***** PlayStation Vita Official Thread *****

[DBT85]

As any ones Amazon order changed from "Not Yet Dispatched" ?

Nope. My Vita order was placed on the 2nd of Feb. My Uncharted order was placed on the 16th of Dec.

no netflix?

USA are getting netflix

It'll come. Netflix is still new here so it's no surprise that they got the US app out first.

Any news that you can have Vita vs PS3 MP games? Would be great for games like FIFA once they are realigned...

ps3ud0

Wipeout, Hustle kings and Top Darts all offer cross platform multi at launch.

MLB 12 will have cross platform saves for your career on the 6th or March.

This version of Fifa is not the same as Fifa 12, they are working on ross platform multi/saves for the next iteration

Never even heard of this. Is it basically a handheld PS3?

Can you play COD and BF3 etc on this?

No, it is not a handheld PS3. It is a new console in its own right and you cannot play BF3 and COD on it. A COD game will be out in the Autumn around the same time as usual however we don;t know any more details yet. It might be a different type of game or it might be a port of the new game that the 360/PS3 get. Hopefully it'll include corss platform multiplayer and saves between PS3/Vita.


A new game, Retro City Racer has been announced for the PS3 & Vita coming out in May. No details yet on if it'll follow Motorstorm RC/Hustle Kings/Top Darts lead with the buy once get both scheme.

Gravity Rush/Daze also just got 9/10 from Eurogamer. No release day yet however May has been speculated.

 

[DBT85]

Screw it I bought it. Got it from Play with uncharted and Mavel v Capcom 3

Just trying to decide if I want to buy wipeout too lol

did you get WiFi or 3G? if you ordered 3G then by topping up £5 you get wipeout free.

Welcome to the team btw


The EU Blog posted a "recent" interview with Andrew House, President and CEO of SCE.

Just some excerpts with my bolding for some key points

PSP sold in large numbers very early into its launch while the home consoles have seen a more gradual ramp up. What is the target with PS Vita?

I think it depends on which home console you are referring to – the ramp up on PlayStation 2 was spectacular while the increase in PS3 sales has been more gradual, in part because it was a more complex value proposition. We have to be very honest and say that the higher price point was a limiting factor when comparing PS3 to PS2.
PSP was very strong out of the gate because we focused on the most successful aspects of what was the most popular console of the time [PS2] and applied them to a portable. What we have learned since is that you also need to provide experiences that are tailored to a portable environment – that’s when something special happens.

With that in mind, how will pricing react to the customer expectation that digital versions should be cheaper than physical copies?

We are aiming to recognise that expectation and have a lower price point for downloadable versions of games; we will need to evaluate exactly what difference that will be.
We have fantastic relationships with retail partners who have a large stake in the success of PlayStation Vita and we want that to continue, but we recognise the need to have a lower price point for digital games taking into account that you don’t have packaging costs and other extra considerations associated with physical copies.

 

[DBT85]

My 32gb card just arrived!!

Was that from planetaxel by any chance?

lol there's no need for the packaging to be that size, that's mental. It's equivalent of 30+ of the card's laid side by side!

It's just to get exposure on the shop shelves. Crazy but that's how it works.

Amazon still says nowt. BOO!!!

 

[DBT85]

I've been trying to find out if the NeoGeo Station that's works with PSP and PS3 will work with the PS Vita but I've had no luck.

If I recall the emulation for that is in the same to do list as the PS1 emulation. It is coming.

 

[DBT85]

Has anyone seen the prices on ebay for the 32gb ! £92 !!!

About £65 from planetaxel!

caved in and bought the wifi version with fifa, 16gb card and uncharted. just got an email saying dispatched next day delivery, so should get it tomorrow morning, can't wait.

Welcome to the gang, but man am I annoyed that you are getting yours tomorrow and mines been ordered for nearly a month!

 

[DBT85]

just a tip for people with android phones..... buy the wifi version and set your phone to wifi teathering mode so the vita can connect to 3g via your phone saves you a few ££££ as most people will have their phone and vita on them at the same time.

It's all been covered and is included in the OP

I have a 3GB allowance on my contract but tethering drains the battery fast and so the only option is to keep turning it on and off which I'm just not going to do. Plus the 3G has GPS which will make Near more accurate, maps more accurate etc.

Plus if you get the 3G you get Wipeout for £5 so the full model only ends up costing an extra £25.

 

[DBT85]

well looks like mine will be here today its currently at the delivery depot.

I think an email to amazon will have to be sent. Why pay for prime if you can not bother and get stuff early. And if mine arrives at like 6pm watch me go mad lol.

Happy for you, just watch your back

Use the MM Please.- ThundyCat.

 

[DBT85]

Well 3 of my 4 Amazon orders are now dispatching soon.

1) Uncharted £28
2) Rayman and Lumines £12
3) 3G Vita, 8GB card, Rayman £275

Just waiting on the VIP case. My account still says 22nd of Feb but as the above said the product page is March 3rd. Zavvi still says 22nd though play.com says March 2nd. Grrrrrr!!!

at least it seems they are not cancelling the Rayman / Lumines pricing mistake.

 

[DBT85]

How comes you got uncharted at £28 ? and is that £12 each for rayman and Lumines ?

In the middle of December they had Uncharted up for £28. And then when they first put the Ubisoft games online they were all £6 each and I managed to get in before they changed it back. They never cancelled it

The UK price for A-Men has been confirmed as £12.99 by the devs.

 

[DBT85]

Lucky !

Yup. Considering I was expecting to pay £230 for the WiFi, probably £80 for the 32GB card, £35 for Uncharted and Wipeout etc I think this has worked out rather cheap in comparison and I'm getting the 3G to boot.

me to I got Luminies, Rayman, Asphalt Injection and Dungeon Hunter, selling them to help justify my purchase

Nice.

I'm just updating the OP to include A-Men and Plants vs Zombies and Mutant Blobs attack. The US are getting the latter two this week but they have not even been mentioned for the EU yet.

At time of writing there are 28 launch day games and that could go up to 30 if those two are confirmed for the EU today. Apparently there will be a LOT of blog posts on the official blog today!

Also FW update 1.61 is already out which adds the Maps, video capture and stuff to western machines and also includes a few small software tweaks for anyone already on 1.6 that make the system run a little better.

 

[DBT85]

Mine will be here at lunch time, but i dont get home till about 7.

It's wrong, but I feel better lol. They are hoping to update the store today at some point so hopefully you'll be able to get some games! Plenty of demos should be available.

Wheres the cheapest I can get starter kit from ?

The official one? Asda £15.

OP update to include those three games now.

Launch day
A-Men - Trailer - Puzzle (like Lemmings and Lost Vikings) - Has Demo

Coming soon
Plants vs Zombies - Very soon - Trailer - Strategy

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack - Very soon - Trailer - Platformer

For anyone getting one today (I hate you)
When you turn the system on it'll eventually ask you to do a system update and in turn ask if you want to use your current account. CLICK NO. go through the process for setting up a trial account, let it update and then sign in with your account. For some reason it apparently doesn't like people trying to sign in with existing accounts until it's been updated. It's a hangover from the Japanese launch and I doubt the existing FW on the EU units will be any different.

 

[DBT85]

Anyone got their 32gb card from planetaxel yet?

No. The logging on the site from the 15th said it should clear customs and enter the German postal service in 2-4 working days. Assuming it's 4 days that puts it as today. I'd guess 2 days from Germany to here but I honestly have no idea. I'd fully expect them this week however.

Hopefully it was 2 days to enter the system so they could be in your posties bag right now!

Added Retro City Rampage to the OP

Retro City Rampage - May - Trailer - retro top down shooter

 

[DBT85]

I think I might rip some video to test out on it while I'm sitting here F5ing Amazon and the PS Blog lol

 

[DBT85]

I know it's a bit late but... Where is a good place to pre order this from like a good deal. Thanks

In the first post in the thread is a spoiler containing all the best online deals I could find

It partly depends on what games you want too.

 

[DBT85]

DBT will Asda have them in store? Or is that the online price (sorry I cant check at the moment!)

Well they will be selling the Vita in store for £193 I think so I imagine they'll also have other bits. That price is online though. Can't imagine it'll be any different in store tbh, Supermarkets gouge the price on launch stuff like this as it drives other business.

I've ripped a Southpark episode into 2 different quality settings (RF10 and RF20) using handbrake and am now doing the same with an episode of Game of Thrones. Will see which is better.

For anyone wanting to do the same, you'll need something like Handbrake, set the video format to MP4, resolution to either 720 or the Vitas native of 960x544 and the codec as H.264. Should work perfectly. Then all you need to choose is your quality setting. RF 20 took a 600MB South Park episode and turned it into a 96MB file and looks ok. RF 10 made it 280MB. EDIT: I'm struggling to see a difference on these two files blown up on my 24" 1080 monitor. I reckon the RF20 will look fine on the Vita.

 

[DBT85]

I'd hazard a guess that with something like Southpark where you have large areas of flat colour, you won't see as much difference compression wise as you with live action video.

I've done the same with Thrones and am still struggling. There is a difference there but I'm blowing it up 4x larger than the native res.

In addition, RF10 made the Thrones 3gb when the original is just 2.5gb. RF20 made it 600mb.

I'll test em all out tomorrow anyway.

 

[DBT85]

Well I went with Fifa, I know you can go head to head with friends but can you play it online against randoms?

I'm pretty sure you can yes.

Someone I follow on twitter was playing in the US against a friend in Japan while voice chatting with him and another guy playing Wipeout 2048. Everything worked perfectly. Really looking forward to Tomorrow!

just picked this up

i know what ill be doing today

Where are you based? Seeing GB/GO on the box suggests Canada or France to me.

Lucky sod!

Cool man I hope you enjoy, again sorry guys I've not kept up with this thread but what happens in regards to playing JAP and NA games, can I?
.

Yes you can. If they are cartridges then you can play them on ANY region PSN account however note that DLC may not work as it will likly be tied to the region the game is from. If the game is a download then you can play any region on any Vita but you have to use a PSN account for that region. EG, if you want to play Japanese games you need to use a Japanese PSN account.

Just had a quick test myself. I must admit I'm quite shocked how well it looks at RF20 considering how much it reduces the file size. Was going to mention it set to RF10 - I ended up with a bigger file than the source, and yes, you're right - I can't really see a difference.

Thanks for the heads up on Handbrake as well. Hadn't heard of it before.

Nice to see it's not me being blind I work in TV so I am typically quite sensitive to video quality but these were such small differences even when doubled in size that I think it'll be identical on that small screen.

And Handbrake is great. If you are ripping your DVDs for example just point it at the DVD or at the folder you ripped the Vobs to and it'll find the episodes/films and you just select the one you want to do and add it to the queue. I've left it doing 60+ episodes over night before now!

Don't think this has been posted yet, PS Blog has been updated with Playstation Store prices :

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012...ore-update-ps-vita-launch-edition/#more-57876

Thanks for posting, I'll add to the OP Would have liked more off but at the end of the day, no other platform offers discounts of RRPs on digital games launch day currently so they are at least getting that right. It'll all depend on the game for me as to whether I go digital or not.

meh so not any cheaper than the highstreet then?

That's how Sony always treat the EU.

Why offer discounts when we will lap it up regardless.

Erm...its the same on every SCE region. The discount is 10%. As I said above, no other digital platform offers any day 1 discounts from RRP at all (see PS3 games as just one example) so any discount is better than nothing.

Digital sales are still being held back by retail. Without retail platform holders can't sell the hardware on the scale they need to. If they undercut they'll just refuse to sell. Until someone breaks that stranglehold I don't see anything changing.

Oddly Fifa is full price in both the EU and the US. EA have some stones for sure.

 

[DBT85]

I'm not sure I understand the appeal behind the digital downloads.

a) You need a massive, proprietary, expensive memory card to store them.
b) You can't resell them.

Besides the very slightly reduced price, why would anyone go for them over a physical copy?

You don't need a massive card though. Just transfer the game from the Vita to your PS3 or PC and suddenly you have free space to put something else on. An 8GB card for example (the one most are getting free) will hold Uncharted, Wipeout and 3 PSN games.

Plenty of people never sell games on. I see them as the same as BluRays, I keep them. So with digital you have the convenience that you can always have it with you if you particularly want to and it cant break or get lost.

Digital IS the future of distribution. Retailers are going to fight tooth and nail to stop it though.

 

[DBT85]

I've also just noticed from that price list that the addon for Super Stardust is very cheap. In the US it's like $8 and it's £2.40.

Damn you SCEE!

 

[DBT85]

Still not dispatched from Amazon

Same.
I reckon the amount of extra server load caused by people refreshing could have just paid for more staff to dispatch faster lol.