Sony slams Nintendo Wii U functionality Sony has stuck the knife into the Nintendo Wii U, claiming that a PlayStation Vita combined with a PS3 is a superior setup able to do "special things" that the Nintendo kit will struggle to match. Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rhode highlighted the fact that Nintendo's tablet controller is without its own games processor, so …
£150 for a PS3
£190 for Vita
£299 for a Wii-U
However by the time Wii-U launches, expect the price to be prettymuch the same. The key differences, is with the Playatation, not only do you get 2 consoles (a home and a mobile one, or a combined setup), a Blu-Ray player, a great media centre system, you also get a fantastic game lineup chock full of exclusives...
You also don't have to buy them at once. Get a PS3 now and get a Vita in 6 months if you want.....
The problem here, though, is that, when the Wii-U is released, it'll be a package that includes everything required so developers can create software that takes advantage of all it's functionality, because they know that everyone who owns a Wii-U will have the required hardware. Developers are much less likely to include similar functionality in their PS3 games because they have no knowledge of how many people will have both a PS3 and a Vita and who just happen to want to play the type of game they're developing.
It's the same issue as with Kinect and PSMove. The market for games utilising these peripherals along with their attendant consoles is far less than the market of those consoles alone. Thus, games feature their functionality as merely supplementary to the normal gamepad lest they lose sales by relying on everyone having said peripherals.
Is this the same Vita I see that sold only 5k more units than the PSP worldwide last week (50k total lol)? The Vita will be abandoned soon as Sony gets closer to bankruptcy (most people have no idea how close they are and the fact they are 1/5 the size they were a decade ago).
3DS total world sales - 17.6M %88
Vita " " " - 2.2M %12
And Nintendo has considered the 3DS something of a flop.
Not sure that the Vita is going to be as amazing as they make out - it has the potential, but I suspect they'll fail to deliver the key killer features that'll make it an invaluable piece of your day, or they'll take ages to do it.
That said, they're right about the Wii U controller. It's far too big and clumsy and it's going to be the only device in the world that isn't multi-touch enabled.
But damnit, i still want to play Lego Undercover....
Also, how many customers can be relied upon to have a PS3 and a Vita? Relatively few, I'd wager (certainly compared to the install base of the average Nintendo console) so games makers cannot make that stuff central to the experience nor is it really economical for them to do so anyway.
So the hardware may be better (and more expensive) but it is less likely to be really used.
The article makes a very good point.
Everyone who buys the Wii U will have the tablet. Everyone who buys a PS3 mat not have a Vita, thus making it a peripheral.
While it is not standard kit, I would imagine developers will spend very little time trying to integrate it.
I have a Vita and tbh, the experience when used with a PS3 is no different to when using a PSP. I know there are some interesting deals coming up for Vita owners that unlock content in PS3 games, but sure Sony needs to be giving us a little more than "special things"?
If I could interact with my PS3 in game with my VIta, I would find that very cool. But it needs to start somewhere with something interesting.
that you missed ALL the stuff from E3 about
Cross Controller
Cross Play
Cross Save
You can not only use the Vita a a controller in ALL PS3 games, many of them will use the screen and touchpads too as part of the gaming as a 2nd display, With cross-play, you buy a single copy of the game and it works on both consoles. Better than that, you can start on the PS3, cloud save and then carry on the game on the move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgF78lNiHCs
This explains alot of it better than I can.
Unfortunately, Sony has not yet implemented these features.
At least not on my PS3 yet anyway.
So whilst this was all jolly interesting at E3, it is not yet reality. Of course if I have missed a firmware update then it may be a reality for me this evening when I go and see (again) if this has made it.
I've been hearing from people who are Nintendo fans and they've said good things about the Wii U in terms of functionality.
The more I hear, the more it seems to be down to two things; if you want graphics horsepower, then Xbox or Playstation. If you want innovative games with nice touches, then it's Nintendo. Perhaps Sony are jealous of Nintendo's innovation?
Personally, I'm a HIB fan and the only console I own is a first gen Xbox. But that's another story.
"Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rhode highlighted the fact that Nintendo's tablet controller is without its own games processor, so will be always be driven by "that box sitting under your TV"."
It's designed to be driven by the box sitting under the TV. That's the point. Nintendo already have a portable console with it's own games processor. It's called the 3DS. Why would they want to make another one in the form of this controller and bundle it with the home console? It would kill off the 3DS if they did that.
Well with no significant local processing power the Wii U controller is essentially a dumb terminal, and each one you add to the system will require more from the console's resources.
The Vita on the other hand is a complete handheld console so it can run it's own code and therefore doesn't tax the console very much, certainly no more than when your console is the host in a multiplayer game. So there is no reason you couldn't have 4 Vita's connected to a single PS3 where the Wii U is limited to 2 and adding the second causes a degradation in performance.
Sounds marvellous! Let us know when you have found a game that uses that and is made better for it. It's a nice theory and likely to remain so, because Sony will never get their act together and implement it, and even if they do very few people are going to have 4 vitas to hand to make use of it.
The Wii U, on the other hand, is on it's way and owners of the console *will* have the tablet controllers. I assume Nintendo are aware of the extra strain the controllers will put in the console, and that they have designed it accordingly.
Sorry to sound like a Nintendo fanboi, I'm really not (I've actually fallen out with them over their recent lack of support for disabled gamers), but I'm hearing “Sony could do this better with the hardware they already have out” and I'm seeing nothing implemented and nothing that would amount to anything more than a gimmick in 2 or 3 titles and then vanish...
Exactly, it's just Sony saying "boo hoo hoo, Nintendo beat us to market with something innovative and interesting again and now we are going to have to play catch-up like we had to with the PS3".
It's pathetic, it really is. Sony made such a success of the PS3 that Ken Kutaragi (the Chairman and CEO of Sony's games console division) had to step down in 2007, followed in 2008 by Phil Harrison (Sony's global head of game development.
Nice try by Sony to spoil Nintendo's market, but Nintendo are here this year with the new hardware and Sony's isn't due till next year, by which time Nintendo will have had a years lead and will again show Sony how its done.
Maybe you would prefer a more recent example?
Linux support on the PS3? I seem to remember that was a marketing point.
Wasn't there also a massive data breach that they were not interested in dealing with until it came back to bite them on the ass?
Meanwhile Sony will continue to shit on its own doorstep, go back to your television set, all is well with the world.
We Linux was never promoted in the UK ps3 specs, and was only removed as a result of geohot. If you are still pissed about that, he is you'd culprit.
also I don't recall a data breach where anything but salted password hashes may have been taken (which even that now seems unlikely as nothing was ever dumped online). I know to an idiot on the street its easy to believe 18m credit cards were stolen, and but that is not the case.
Nice try tho. You might want to look closer to home for REAL financial theft, as Xbox Live accounts are still being emptied on a grand scale and Microsoft after 12 months are still pretending it's not occurring.
Well not really... As they have stated, when you use the Vita with the PS3, it can be used as a PS3 controller with a screen (call it the "Wii-U" mode.
However you can take the Vita console on the road and carry on the SAME GAME on the Vita. There is no "hot air" about any of that, it's fact, and is all mentioned by proper tech sites.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/04/sony-demos-cross-play-announces-cross-controller-dlc-for-vita-a/
The slamming is coming from the same people who's rushing the Playstation 4, sorry, Orbis, after Nintendo announced the Wii U.
And, Sony's hate for Nintendo can be traced all the way back to the SNES CD-ROM fallout. Both sides are in the wrong here- Sony shouldn't have been too greedy and put weasel-words into the contract to make it so they effectively own all the games published for the add-on, and Nintendo should've confronted Sony with an army of lawyers and having them rape Sony thoroughly instead of silently roping in Philips and then suddenly announcing the change in an act of revenge upon finding out.
I only see 2 options here: If the PS4 games are made to really integrate the Vita into the gameplay, but I don't have the Vita, will I be missing half the game because I am playing an incomplete version with just the basic controller? In this case, I could be forced to buy the Vita just to fully utilize the console and games I already have.
On the other hand, if the games are created to work fine without the Vita, I would just get access to throw-away gimmicks that probably won't justify buying the handheld console (just like it happened with the GameBoy Advance and Game Cube... hooking them up was a waste of time and money)
In the case of WiiU, the tablet is part of the console, so the games *should* be optimized to use it. I'd say It's a safe bet that at least first party Nintendo games will be making a good use of it.
In the entire history of games consoles, has there ever been a wierd controller peripheral made that has actually been successful?
Seriously, the Wii's motion controllers were a success because they came with the machine as standard. Look at every light gun, or steering wheel, stylus or keyboard that has ever been released for a games console. Go right back to the 8 bit days and beyond. Have any of them ever had more than about 6 games (usually all on the same cartridge) made for them before being dumped? Does anybody even have a PS Move controller or an Eye Toy that they use anywhere near regularly?
Didn't think so. Advantage Nintendo, methinks.
No wonder you have to post this as AC
Ranting on still about a 10yr old "rootkit" that wasn't actually a rootkit, was at best only tenuously linked with Sony.
Clearly, you don't embrace education, but if you did, you might want to read about First4Internet and what Rootkits actually are and how that wasn't actually a rootkit at all.
All the kids banging on about it, were likely 4yrs old when it happened, and unlikely to be buying the Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez CD's anway. It's also interesting to note that Mark Russinovich who went ratning about this, works for Microsoft, and this all kicked off just before the Xbox360 launched. hmmmm.....
Ever get the feeling you have been used as a puppet? You should be. I hope they are paying you...
> wasn't actually a rootkit
Explain then, why it hijacks the filesystem and OS and makes Windows Explorer hide certain files even if the user has Explorer display all files including System files. More egregiously, It also obfuscates it's process name in the Windows Services console and in the task manager- legitimate programs don't have a reason to do that.
And it was that hijacking feature that many malware for windows that was later spotted in the wild took advantage of, too.
Also Sony made the big mistake of playing the "people are idiots" card in public. Saying "people don't know what a rootkit is, why should they care?" isn't a smart move at all.
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