On the issue of the 3ds and PS Vita (The NGP)

[erbkaiser]

Definitely looking at a PSV (refuse to call it 'Vita'), if the backwards compatibility with PSN games is true. The touchpad may be interesting, but the motion sensing and DUAL ANALOG STICKS will be worth it even not taking the chipset and graphic capabilities into account.

Nintendo is definitely not my thing. 3D is a stupid gimmick that must die, and there are very few games that are 3DS exclusive that I am interested in.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Really. The PsP launched at the same price as the DS while having more features. It didn't? Then I guess thats a completely stupid argument that completely misses the point.

5. And you'll notice all of those "complaint-worthy issues" are things that are wrong with the 3DS - hell, at least the Vita has a 3G connection. And once it gets its "main games"? Remakes of N64 games? You think thats satisfying enough?

Yeah, really, the only people who think Nintendo have an advantage here are either diehard Nintendo fans or diehard Sony haters.

First, for #5, yes, for a lot of people, it is satisfying enough. I know there are more besides that, and the big announcements so far are just first party games. There's still the possibility of more great third party titles. And there's the entire DS library. Unless the Vita comes out to massive, epic, earth-shattering opening line-up, it starts at a disadvantage.

Second, ok, you argued two of my points. How about my main point?

3: Even if the Vita beats the 3DS (which with each announcement is becoming less and less likely), it's not going to beat Nintendo. DS Lites, DSis and just plain regular DSs are still selling very well.

That's not me being a fanboy. There is still the very real possibility that the Vita could beat the 3DS. But with all the other iterations getting a price cut, they're likely to see an increase in sales.

Third, I'm by no means saying the Vita will be a bad system. I'm just saying I don't think it's likely it'll beat the 3DS at this rate. I could be wrong. But I don't think so.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Well I personally think you're not thinking this through fully. The Vita launches with Uncharted Golden Abyss - that is a massive, earth shaking opening line up. Add Wipeout, Super Stardust, and it starts with a major advantage.

As for beating the DS, the DS's sales are dying down now. But even then, are we only measuring the Vitas success based if it can beat the DS in sales? Okay, then the Wii is a failure as it didn't sell as many as the Ps2.

Most of your assumptions seemed to be based on an unfairly balanced system, ignoring the Vitas positives and the 3DS's negatives.

For the launch line-up, that comes down to personal opinion. As a PS3 owner I've never seen the appeal of the Uncharted series (I do LIKE them, I just don't see them as the system seller everyone else seems to. I think MGS4 was a better one, but I repeat, personal opinion.) It's not so much a matter of quality of games, it's by that time the 3DS will have had time to build to a library of games. Vita will eventually as well.

Second, I guess I was being pretty unfair about the whole comparison thing.

 

[MisterShine]

The only thing I care about is what games will be on it, since neither system openly supports development of homebrew apps.

3ds has a Persona game in the works, revamped Ocarina of Time, Star Fox and Devil Survivor, Along with Devil Survivor 2 and a new Mario Kart game (I haven't played one since 64, I'm hankering for a new one).

The Vita lineup so far is... unimpressive. Long list of companies working on games for it, but until I see some names for them and info, I don't really care for name drops.

 

[Jumplion]

The PSVita thing looks interesting, and it's awesome that they got the price down to $250.

Still, I doubt I will be getting it simply because I am not much of a handheld gamer. I hardly play my DS as it is, so I doubt anything will truly allure me to get a Vita or 3DS.

 

[NickCaligo42]

The PSV is considerably more attractive to me for the fact that its most interesting aspects aren't graphical, but rather user interface-oriented. Dual multitouch surfaces for more intuitive management of things like inventory screens and menus? Two fucking analog sticks so I can get decent camera control? Now I can actually see decent games coming out on this thing. As an aspiring designer myself, I drool at the possibilities it offers to do completely pointless but incredibly amusing shit as well as provide ways to make complex games useable and accessible.

The 3DS is still missing the second stick, its touchscreen isn't multitouch, it lacks a lot of the "mobile tablet" features that the PSV has, and the 3D gimmick is excessive and painful, in my personal experience--then again I seem to be the one guy who gets really uncomfortable looking at 3D stuff. If they'd just released a DS with better hardware and the analog pad it would've had me just fine. Hell, trade in the 3D for a second analog pad and I'd buy one right now, but as it stands there isn't anything to convince me to want to play games on it or make games for it.

Now. The WiiU? That's something. Two fucking sticks. I'm telling ya.

 

[NellNell]

I'm just wondering if the PSV is backwards compatible. If it is, I will most likely pick one up.

But then again, I already have a 3DS and I'm not sure how I feel about dropping 250 more bones for this. Hmm..

 

[Pingieking]

Now. The WiiU? That's something. Two fucking sticks. I'm telling ya.

This. So much this. It really is all in the two fucking sticks.

The 3DS will succeed or fail independent of the PSVita. It's currently suffering from lack of good games, and imho not enough features to convince people to jump from the DS. Also, the 3D (from experience) was more annoying than anything else, and aside from that it's really not that different from a DS.

The Vita has two huge things going for it; integration into the PSN and PS3, and the two fucking sticks. Now, it's Sony and they're known for screwing up system launches. So the PSVita may very well die on launch day. But I think the system is powerful enough to stand on its ground and really make a name for itself. It won't be a 3DS killer though. If the 3DS is going to die, it'll die by suicide rather than be murdered by another system.

Seriously though, the effects of the two fucking sticks cannot be understated. You cannot effectively play an FPS or TPS (Gears of War or Uncharted) without two sticks. Siphon Filter would have been much more awesome if only there was another stick. It's all in the two fucking sticks.

 

[James Stanbridge]

You guys realise it still has Wifi right? Like, you can't play multiplayer online over 3g effectively anyway. If AT&T is such a big fucking deal, save yourself $50 and monthly data costs and get the wifi only version. Theres wifi hotspots everywhere and super quick internet in your own home anyway.

Two analog sticks really is the killer feature, and it arguably has much much better touch capabilities than the 3DS. Its also quicker and has better graphics and the screen is amazing. What does the 3DS have but the crappiest 3D features? It will come down to the games in the end, but in terms of hardware, the PSV trumps the 3DS in every other category.

I want one pretty bad.

 

[Pearwood]

So, I was just coming off of watching Sony's press conference and I have to wonder, what my fellow Escapists think of the issue of comparing the 3ds and Vita, which both (Vita at its lowest price) are of equal pricing.

To me it's all about region locking. I'm a big fan of JRPGs and they aren't always released in Europe, with the 3DS being region locked my only option is to buy an American or Japanese 3DS (and then import every single game I ever buy). Plus having PSN access is a very nice bonus for the Vita so I'm leaning towards that. Honestly it depends on what games are out for each one though, I won't be buying either at launch. Going to wait a few months to let the games start coming in.

 

[Jodah]

The issue with the original PSP was primarily from lack of games on release. The Vita will likely have a better selection and you can play many of the downloadable games from PSN. Now I'm not saying the Vita will be the end of the 3DS (I don't really believe in the whole x will be the death of competitor y theory) just that one shouldn't assume its going to do poorly right off the bat just because the PSP did.

 

[Tim_Buoy]

well i already own a 3ds and the starting line up was a bit weak what sold me on buying it launch day was super street fighter 4. and the line up is only getting stronger with ocarina of time coming out in a weak and all the heavy hitting games announced for it at e3 ( new super smash bros game not the only one announced but the one im most excited for). with the psv ill have to wait to see the launch lineup and if its backwards compatible

 

[Alexnader]

I'm getting the PSV (I will never call it Vita, PSV is fine) as soon as a Monster Hunter game that's made for it and takes advantage of its features comes out. Then I will never buy another game for it ever again. (Unless they port the original Uncharted games onto it, I'm tired of watching the good exclusive PS3 games from afar)

 

[The Geek Lord]

I'm just going to say this: The only way I'm touching the PSVita (which I keep misreading as "Vista") is if there's a US release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (with more fucking content than the PSP one), an improved, more user friendly portable version of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne[footnote]I do fucking love the game, but my god it needs to take lessons from its successor, Persona 4. I'd LIKE to be able to check my demon's skills, weaknesses and strengths before summoning them. Don't really have a good memory for this shit.[/footnote], someone makes a Radiant Mythology that's not completely broken (AND FUCKING RELEASES IT STATESIDE FFFFFFF), and Sony gives up this idiotic, useless fight against piracy, or at the very fucking least finds a way to fail at fighting it while allowing us to have homebrews. I want my fucking openTyrian, dammit.

So yeah, in a nutshell, it's extraordinarily unlikely I will get a PSVita. And really, I'm not all that interested in the 3DS, either.

Will the Vita have region-free games? That's a major selling point for me, and one of the main reasons I haven't picked up a 3DS. To get most of the games I want, I would have import that console from the US, which is costly and just generally annoying (especially for a handheld).

Also this.

Anyway, it comes down to what games they get. We know the Vita will have support from some interesting companies. Remains to be seen how the 3DS will fare, what with sales being surprisingly slow.

... I see Atlus, I see Capcom, I see Bamco. I'm crossing my fingers now.

with the psv ill have to wait to see the launch lineup and if its backwards compatible

I'm not entirely certain about this since I'm not really bothered to surf around Google for five minutes, but I doubt it, for several reasons. Number one is that Sony has always been really, really bad with backwards compatibility. PSX games can potentially brake your PS2 etc.

Another reason is that I've heard that PSV games are going to use SD card-ish things instead of UMDs. More than likely the fact that SD cards are apparently the memory storage equivalent of sex or something.

 

[Tim_Buoy]

with the psv ill have to wait to see the launch lineup and if its backwards compatible

I'm not entirely certain about this since I'm not really bothered to surf around Google for five minutes, but I doubt it, for several reasons. Number one is that Sony has always been really, really bad with backwards compatibility. PSX games can potentially brake your PS2 etc.

Another reason is that I've heard that PSV games are going to use SD card-ish things instead of UMDs. More than likely the fact that SD cards are apparently the memory storage equivalent of sex or something.[/quote]
the back wards compatavility is a big thing for me on this one considering i have a decent amount of games for the system that i love playing also the same reason i didnt get the psp go

 

[NickySquicky]

If graphics really gave Sony an edge over Nintendo for unit sales, both the Wii and the DS wouldn't have been outselling them for years.

As someone who owns neither, from an outside perspective, I'm more interested in the 3DS. Their titles I'm familiar with as handheld games, anyway, whereas a lot of the PSV's games are extensions of their big console franchises, like "Uncharted." That wouldn't be so off-putting to me if I owned a PS3 and had already played those games. Unfortunately, I haven't, so I rather own a 3DS and play games I already know from them being classic franchises, than play side stories to sagas I'm unfamiliar with. I know it might be silly, but something always feels off about playing games out of order in a series, especially when they're not even core parts of the franchise. But that doesn't apply with the Nintendo franchises, since their franchises have like ten dozen games a piece.

When it comes to which I think will sell better, if the Vita can support more PS3 games as they sort of seemed to hint at, then maybe it would get better sales as people can then take their home console games on the road. Though I still don't think it will do better than the 3DS.