Sony NGP renamed Vita, $250 in Q4
The Sony PS Vita (formerly known as the NGP) is a portable gaming console that I dare classify as a tablet because it basically has the same parts. Sony has now released more details about it (as well as the name) at the E3 conference, and most of it’s details we already knew. 5″ OLED screen, dual analog sticks, 6 axis motion sensor (aka gyroscope and accelerometer), touchscreen, back touch panel, Wifi/GPS/3G and two cameras for augmented reality. It will be $249 for the Wifi model and $299 for the 3G model in the US when it launches before the holidays, so still half a year out.Games will be downloadable and available on special cartridges.
I was quite enthusiastic about this thing when it first emerged, but now I’m not so sure. The iPad got some serious GPU upgrades when it was updated to the iPad 2, games like Order & Chaos Online has been released to show what’s possible both in terms of massive games and excellent controls, and trailers of upcoming Unreal Engine based games have made me doubt how much the Vita can actually offer over normal tablet gaming. Sure it has those controls that will obviously be better to use, but console games bought in-store are often up to 100 times more expensive than those you download for mobile OSes, and a long way from being 100 times better/longer/more complex. If the Vita can reserve cartridge released to really good games worth the price and keep most games downloadable with competitive prices then maybe, but if they start charging $50-100 for a tennis game then I don’t see this being all that great. The price point is nice though, if they give it some decent tablet functionality.
[SlashGear]
