Welcome to 2012 Part 2 - Playstation Vita

After typing out the Wii U article, I should of technically made the Playstation Vita article first due to it coming out next month.. oh well.  Anyway, as I stated earlier, we have a second console coming out this year from Sony.  No, it's not the PS4, it's actually the successor to the Playstation Portable, otherwise known as the PSP.  It's hard to remember the PSP a lot in the states due to it being dominated by the Nintendo DS.  In Japan, the PSP's sales are usually very close to the Wii and DS's which may sound shocking, but this was probably the main reason why Sony decided to make a successor for the console. However, in America, a lot of people sort of forgot about the PSP.

 The final model of the PSP (PSP 3000)

The PSP had a lot of problems with it.  The UMD format was overall a complete and total failure.  Loading times were usually too long, the filesize on a UMD was smaller than a PS2 game, and it only had one analog stick.  Developers did however manage to make fantastic games on the console, but sadly, most of them were forgotten and still didn't sell so well.  Due to Nintendo's innovative push with the DS, Nintendo eventually pushed out the PSP , and after 2008, a lot of developers slowly dropped the console altogether (in the West mainly).

 

The launch model of the Playstation Vita

The Playstation Vita on the other hand shows that Sony got the hint that PSP sort of sucked.  As Sony infamously does, it always has to borrow a feature from it's competitors, and this time, it's with the touch screen.  However, Sony did use some of it's own innovation this time around to create a back touch pad on the console as well.  The Vita also has two analog sticks, which resolves the issue that I mentioned earlier from the original PSP console.

 A Playstation Vita Game Card and Memory Card

Speaking of fixing old issues, the Vita also uses a proprietary card format for not only it's games but also it's (mandatory) memory cards as well.  The good news is the games will now load way faster than games did on the PSP.  However, the memory cards are no longer the memory stick format that we used on the PSP, so this means we have to buy a memory card at launch.  Since the UMD format is gone and done with (and we don't want it back), this obviously means that it won't play PSP games via a UMD, but you will be able to play PSP games via your memory card through either your current Playstation Network collection of games, or by going through a UMD conversation program that requires a fee for you to get the digital version of your UMD PSP games.

 Actual screenshot from Uncharted: Golden Abyss

What made the Wii U article shorter is that 1. It's unreleased and 2. It has little to no known games at this time.  However, with the Vita, it's been out in Japan for roughly two weeks now, therefore, we know what to expect for next month's launch in the States.  One thing I forgot to mention about the Vita is what's inside.  The graphics are a huge leap up from the PSP's, some would even say that it's on par with the PS3's graphics as it's getting ports of some current console games as well.  I also forgot to mention the Vita will have two models in every region: A WiFi model and a 3G/WiFi model.  In the states, the 3G model is using AT&T's service.

All in all, the WiFi model of the Playstation Vita is competitively priced with 3DS's original launch price of $250, with the 3G/WiFi model being priced at $299.  The current launch lineup is looking pretty good, I myself, am looking forward to Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, and Super Stardust Delta.