touch the screen. The Fire and the iPad are better if you turn them sideways, but it's still not that comfortable typing up an email. I'm excited to test out the email ease of use on the PSVita.
- GL
