Sony unveils Vita – PSP’s replacement and next generation handheld gaming system

Well, Sony unveiled their latest product which also happens to be the next generation replacement for the PSP —-  Vita (full video replay).  The word “vita” is Latin for “life” and this is exactly what Sony is hoping that this handheld will do for them – resuscitate the public’s interest in them as a company that is not known for having more than a dozen hacked digital properties, but as innovators to the handheld genre.

Features for this device include (complete tech specs):

• 2 models – wi-fi ($249 USD) as well as 3G enabled ($299 USD) compliments of… oh no!  You guessed it! AT&T!
• 5″ OLED  960 x 544 px resolution
• front and back multi-touch sensors
• 6 axis sensors (for the best darned Super Monkey Ball experience you could ever imagine – if it was actually available on this device!)
• Dual Analog sticks
• real-time chat while gaming/watching videos
• integration with your PS3 console
• front and rear cameras for augmented reality capabilities (following Nintendo’s 3DS lead)
• GPS
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR

Although the graphics on the video were impressive, for me the most impressive feature of this new portable handheld gaming device is its ability to save your exact spot during gameplay to the cloud.  This means that I can play on the bus with my Vita, turn the device off, synch my progress to Sony’s cloud infrastructure, go home, turn on my PS3 and then load up the game and start exactly where I left off on the handheld device. Seamless interaction with the handheld – from one activity to the next.   Now tell me that isn’t cool!

The touchscreen means that gamers will no longer have to rely on the use of the dual shock sticks.  Instead, you can just point on the screen where you want the character to go – pretty well eliminating any of the timing conundrums associated with actually having to determine the best interval to push the “x” button.  For me, this is the oversimplification of a gaming system.  If I wanted to do simply point my character to successfully navigate across several jumps, I would stay at home with my Kinect or my 3DS.  But since their slogan for Vita is “Play Your Way” (very Burger King’ish to me), this means that the user defines the type of gameplay they want.  So, you can either use the sticks and be a stud or you can let your little sister play it so that she too, can kick bootay!

This feature reminds me of similar promises Motorola’s Atrix held with its debut at CES 2011 – ability to seamlessly move from one environment to the next, while never losing connectivity or my exact spot in the video, website or application I have open.  More impressive however was the titles that Sony announced to go onto this new platform which included the infamous likes of Street Fighter x Teken, Little Big Planet, Uncharted 3, and even Bioshock!!!!  I will of course, have to try this little puppy out. Although I am disappointed to see the likes of UMDs going to the wayside (translate this as these won’t work on Vita so porting some of my favorite past games like Wipeout Pure requires new investment… grrrrr), it only makes economic sense.  Where you can dramatically decrease the costs associated with the manufacture and distribution of any type of physical product (read that especially digital products), downloads and app stores are king! Everything is moving to the cloud where storage is unlimited, access is ubiquitous, consumer data bountiful and for the talented hacker(s), a data set that is near priceless!

Game on!

Karin