Apparently we're on twitter too
For some of us, the vita has been out for 5 months now. I could talk about how the screen looks great, how I’m happy that Sony put 2 analog controllers on the device, etc… but I’d rather focus on the things that Sony failed to achieve with the PS Vita. In the past 5 months, customers have been patiently waiting for useful firmware update that never came, or simply being updated on some of the promises that have yet to be fulfilled…
So let’s have a look at the 10 things I think Sony should have done better with the Vita, or that should have been improved in the past 5 months.
The browser
The browser on the PS Vita is awful. This is Netfront again (an “upgraded” version of the crappy browser they were using on the PSP), a browser that was dedicated to mobile devices (phones) 15 years ago, when phones had very low computing power, screens, and ram. This browser made lots of sense back then, but nowadays, compared to what we have on smartphones such as Android or iPhone, Netfront is an insult (even this new version which has been beefed up to support html5).
Lack of flash, poor refreshing rates, close to no customization… The Vita browser is doing so poorly that I don’t think anybody will ever use it to do more than browsing the PSN Store (which is what Sony wants you to do with the browser anyways). Who cares that it’s doing 99/100 on the ACID test, if you can’t do anything useful with it?
Suggestion: migrate to a proper webkit implementation, or Firefox. Or don’t put a browser in the device, at all: don’t advertise the console as being an online device, as without a decent browser, this is a lie.
Lack of PS1 games support
The PSP had PS1 support, so the Vita surely has it too, right? Wrong. People have been asking for this feature for a while now, and the request has been ignored by Sony. This is not about “if you want to play ps1 games badly, then just buy a ps1″, it’s about a significant market share for Sony, of older people who would be ready to pay a reasonable fee in order to re-play old games, on the go.
The average age of the Vita owner would also significantly increase with support for older generation games, and, Sony, trust me, you’d prefer your user base to be around 30 years old than 15. Remember who has money and doesn’t mind spending it.
Suggestion: bring PS1 support with the same tool you had on the PSP. Sounds easy enough, and it will increase the average age of your user base, which is something you want for financial reasons.
Poor library of PSP Titles
A few months ago Sony announced the mind blowing amount of 275 titles from the PSP available on the Vita. They promised this number would grow on a weekly basis, and that they would keep us up to date on new titles. This was 9 weeks ago, and we have yet to see an update. With a total of about 900 games and minis on the PSP, it means more than 2/3rds of the PSP library is still missing on the Vita.
Backward compatibility is not complex, the vita has all the functionality that the PSP had, there should be no problem supporting all these games. Especially when we see a game being supported in one country but not in the others (e.g. Motorstorm Arctic Edge was supported in Europe and Japan but not in the US), we know this is not a technical limitation.
Suggestion: keep your promises. Update customers weekly with new supported psp games. Bring psp backward compatibility to 100% within 1 year. 2 months without a single update when you promised there would be weekly updates is *not* acceptable.
Overpriced proprietary memory cards
There’s a growing rumor that the memory cards on the vita are actually regular memory sticks with a different plastic case. This is not here to prevent piracy, unlike what Sony claimed a while ago, but to make you buy, once again, a storage card. This is where Sony is making most of their money, and this is how they virtually bump up the price of the console. You thought you were clever by buying a 4GB card? Wait until you have more than 3 games on your console…
Sony could have gone with microSD like anybody else, and still protect their system against piracy with strong encryption. The form factor will just delay competitors who want to sell the same types of product, what matters is the encryption of the files on it. Sony is just trying to make a few quick bucks with a new useless format.
Suggestion: Give up and use the SD format like everybody else, the world will be a better place. Alternatively, be honest about the real reasons for using a “new” format.
Games pricing
I have two complains about the prices of games on the Vita. First, they are, in general, too expensive. The average price is 40$ (50$ in Japan, thanks for the ripoff on conversion, as usual), which, granted, is less than the insane 70$ they ask for a PS3 game, but is still far too much compared to the price people are really willing to pay for games on a portable device (5 to 10$).
Of course, games on the Vita are much more “hardcore” and costly to develop than your typical android indie game, but surely, Sony should be able to find a good balance, and I don’t think 40$ is where it should be now. An average of 25$ or 30$ would be closer to a good average in my opinion, especially for a platform that’s not doing so good, and for which people will have issues reselling the game afterwards.
This brings me to my second point, the absolute lack of effort on bringing the prices of digital downloads down. How many games on the vita are less expensive to buy on the PSN than for real? Almost none. What is the benefit for the user, except the impossibility to sell the game once they’re done with it? Sony *has* to drive the prices of digital downloads down.
Suggestions: digital downloads should always be 25% cheaper than physical purchases. Lower the average price of Vita games by 20%.
content Manager
I’ve talked a lot about the crappy content manager of the vita. Don’t take my word for it, try to transfer your mp3 library to your vita, and compare how much time it would actually take to do the same on your iPhone or your Android. Copying content to a device should be handled by standards set on your computer, and following the GUI you want to use, not one forced on you by the external device. The only company that made that kind of stuff “right” is Apple with iTunes (don’t make me say what I didn’t say, I perfectly hate the concept behind iTunes), and even for them it took years before iTunes was more than a piece of crapware.
CMA has absolutely no added value, except making you hate Sony every time you try to copy things from and to your vita.
Suggestions: go back to the drawing board. Either provide a real tool for managing content on our memory sticks, or let computers handle it with approved standards.
Accounts switching made so difficult it’s a joke
Independently of our reasons, lots of gamers have several accounts on the PSN. It could be, I don’t know, that, maybe you are sharing the console with your family? Or that you want to try exclusive Demos available only in Japanese? Or that you happen, like me, to live in a country that’s not yours, and like the possibility to play games from either Japan or Europe… anyway, it’s obvious that a majority of gamers want to have access to several accounts.
Sony has made switching between those accounts so painful that it’s preventing people from doing the most basic things such as sharing the console with your own family. Fighting against piracy, or another evil plot to make more quick bucks, independently of customer satisfaction?
Suggestion: You did it right with the PS3 with a login screen, why would you do it differently on the vita?
Useless/Overpriced 3G version
I don’t know anybody who got the 3G version, except when the price was lowered down so much that it basically made no difference to get a 3G or a Wifi model. It is well known that Sony sells their hardware at a loss and try then to make their money back on games. Why didn’t they do the same for 3G? Sell it at the same price, and just bring the money back when people buy the (overpriced) prepaid 3G cards.
In the end, it almost sounds as if Sony did 2 different models with the goal of *not* selling the 3G version, from the start. The 3G model of the vita is a failure from the start. Too expensive, too many limitations, all of this for a device that completely sucks at network in general (see my comment about the browser above, or about “it only does gaming” below).
Suggestions: Remove 3g limitations (max download size, etc..). provide 3g in all psp models by default, expect to cut the hardware losses on subscriptions. Alternatively, make the Vita a bit more expensive, and make 3G access free for games-related network: the price of 3G is included in the price of the game, a bit like what Amazon does with Kindle purchases.
Not a real portable device
The PSP Go was a step in the right direction for portability. It is, to date, the only “portable” device I can actually slip in my pocket and almost forget about it. The Vita has a nice screen, but is a bit too big… big enough that I am not carrying it with me when I go out. Big enough that it has been collecting dust on my desk for a few weeks now. The quite low battery life, as well as the two big nubs on the analog controllers don’t really help.
I know, we all want a big screen… and I love the screen on the vita… I just think it makes the vita a not-so-portable device… which is another coffin in the nail of the 3G version (see above)
It only does gaming
For the PSP, the PS3, and the Vita, Sony has claimed to be offering more than a gaming device, but more of a multimedia experience. To me, this has been an awful failure on all 3 devices.
The lack of non gaming applications, the poor quality of the browser on all three devices (see above), the lack of good video codecs support, pdf/ebook reader… except for a few promising efforts to bring video services (US only, of course) with Netflix or Amazon video on the PS3, Sony consoles are really behind even 10 year-old computers in terms of multimedia. Yes, the ps3 is 5 years old, but there’s no excuse for the Vita. My 2 years old Android does everything (that’s not gaming related) better than the Vita.
Suggestions: don’t spend time making a sub-par facebook app, an unusable mp3 player, or trying to even put a webbrowser on the device, if you don’t have actual plans to make this a multimedia device.
Conclusion
It seems to me the vita is taking the exact same path as the PSP. It is advertised as a multimedia device for grown ups, but fails at basically everything that’s not gaming. This wouldn’t be a problem if Sony wasn’t trying to convince us so hard of the opposite.
It’s even more a shame, if you think that Sony is today the only company in the world that owns a piece of each element of what would make an awesome multimedia ecosystem (movies production / distribution / hardware / software / software distribution platform / gigantic user base), to realize that they fail at putting all of these into some form of customer friendly symbiosis.
This is not helped by some of the obvious tricks Sony are using to make a few quick additional bucks (proprietary memory cards, account switching made painful, poorly designed software…), which shows they are not planning at building a happy customer base in the long term. Other elements such as the poor PSP/PS1 support show that backward compatibility was a lure to bring people from the PSP to the Vita, but that Sony has no real plan to support backwards compatibility.
How about you, what would you like to see improved/changed on the PS Vita?
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Well..Seeing as how ive had them all and still find the 1000′s to be the best, many tend to forget that the PSP had an incredibly rocky start also. Not so much as Wololo said in the failures, but homebrew based. Sure 1.5 was the golden firmware, but how long did it take for the PSP to actually be a suitable homebrew friendly device. I still remember the days of DEVHOOK, FW switching, and IR Shell. Those days were rough, now the psp is completely hacked but just remember it took awhile to get there. For now, the PSVITA is as it is, a device with hope..but it is no PSP yet.
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Sony is only concentrating on locking up their device. Nothing else! WTF!! x_x
& btw I’m looking for a used Vita. can’t afford a new one. If someone is selling then pls reply to razielim666@yahoo.com -
I agree, they really need to concentrate on some useful multimedia programs and applications. with tough competition from phones etc. that do everything better beside games they need the vita to be a true multimedia device not a shitty browser and a promise of Skype. Sony how about doing some surveys and listening to your customers, and I want my $50 back from Everybodys Tennis. I’m sure that some people have paid good money for but cannot download.
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I’m pretty happy with my Vita overall, but even so I’m not as happy with some deatails… So my most important things that should be improved are:
-Web Browser (I know 512MB RAM is not optimal, but should be enough, use a decent Firefox Browser )
-PS One Support
-Account Management (Why not as with the PS3?)Some more points, I can somehow understand or bear, but that should also be improved are:
-Connection with the PC/PS3
-I understand, why music always stops in PSP titles, as PSP-developers never had Vita’s API and have no possibility to handle Vita’s system music. But as a core gamer (and that’s your main user group), I know how to handle a game with a music player in background… anyway I want to handle switching my music (or the games BGMs) on and off myself.As for the games prices, I think we will have to watch how this develops.
Okay Uncharted was a bit overpriced for 49€/$, without any multiplayer. But there are other games like Wipeout including an online pass for only 39€/$, what is really okay. Also there are other examples as Escape Plan or Plants vs Zombies which are download titles for 12€/$, which could be a little less, but is generally okay. And there’s also Warrior’s Lair planned to come in a dual pack for PS3/Vita in one retail pack for a normal price of one game, which I think is a really good thing, people should absolutely support.
On the other hand, there are 3rd party producers who think a download title should cost more just because it’s on the Vita. Dungeon Hunter is the best example of an android/iPhone game that’s <7€ on android or iOS, and on the Vita it costs ~35€/$ if i'm not mistaken. Why?There are examples of fair prices and barefaced examples (mostly 3rd party games), that destroy the Vita's gaming setup.
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Plants vs Zombies is a massive hit on iPhone/Android and costs 2.99$ there, why the hell is it 4 times more expensive on the vita? My guess is that there is some serious incentive from Sony to not lower the prices,either because they’re afraid people will realize we can also have good games on the vita for less than 5$ (which would make a precedent to lower all game prices on the platform), *or* because they take a gigantic portion of the money for indie games, and PopCap has to compensate by increasing the price dramatically.
Plants vs Zombies is actually one of the best examples to show that games on the vita are overpriced. Other than that, I agree, there are *some* games with an interesting price, and Escape Plan for example seems to be at a great price given the awesome reviews it’s been getting.
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The console versions of Plants vs. Zombies are $14.99 USD as well as on the Vita. The PC one is as well.
I’m not trying to JUSTIFY the high price, but I expected it, as its NOT a smart-phone.
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so everything…
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YOU CANNOT PLAY GAMES ONLINE VIA 3G ON THE 3G MODEL PS VITA!!!!
This was the BIGGEST lie of all from Sony.
How dare they. How fucking dare they.
You can only play games online with wifi, you can’t with 3g. I was outside and wanted to play Wipeout 2048 online with my 3G service since it is mobile internet. Went to online mode and it said: Online play not supported on Wifi.
Went to Ultimate marvel, same thing. Mobile online gaming my ass. Anyone who bought a 3G model was gyped, for the thing it was advertised to do it can’t do. It clearly says in THIS advert it plays games online, on the go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXRfSgXAmoM
Fucking liars. How dare you Sony.
How dare you.
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Sony told it before they sold the 3G unit. you can´t play online without wi-fi! but i hope we will can do in the future!
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Er, I meant to say online play not supported on 3G, my bad XD
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PWth my post are jot showing up
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Wololo its been two weeks since the last exploit, either you guys are planning something big or ur just slacking
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How about you, how much slacking have you been doing recently?
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I believe this is a example of what you are talking about Sony products
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ-
haha, I love this one even if I’ve seen it dozen times already, it doesn’t get old
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vita is not bad as u think
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its not that good either
its been one in a line let downs from Sony.Annoys me they make great hardware but they’re software just plain sucks!!
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See that Sony hates Wololo and they’re on this site 24/7, I’m sure that they’re gonna read this
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For me its perfect, almost. But its never going too fit anyone perfectly its a device made for anyone. Ergonomics aside, yes the firmware is clunky but its made for playing high render games not old psp games you have a psp play them with your psp.
The memory sticks are absurd but they read data way faster than the cartridges so I don’t mind they’re size seeing how this huge conspiracy too sell memory sticks doesn’t factor in that theres are faster than tradition HDDs we find with moving parts it is flash memory. And while they could have used SD cards we can expect sony too lift the max size of a single card too more than double possibly and the price will go down as it already has (I paid 95 on eBay for my 32gb card which still hasn’t arrived, and its down too 89 on Amazon already). Thus as it falls too third parties too vulture all of Sonys proprietary items they are left too make sales on the first sale of cartridges. After that people can be expected too resell and maintenance all those already on the market. They sell their hardware at a loss to begin with I think the Vita is highly under rated the fact is its more powerful than a 360 or PS3 cuz I can play lossless music while playing UMVC3 which isn’t possible on my PS3. So I’m not a hater. But Sony should pay me for sucking their dick.
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don’t forget REMOTE and CROSS PLAY ! Sony has promised the moon but in the end we found a shit who only plays 2-3 games!
The PSV is wonderful and could be the best existing console but Sony is ruining everything!
I hope soon to a CFW that will remedy all these problems -
I just wanna see weather channel “in motion” for storms… adobe and sony need to fix this garbage, my first phone ever could go to weather.com and see it move. It was old school graphics back then.
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it should have had LTE or 4G – its not future proof
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Sony can be so dumb at some point. Wololo’s right, why vita still have that crappy web browser, I mean it got touch screen, high RAM, but the browser works like slug. I don’t really mind the game price, just wait like 2-3 years, it might drop down.
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let me solve 99% of SCE vita problems on one step:
Move software and firmware development to silicon valley.
DONE.
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The lack of PSP games on the Vita is disappointing, because they look and play so much better on it then they did on the PSP. No longer do I need to cramp my hand trying to do the crab claw for Monster Hunter, so I can map the camera controls to the second joystick.
Sony really needs to get the publishers to get their PSP games on the PSN. I’d really like to play Phantasy Star Portable 2 on my Vita, but Sega took the game off PSN several months ago and won’t put it back up.
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Pingback from Cosas que PS Vita DEBE tener | Jnodre on May 5, 2012 at 6:57 pm
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