One of the chief concerns for those looking forward to Sony's upcoming handheld was that the device might have been sacrificing RAM size in order to keep costs down. Considering the type of games the system is being marketed for -- with it's versatile control options allowing proper first person shooters on a handheld for the first time -- scrimping in the memory department could have been a deal-breaker for many developers trying to trim down their big-screen games for some Vita action.
So it's surprising then that when Sony finally confirmed the memory specifications of the PlayStation Vita, that they didn't make a bigger deal about it. In a press release about Social Networking, an updated spec sheet now confirms that the PlayStation Vita will pack 512MB of Main memory and 128MB of VRAM. For those counting, this is actually more memory than the PlayStation 3, a point which Sony President of Worldwide Studios Shu Yoshida
made to Eurogamer:
"It has been very funny," he said. "There were some rumours for the last few months. Some developer mentioned the RAM was halved. We never announced the amount of RAM, and we never changed it.
"We've been making games, right, and we've been showing the games, like Uncharted, since January. If RAM gets cut in the middle of development, there's no way we can complete the games. So I was like, what's going on?
"I got lots of Tweets saying, Sony made a huge mistake by reducing the amount of RAM. We never talked about the amount of RAM and we never cut it.
"So going into Gamescom we agreed there was no reason we should hide it, so we just added it to the specifications. We always had 512MB of main RAM and 128MB of V-RAM. Actually when you add them together, PS Vita has more RAM than PS3 [the PS3 has 256MB of XDR DRAM main memory and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory]."
With smartphones and tablets devouring a large share of mobile gaming, it remains to be seen if a tailored gaming device can still be a winner in today's market, but with the high specs and control versatility of the Vita, Sony looks to be giving it their best shot. Now we just need to find out what the battery life is like.
Check out all the Vita-related trailers fresh out of GamesCom 2011:
Following a 2011 Japanese launch, the PlayStation Vita is expected in early 2012 in other region. Australian pricing has still yet to be confirmed, perhaps due to currency volitility, however retailer EB Games is currently anticipating AUD$348 for the Wifi only model and AUD$408 for 3G.
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Posted 01:07pm 19/8/11
vita is interesting but dunno what games are gonna be any good
Posted 01:28pm 19/8/11
There's only so much you can do when your only interface is a touchscreen and motion sensor and although we've seen a huge surge over the last couple of years, it really seems like designers are hitting a wall in terms of options there.
Battery life will still be the crucial decider of it's ultimate worth imo. As Khel alluded to, any of the console-like games are just going to be cut down versions of their big-screen cousins, so if you can only get a couple of hours playing them on the go, what's the point? If you end up having to be tethered to an AC socket anyway, you might as well be playing on your full system.
I really hope it does succeed though. I'm really well over Angry Birds/Fruit NInja and their ilk and even the best premium smartphone games like Chinatown Wars and Infinity Blade get old pretty quickly.
Posted 01:35pm 19/8/11
Interested, yeah, but I'm still not sure if I'll get one.
However, if I'm going somewhere and I know I'll have a decent amount of time to kill (like travelling), I'm sure as s*** not going to spend hours playing a smartphone. Smartphone games for me are nothing more than a way to kill 5, maybe 10 minutes. If I'm on a flight or something, or laying in bed, I want some buttons. The only smartphone games I find to be pleasant to play are ones that require minimal touch input. Games that want you to use a virtual d-pad or something don't belong on smartphones. My 3DS reminded me why portable game consoles exist, they really are much better (though obviously not as convenient to have with you).
Posted 01:49pm 19/8/11
Yep same. My smartphone covers my mobile gaming. I would have thought the market for this kind of device must have shrunk by a couple of hundred million people in the past couple of years.
Posted 03:18pm 19/8/11
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Posted 03:57pm 19/8/11
I mean, I can see a couple of instances where it'd get use, like if I was going on an international plane trip and had a tonne of time to kill, or was going away somewhere to like retreat where all I was going to be doing was sitting around relaxing and finding things to spend leisure time on, but day to day I just don't have a spot for it in my life.
The most use I've found for my 3DS so far is to have it on my desk next to me and play it during downtime in raids while I'm playing WoW :P
Posted 04:42pm 19/8/11
a wiimote works for some devices, but thats pretty much bigger than my phone.
Posted 04:53pm 19/8/11
You mean like this? I see articles about some coming out every once in a while, then never really hear any more of it. It seems like they'd be pretty popular and a logical addition to these types of devices.
Posted 04:57pm 19/8/11
Posted 05:06pm 19/8/11
LOL
Posted 10:10am 20/8/11
And come on seriously, the Smart phone doesn't have a leg to stand on compared to games on the PSP2.
Enough said :)